Comby vs Refrax
Comby
comby.devRefrax
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Comby | Refrax |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | — |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 0 | 0 |
| Spec score · Code Refactoring Tools | 7.7 (#12) | 6.8 (#21) |
| Installation | The getting-started page documents installation on macOS with Homebrew, Ubuntu with a shell installer, Windows through Ubuntu on WSL, and Docker. | The project offers prebuilt binaries for macOS, Windows, and Linux, and source installation requires Go 1.24.1 or later. |
| License | The public comby-tools/comby GitHub repository identifies its license as Apache-2.0. | The repository states that Refrax is licensed under the MIT License. |
| Purpose | Comby is a tool for searching and changing code structure using lightweight templates. | Refrax is an AI-powered agent for refactoring Java code, implemented in Go. |
In their own words
Comby
Comby is a free, open-source tool for searching and changing code structure with lightweight templates. It recognizes basic syntax in code, strings, and comments across many languages, with parsers listed for C/C++, C#, Go, Java, JavaScript, Python, Rust, Swift, and TypeScript, plus a generic matcher for other formats. The project targets large refactors and one-off changes, and an interactive review mode lets users inspect proposed edits. Comby can run from its command line, Python bindings, or HTTP requests sent to a server on your machine. Installation instructions cover macOS with Homebrew, Ubuntu, Windows through Ubuntu on WSL, and Docker; building from source is also described. Linked projects include an Emacs package and a prototype VS Code extension. Other uses include structural code search, compiler fuzzing, test-case reduction, editor find and replace, and academic research. Comby matches balanced delimiters while accounting for comments and string literals, and supports regex search. It is self-hosted and available for API, Linux, macOS, and Windows use. The Apache-2.0 license is identified in the public repository.