Mastra review

Q: How do I install Mastra?

Run npm create mastra@latest. It needs Node.js >=22.13.0. The install section above has the other options from the project's README.

Mastra is a TypeScript framework for building AI-powered applications and agents, with workflows, memory, model routing, MCP servers, evals, and observability.

Updated Nov 1, 2026. Review written Oct 22, 2026 from the project's own sources; usage data refreshed every Monday.

TL;DR

Mastra is a TypeScript framework for building AI agents and applications, from prototype to production. It is for JavaScript and TypeScript developers working with React, Next.js, or Node. It bundles model routing, graph-based workflows, human-in-the-loop suspend and resume, memory, MCP server authoring, evals, and observability in one package.

29.2kGitHub stars
+198new stars, week of Oct 25
~3.1Mdownloads a week, +22% vs 4-week avg
#8in Agent frameworks this week

Mastra at a glance

Category: Agent frameworks
Maintained by: Mastra (organization, @mastra-ai on GitHub)
Language: TypeScript, JavaScript, CSS
Repository: github.com/mastra-ai/mastra
Website: mastra.ai
npm package: @mastra/core 1.79.0
Latest release: @mastra/[email protected] on GitHub, Oct 21, 2026
First published: Aug 6, 2024

What Mastra does

Mastra connects to 40+ model providers, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Gemini, through one standard interface.
Mastra agents use LLMs and tools, iterating until the model emits a final answer or an optional stopping condition is met.
Mastra includes a graph-based workflow engine with .then(), .branch(), and .parallel() control flow for multi-step processes.
Mastra can suspend an agent or workflow to await user input or approval, storing execution state so it resumes later.
Mastra provides conversation history, retrieval from APIs, databases, and files, and Observational Memory for agent context.
Mastra lets you author Model Context Protocol servers that expose agents, tools, and structured resources.
Mastra ships built-in evals and observability, including trace and span querying with token and cost analytics.

How it works

Mastra runs in Node.js. You define agents, workflows, and tools in TypeScript and register them on a Mastra instance. You can bundle them into React, Next.js, or Node.js apps, or deploy them as a standalone server. The dev server opens Mastra Studio at http://localhost:4111 for building and testing. UIs can integrate with Vercel's AI SDK UI and CopilotKit.

How to install and start using Mastra

Create a new project with npm

npm create mastra@latest

Requirements

Node.js version 22.13.0 or later.
An API key or account with a supported LLM provider such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or xAI.

First steps

Run npm create mastra@latest and choose a project name and an LLM provider such as openai, anthropic, google, or xai.
Enter the project directory and start the dev server with npm run dev.
Open Mastra Studio at http://localhost:4111 to build, test, and manage agents, workflows, and tools.

Who Mastra is for

TypeScript developers building AI agents into React, Next.js, or Node.js applications.
Teams that need explicit, multi-step workflow orchestration with human approval steps.
Developers who want built-in evals and observability for production agents.
Developers authoring MCP servers that expose agents and tools.

Limitations to know

Mastra is TypeScript-focused; the sources describe no Python support.
Code in ee/ directories is under the Mastra Enterprise License and requires a valid enterprise license for production use.
Mastra's MCP Events feature is experimental and based on a draft specification.
Mastra accepts pull requests only from collaborators; outside contributors can file issues.

Is Mastra growing? Usage data

In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, Mastra ranked #89 on the Devtoolwatch Board and #8 in Agent frameworks, with a momentum score of 66 out of 100. Its main package had about 3.1M downloads that week, +22% against its own 4-week average.

New GitHub stars per week for the last 12 weeks, from GitHub's stargazer history (today's stargazers by the week they starred).

Show the weekly numbers

New GitHub stars per week for Mastra
Week of	New stars
Aug 9, 2026	175
Aug 16, 2026	170
Aug 23, 2026	196
Aug 30, 2026	176
Sep 6, 2026	261
Sep 13, 2026	218
Sep 20, 2026	171
Sep 27, 2026	200
Oct 4, 2026	174
Oct 11, 2026	191
Oct 18, 2026	197
Oct 25, 2026	198

On Hacker News

Show HN: Mastra – Open-source JS agent framework, by the developers of Gatsby, 442 points and 154 comments (Feb 19, 2025)
Show HN: Mastra 1.0, open-source JavaScript agent framework from the Gatsby devs, 213 points and 70 comments (Jan 20, 2026)
Show HN: A “Course” as an MCP Server, 213 points and 32 comments (Jun 10, 2025)
The MCP Registry Registry, 7 points and 1 comments (Apr 10, 2025)
Show HN: Principles of Building AI Agents book [pdf], 5 points and 0 comments (Aug 6, 2025)

The Board ranks tools by four signals each week: new stars, new stars for the repo's size, added downloads and download growth beyond the market. How the ranking works.

Mastra alternatives

Other AI agent frameworks on the Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum:

Agent frameworks ranked by momentum, the week of Oct 25–31, 2026
Rank	Tool	Stars	Downloads/wk
#1	Harness²Harness² is a Python framework from Google Research for recursive agent harnessing, refining an agent's prompts, tools, memory and…	21.7k	–
#2	HyperFramesHyperFrames is an open-source framework that turns HTML, CSS, media, and seekable animations into deterministic MP4 videos, built for AI…	76.6k	1.5M
#3	AgentScopeAgentScope is a Python agent framework with an SDK for building ReAct agents and an agent service backend with a web UI.	35k	51.4k
#4	AG-UIAG-UI is an open, event-based protocol that standardizes how AI agents connect to user-facing frontend applications.	16.9k	4.6M
#5	LangGraphLangGraph is a low-level orchestration framework and runtime for building, managing, and deploying long-running, stateful agents in…	44.2k	18.5M
#6	BifrostOpen-source, high-performance AI gateway that works as your LLM gateway, MCP gateway and agent gateway. One OpenAI-compatible API for…	9.3k	–

All AI agent frameworks, ranked

Recent Mastra releases

Mastra FAQ

Is Mastra free and open source?

Mastra's code is on GitHub (mastra-ai/mastra), but the repository doesn't declare a standard open-source license. Check its license file before using it commercially. Its website links to a pricing page: https://mastra.ai/pricing.

How do I install Mastra?

Run npm create mastra@latest. It needs Node.js >=22.13.0. The install section above has the other options from the project's README.

Is Mastra still maintained?

Yes. The mastra-ai/mastra repository was last updated on Oct 22, 2026, and the latest release, @mastra/[email protected] on GitHub, came out on Oct 21, 2026.

How popular is Mastra?

Mastra has 29.2k GitHub stars as of Nov 1, 2026. It gained 198 new stars in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, against a 12-week average of 194 a week. Its main package had about 3.1M downloads that week, +22% against its own 4-week average. That made it #8 among AI agent frameworks on the Devtoolwatch Board.

Mastra vs LangGraph: how do they compare?

Mastra and LangGraph are both tracked by Devtoolwatch as AI agent frameworks. Mastra has 29.2k GitHub stars and LangGraph has 44.2k. In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, Mastra's main package had 3.1M downloads and LangGraph's had 18.5M. LangGraph is a low-level orchestration framework and runtime for building, managing, and deploying long-running, stateful agents in Python or JavaScript. LangGraph review.

Mastra vs LangChain: how do they compare?

Mastra and LangChain are both tracked by Devtoolwatch as AI agent frameworks. Mastra has 29.2k GitHub stars and LangChain has 148.8k. In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, Mastra's main package had 3.1M downloads and LangChain's had 41.1M. LangChain review.

What are the best alternatives to Mastra?

Other AI agent frameworks on the Devtoolwatch Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum: Harness² (#1), HyperFrames (#2), AgentScope (#3), AG-UI (#4), LangGraph (#5). The alternatives table above has their numbers.

Is Mastra open source?

Mastra is mostly open source. The core framework and most of the codebase are under Apache-2.0. Code in directories named ee/ is source-available under the Mastra Enterprise License, which requires a valid enterprise license for production use but is free for development and testing.

How does Mastra work?

Mastra is a TypeScript framework. You define agents with instructions, models, and tools, and workflows as typed steps. You register them on a Mastra instance that runs as a server or inside a React, Next.js, or Node.js app. Mastra Studio lets you test them locally.

How do I start using Mastra?

Mastra recommends running npm create mastra@latest, which creates a default project. Then start the dev server and open Mastra Studio at http://localhost:4111. The project also offers templates, a course, and YouTube videos for people new to AI agents.

Does Mastra support Python?

Mastra is built for TypeScript and JavaScript. Its sources describe integrations with React, Next.js, and Node.js and do not mention a Python version.

What does Mastra Studio do?

Mastra Studio is the interface for building, testing, and managing agents, workflows, and tools. It runs at http://localhost:4111 when you start the dev server.

Sources

Mastra README badge

Maintainers can show the tool's weekly Board rank in their README:

[![Devtoolwatch](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/badge/mastra.svg)](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/mastra/)

How this page is made: Devtoolwatch writes each review from the project's README, releases, package metadata and website, with an AI model, then checks every claim against the source it cites and drops what the sources don't support. The numbers come from Devtoolwatch's daily GitHub snapshots, GitHub's stargazer history, and the npm and PyPI download APIs. Spotted an error? Email [email protected].