Minimal Autograd Engines ML Frameworks

Educational implementations of automatic differentiation and backpropagation from scratch in various programming languages. Includes tiny scalar-valued autograd libraries and their neural network extensions. Does NOT include full-featured ML frameworks, bindings to existing libraries, or specialized autodiff systems (like AD for specific domains).

There are 64 minimal autograd engines frameworks tracked. 1 score above 50 (established tier). The highest-rated is JonathanRaiman/theano_lstm at 55/100 with 303 stars and 27 monthly downloads.

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#	Framework	Score	Tier	Stars	Language
1	JonathanRaiman/theano_lstm :microscope: Nano size Theano LSTM module	55	Established	303	Python
2	google/tangent Source-to-Source Debuggable Derivatives in Pure Python	43	Emerging	2,316	Python
3	pranftw/neograd A deep learning framework created from scratch with Python and NumPy	40	Emerging	238	Python
4	ahrefs/ocannl OCANNL: OCaml Compiles Algorithms for Neural Networks Learning	40	Emerging	102	OCaml
5	yoshoku/numo-openblas Numo::OpenBLAS builds and uses OpenBLAS as a background library for Numo::Linalg	39	Emerging	6	Ruby
6	statusfailed/catgrad a categorical deep learning compiler	38	Emerging	208	Python
7	mstksg/backprop Heterogeneous automatic differentiation ("backpropagation") in Haskell	36	Emerging	193	Haskell
8	yoshoku/numo-blis Numo::BLIS builds and uses BLIS as a background library for Numo::Linalg	34	Emerging	4	Ruby
9	LaurentMazare/ocaml-torch OCaml bindings for PyTorch	34	Emerging	439	OCaml
10	Habrador/MicrogradCSharp The easiest way to build Neural Networks in C# within Unity. The open-source...	33	Emerging	10	C#
11	pedrogleta/microgradts A tiny Autograd engine based off of Andrej Karpathy's micrograd in Python	33	Emerging	3	JavaScript
12	trekhleb/micrograd-ts 🤖 A TypeScript version of karpathy/micrograd — a tiny scalar-valued autograd...	31	Emerging	72	TypeScript
13	crystal-data/num.cr Scientific computing in pure Crystal	31	Emerging	160	Crystal
14	ggsharma/microgradpp A header-only C++ autograd engine and neural network library inspired by...	30	Emerging	15	C++
15	ZigaSajovic/dCpp Automatic differentiation in C++; infinite differentiability of...	30	Emerging	151	C++
16	lipeeeee/monograd Tensors and Dynamic neural networks in Python	29	Experimental	4	Python
17	dmaivel/cugrad An automatic differentiation library written in C++ and CUDA	28	Experimental	10	C++
18	DACUS1995/gradflow A small, educational autograd system with deep neural networks support	28	Experimental	13	Python
19	tanaymeh/nadl A small framework that can perform automatic differentiation to calculate...	27	Experimental	18	Python
20	rjkilpatrick/dlearn High-level Deep learning, Linear algebra and scientific computing package in D	27	Experimental	9	D
21	eduardoleao052/Autograd-from-scratch Documented and Unit Tested educational Deep Learning framework with Autograd...	26	Experimental	125	Python
22	nicolamaritan/cgrad Deep Learning library for the C programming language.	25	Experimental	2	C
23	CMU-IDeeL/new_grad A new lightweight auto-differentation library that directly builds on numpy....	25	Experimental	40	Python
24	MiquelNasarre/macrograd Macrograd ― CUDA/C++ autograd tensor library. Inspired by micrograd. Used to...	24	Experimental	2	C++
25	SwiftAutograd/SwiftGrad A tiny autograd engine and neural network library in Swift. Inspired by...	24	Experimental	2	Swift
26	ameritusweb/ParallelReverseAutoDiff Parallel Reverse Mode Automatic Differentiation in C# for Custom Neural...	24	Experimental	9	C#
27	ocramz/ad-delcont Reverse-mode automatic differentiation with delimited continuations	24	Experimental	16	Haskell
28	KyleCr4ne/autograd Auto differentiation engine core [C++]	24	Experimental	4	C++
29	noway/yagrad yet another scalar autograd engine - featuring complex numbers and fixed DAG	23	Experimental	26	Python
30	cloudkj/lambda-autodiff A library for automatic differentiation in Clojure	23	Experimental	1	Clojure
31	Ruhaan838/CGrad If you like Pytorch, if you like C, you Love CGrad	22	Experimental	1	Cython
32	hikettei/cl-waffe [Deprecated] Common Lisp Differentiable Matrix Operations for Mathematical...	22	Experimental	48	Common Lisp
33	boosterrr008/AutoGrad-Engine 🤖 Implement a pure C# GPT language model for training and inference with no...	22	Experimental	—	C#
34	b-ionut-r/neurograd A Pure Python Deep Learning Framework with Automatic Differentiation and...	22	Experimental	2	Jupyter Notebook
35	can-lehmann/exprgrad An experimental deep learning framework for Nim based on a differentiable...	21	Experimental	121	Nim
36	SermetPekin/microgradCpp MicrogradCPP: A tiny micrograd, inspired by Karpathy's micrograd in python	21	Experimental	2	C++
37	eliben/radgrad Tracing-based reverse mode automatic differentiation (like autograd!)	20	Experimental	27	Python
38	Samanvith1404/MicroGNN A tiny Graph Neural Network framework built from scratch with a minimal...	19	Experimental	8	Python
39	save-buffer/gigagrad A small deep learning library that goes gigafast (not yet though).	19	Experimental	5	C++
40	gn0rrbitberrenbur/yasae Educational Scalar-Based Autograd Engine in C++ with Python Bindings	19	Experimental	—	Python
41	iraikov/nanograd Minimalistic automatic differentiation framework in Scheme	19	Experimental	—	Tree-sitter Query
42	shettysach/ferrograd Small scalar autograd engine, inspired from Karpathy's micrograd, with some...	17	Experimental	5	Rust
43	pit-ray/vim-autograd Automatic differentiation library written in pure Vim script.	16	Experimental	28	Vim Script
44	Leonardo16AM/Sharp-Grad Sharp Grad is a lightweight automatic differentiation library in C#. It's...	16	Experimental	4	C#
45	Anri-Lombard/micrograd Building Andrej Kapathy's micrograd from scratch	16	Experimental	47	Jupyter Notebook
46	load1n9/denograd pytorch's autograd deno implementation	16	Experimental	4	TypeScript
47	tbox98/freegrad PyTorch extension for alternative backward rules and gradient transforms...	15	Experimental	—	Python
48	khisr0w/grazie Pure C tensor and autograd library for training neural networks	14	Experimental	9	C
49	Shrimp-AI/shrimpgrad Yet another tensor library	14	Experimental	11	Python
50	marfvr/micrograd-js A porting of Karpathy's Micrograd to JS	13	Experimental	8	TypeScript
51	luigi-ga/gradients_without_backpropagation Unofficial implementation of the paper "gradients without backpropagation"	13	Experimental	6	Jupyter Notebook
52	fszewczyk/shkyera-grad micrograd, but in C++ and better	13	Experimental	7	C++
53	Ruhaan838/AnyGrad A Tensor module that allows a deep learning framework to switch seamlessly...	12	Experimental	1	C++
54	ANSHAM1/RADE RADE is a from-scratch reverse-mode automatic differentiation engine written...	12	Experimental	1	C++
55	Shubbair/MicroGrad-JS making MicroGrad with Javascript & Interactive Website to show Realtime...	11	Experimental	—	HTML
56	slamko/ocadl Blazingly type safe GPU accelerated Multi-Layer Perceptron	11	Experimental	2	OCaml
57	Marviel/lab-grad An Automated Differentiation library (like Pytorch🔥) in Typescript, for...	11	Experimental	22	TypeScript
58	mcemilg/minigrad.hpp A minimal autograd lib in c++ std.	11	Experimental	2	C++
59	DevangK18/Foundry A deep learning framework built from scratch in Python and NumPy to...	11	Experimental	—	Python
60	MichaelRinger/micrograd-php Micrograd implementation in PHP.	11	Experimental	2	PHP
61	ArulselvanMadhavan/mini_dalle mini-dalle in OCaml	11	Experimental	39	OCaml
62	nithinbekal/micrograd A tiny autograd engine in ruby	11	Experimental	2	Ruby
63	tensorworksio/cgrad Intended to be a Torch-like autograd engine, inspired by micrograd	10	Experimental	3	C
64	stefanasandei/tiny-autograd small autograd engine built from scratch in modern C++	10	Experimental	1	C++

Comparisons in this category

microgradts and micrograd-ts (33 vs 31) numo-openblas and numo-blis (39 vs 34)