Comparison

Zen vs act

act is no longer listed on any marketplace we read: these are its last known data, as of 2026‑10‑21.

Zen is an MCP server published by BeehiveInnovations. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Docker MCP Catalog). act is a plugin bundle for AI coding tools published by gabrielkoerich. No marketplace we read lists it any more. As of our marketplace pass on 2026-10-21. A plugin in this pair is no longer listed on any marketplace we read, so search engines are asked not to index the page.

Where each is published

Where each is published
Marketplace	Zen	act
Docker MCP Catalog	Listed Version: sha256:02cbe1d325db Forks (GitHub): 1 036 Pulls (Docker Hub): 34 963 Stars (Docker Hub): 0 Stars (GitHub): 11 792 Not marked · First seen 2026-10-11	Not listed
Community marketplace gabrielkoerich/skills	Not listed	Removed on 2026-10-21 Version: not stated Forks (GitHub): 0 Stars (GitHub): 6 Not marked · First seen 2026-10-19

Each figure is the marketplace's own and is never added up across marketplaces. A marketplace that publishes no figure shows none: no number is not zero.

The facts side by side

Zen vs act
Fact	Zen	actno longer listed · 2026-10-21
Marketplaces that list it (differs)	1	0
Stars (GitHub) (differs)	11 792	6
Pulls (Docker Hub) (differs)	34 963	No figure on Docker Hub
Forks (GitHub) (differs)	1 036	0
Last release	Not published	Not published
Where it runs (differs)	On your machine (mcp/zen)	Installs as a plugin bundle
Transport (differs)	stdio	Not stated
Tools it declares (differs)	18	Not published
Environment variables it asks for (differs)	4, secrets among them: 4	Not published
Licence (differs)	NOASSERTION	Not stated
Repository (differs)	github.com/beehiveinnovations/zen-mcp-server	github.com/gabrielkoerich/skills
Changes in the last 7 days (differs)	0	4
First seen (differs)	2026-10-11	2026-10-19

Lines where the two differ have a tinted background and bold values. No value is marked better or worse: a plugin no marketplace lists any more is shown with its last known data, which we do not rank against current figures.

What to use instead of act

Plugins still listed whose own names, descriptions, tools and skills are closest in meaning to it. Comparable, not endorsed.

GitHub

Inspect repositories, triage pull requests and issues, debug CI, and publish changes through a hybrid GitHub connector and CLI workflow.

by OpenAI · Plugin bundle

Listed on: Codex: openai-curated (openai/plugins) · Describes nearly the same job
github-actions-toolkit

GitHub Actions CI/CD toolkit for workflow design, custom action creation, and matrix optimization. Includes workflow architect agent for strategic automation decisions.

by Arman Nourifar · Plugin bundle

Listed on: Community GitHub marketplaces · Describes nearly the same job
superdevflow

Claude Code plugin for GitHub Actions debugging, conversation cloning/half-cloning, context handoffs, and CLAUDE.md review

by ykdojo · Plugin bundle

Listed on: Claude Code: claude-plugins-community · Describes nearly the same job
CircleCI

Build, test and debug CircleCI pipelines. Diagnose failing builds, optimize config for speed and cost, connect a new repo, and speed up test suites.

by CircleCI · Plugin bundle

Listed on: Community GitHub marketplaces · Describes nearly the same job
github-agent

Portable GitHub workflows for Claude Code using the gh CLI.

by Claude Skills Atlas · Plugin bundle

Listed on: Community GitHub marketplaces · Describes nearly the same job
cicd-workflows

Generate Entur-standard CI/CD GitHub Actions workflows (ci, build, cd, pr, codeql) for Kotlin/Java, Go, or Python projects.

by Team Plattform · Plugin bundle

Listed on: Community GitHub marketplaces · Describes nearly the same job

Its card, with similar plugins by marketplace

What each says it does

Zen

In its own words, on Docker MCP Catalog:

Bridges multiple AI models and CLIs, enabling orchestrated workflows across Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Codex CLI, and other AI development tools.

act

In its own words, on Community GitHub marketplaces:

Run GitHub Actions workflows locally using act. Test CI pipelines, debug jobs, and validate workflows before pushing.

How to run each

Zen As a local MCP server: Docker image

Claude Code

claude mcp add --env "GEMINI_API_KEY=<YOUR_GEMINI_API_KEY>" --env "OPENAI_API_KEY=<YOUR_OPENAI_API_KEY>" --env "OPENROUTER_API_KEY=<YOUR_OPENROUTER_API_KEY>" --env "XAI_API_KEY=<YOUR_XAI_API_KEY>" --transport stdio zen -- docker run -i --rm -e GEMINI_API_KEY -e OPENAI_API_KEY -e OPENROUTER_API_KEY -e XAI_API_KEY mcp/zen

Requires: GEMINI_API_KEY (secret), OPENAI_API_KEY (secret), OPENROUTER_API_KEY (secret), XAI_API_KEY (secret)

act

No data for an automatic command: what its marketplaces declare does not say unambiguously how to connect it.

Commands built only from what the marketplaces declare; the full set for every client is on each card.

Tools each declares

The marketplaces of act publish no list of tools, so we do not compare tools.

Settings each asks for

The marketplaces of act publish no settings it asks for, so we do not compare settings.

What it can do: Zen · What it can do: act · Compare two other plugins

Data comes from the Docker MCP Catalog (desktop.docker.com/mcp/catalog) and Docker Hub. Data comes from public marketplace files in GitHub repositories of their authors. Figures come from our own regular passes over the marketplaces, last read on 2026-10-21. We publish no contact details for plugin publishers.