Arcaneum vs PinRAG
Arcaneum is a plugin bundle for AI coding tools published by Arcaneum Contributors. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Community GitHub marketplaces). PinRAG is an MCP server published by ndjordjevic. Marketplaces we read that list it: 2 (Official MCP Registry, Claude Code: claude-plugins-community). As of our marketplace pass on 2026-10-19. This pair was picked by a reader, not by our comparison rule, so search engines are asked not to index the page.
Where each is published
| Marketplace |  PinRAG | |
|---|---|---|
| Community marketplace cwensel/arcaneum | Listed Version: 0.11.0 Forks (GitHub): 3 Stars (GitHub): 8 Not marked · First seen |
Not listed |
| Official MCP Registry | Not listed | Listed Version: 0.9.27 Downloads/month (PyPI): 239 Downloads/week (PyPI): 28 Forks (GitHub): 0 Stars (GitHub): 2 Not marked · First seen |
| Claude Code: claude-plugins-community | Not listed | Listed Version: 1.0.0 Forks (GitHub): 0 Stars (GitHub): 0 Not marked · First seen |
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
| Fact | Arcaneum | PinRAG |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplaces that list it (differs) | 1 (worse) | 2 (better) |
| Stars (GitHub) (differs) | 8 (better) | 2 (worse) |
| Forks (GitHub) (differs) | 3 (better) | 0 (worse) |
| Last release | Not published | Not published |
| Where it runs (differs) | Installs as a plugin bundle | On your machine (pinrag) |
| Transport (differs) | Not stated | stdio |
| Tools it declares | Not published | Not published |
| Environment variables it asks for (differs) | Not published | 2, secrets among them: 1 |
| Parts of the bundle (differs) | 15 | 2 |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Repository (differs) | github.com/cwensel/arcaneum | github.com/ndjordjevic/pinrag |
| Changes in the last 7 days (differs) | 2 | 0 |
| First seen (differs) | 2026-10-15 | 2026-10-11 |
Lines where the two differ have a tinted background and bold values. Where the data itself says which value is better (more marketplaces, a larger figure of the same marketplace, a fresher release, a verified mark on a marketplace that lists both), the better one is also marked green with ▲ and the worse one red with ▼. Where it runs, the transport, the tools, the settings, hooks, the bundle's parts, the licence and the week's changes are marked only as different: more or fewer is not better in itself.
What each says it does
Arcaneum
Semantic (vector) and full-text (keyword) search across indexed corpora. Dual-indexes PDFs, markdown, and code into Qdrant + MeiliSearch.
PinRAG
MCP RAG: index PDFs, repos, YouTube, Discord, text; optional YouTube vision; query with citations.
How to run each
Arcaneum As a Claude Code plugin
/plugin marketplace add cwensel/arcaneum
/plugin install arc@arcaneum-marketplacePinRAG As a local MCP server: PyPI package
claude mcp add --env "OPENROUTER_API_KEY=<YOUR_OPENROUTER_API_KEY>" --transport stdio pinrag -- uvx --refresh pinrag pinragRequires: OPENROUTER_API_KEY (secret)
Commands built only from what the marketplaces declare; the full set for every client is on each card.
Tools each declares
Neither one's marketplaces publish a list of tools, so there is nothing to compare.
Settings each asks for
The marketplaces of Arcaneum publish no settings it asks for, so we do not compare settings.
What it can do: Arcaneum · What it can do: PinRAG · Compare two other plugins
Data comes from public marketplace files in GitHub repositories of their authors. Data comes from the Official MCP Registry (registry.modelcontextprotocol.io), CC0 1.0. Data comes from the public marketplace file https://github.com/anthropics/claude-plugins-community/blob/HEAD/.claude-plugin/marketplace.json. Figures come from our own regular passes over the marketplaces, last read on . We publish no contact details for plugin publishers.