--- title: "brain-in-the-fish vs simple-evals" type: "comparison" canonical_url: "https://www.graphcanon.com/compare/fabio-rovai-brain-in-the-fish-vs-openai-simple-evals" tools: ["fabio-rovai-brain-in-the-fish", "openai-simple-evals"] --- # brain-in-the-fish vs simple-evals *GraphCanon updated Aug 8, 2026* ## Verdict Pick brain-in-the-fish if brain-in-the-fish is an ontology-based document evaluation tool that verifies claims using RDF, OWL, SPARQL, and supports anti-hallucination; pick simple-evals if simple-evals provides lightweight tools for evaluating language models using reference implementations from HealthBench, BrowseComp, SimpleQA. Last updates July 2025. [brain-in-the-fish](https://github.com/fabio-rovai/brain-in-the-fish) reports 83 GitHub stars, 15 forks, and 0 open issues, last pushed Apr 5, 2026. [simple-evals](https://github.com/openai/simple-evals) has 4.6k stars, 501 forks, and 56 open issues, last pushed Apr 22, 2026. Figures are from public GitHub metadata via [brain-in-the-fish's repository](https://github.com/fabio-rovai/brain-in-the-fish) and [simple-evals's repository](https://github.com/openai/simple-evals). | | [brain-in-the-fish](/tools/fabio-rovai-brain-in-the-fish.md) | [simple-evals](/tools/openai-simple-evals.md) | | --- | --- | --- | | Tagline | Score any document. Prove every claim. | A lightweight library for evaluating language models. | | Stars | 83 | 4,595 | | Forks | 15 | 501 | | Open issues | 0 | 56 | | Language | Rust | Python | | Adopt for | brain-in-the-fish is an ontology-based document evaluation tool that verifies claims using RDF, OWL, SPARQL, and supports anti-hallucination. | simple-evals provides lightweight tools for evaluating language models using reference implementations from HealthBench, BrowseComp, SimpleQA. Last updates July 2025. | | Persona | - | - | | Runtime | - | - | | License | MIT | MIT licensed Python library for transparent language model evaluations with specific benchmark support until July 2025. | | Categories | Evaluation & Observability, Model Training | Evaluation & Observability | ## Trust and health _Sourced signals - not a safety guarantee. No winner column._ | | [brain-in-the-fish](/tools/fabio-rovai-brain-in-the-fish.md) | [simple-evals](/tools/openai-simple-evals.md) | | --- | --- | --- | | Days since push | 125d | 106d | | Open issues (now) | 0 | 56 | | Owner type | User | Organization | | Full report | [trust report](/tools/fabio-rovai-brain-in-the-fish/trust.md) | [trust report](/tools/openai-simple-evals/trust.md) | ## Decision facts: brain-in-the-fish - **Adopt for:** brain-in-the-fish is an ontology-based document evaluation tool that verifies claims using RDF, OWL, SPARQL, and supports anti-hallucination. ## Decision facts: simple-evals - **Adopt for:** simple-evals provides lightweight tools for evaluating language models using reference implementations from HealthBench, BrowseComp, SimpleQA. Last updates July 2025. - **License detail:** MIT licensed Python library for transparent language model evaluations with specific benchmark support until July 2025. ## Choose when ### Choose brain-in-the-fish if… - brain-in-the-fish is primarily Rust; simple-evals is Python. - Tags unique to brain-in-the-fish: ai, anti-hallucination, audit-trail, document-evaluation. - Also covers Model Training. - brain-in-the-fish ships Docker support for self-hosted deployment. - Need Rust-based tools for document scoring and claim verification with strong focus on audit trails ### Choose simple-evals if… - simple-evals is primarily Python; brain-in-the-fish is Rust. - Tags unique to simple-evals: benchmark, depreciation notice, evaluation, language-models. - When you need a stable baseline to evaluate model performance with specific benchmarks like MMLU, HumanEval, and DROP that won't change after July 2025 ## When NOT to use brain-in-the-fish - Do not use when your evaluation needs are simpler or require a different programming language than Rust - Avoid if you do not need support for complex features such as RDF, OWL, and SPARQL integrations ## When NOT to use simple-evals - For evaluating models released or significantly updated after July 2025, as this tool does not include future benchmarks - When you need a tool that will adapt and expand its benchmark set with emerging model releases and evaluation tasks beyond 2025 ## Common questions ### What is the difference between brain-in-the-fish and simple-evals? brain-in-the-fish: Score any document. Prove every claim.. simple-evals: A lightweight library for evaluating language models.. See the comparison table for live GitHub stats and shared categories. ### When should I choose brain-in-the-fish over simple-evals? Choose brain-in-the-fish over simple-evals when brain-in-the-fish is primarily Rust; simple-evals is Python; Tags unique to brain-in-the-fish: ai, anti-hallucination, audit-trail, document-evaluation; Also covers Model Training; brain-in-the-fish ships Docker support for self-hosted deployment; Need Rust-based tools for document scoring and claim verification with strong focus on audit trails. ### When should I choose simple-evals over brain-in-the-fish? Choose simple-evals over brain-in-the-fish when simple-evals is primarily Python; brain-in-the-fish is Rust; Tags unique to simple-evals: benchmark, depreciation notice, evaluation, language-models; When you need a stable baseline to evaluate model performance with specific benchmarks like MMLU, HumanEval, and DROP that won't change after July 2025. ### When should I avoid brain-in-the-fish? Do not use when your evaluation needs are simpler or require a different programming language than Rust Avoid if you do not need support for complex features such as RDF, OWL, and SPARQL integrations ### When should I avoid simple-evals? For evaluating models released or significantly updated after July 2025, as this tool does not include future benchmarks When you need a tool that will adapt and expand its benchmark set with emerging model releases and evaluation tasks beyond 2025 ### Is brain-in-the-fish or simple-evals more popular on GitHub? simple-evals has more GitHub stars (4,595 vs 83). Stars measure visibility, not whether either tool fits your constraints. ### Are brain-in-the-fish and simple-evals open source? Yes - both are open-source projects on GitHub (brain-in-the-fish: MIT, simple-evals: MIT). ### Where can I find alternatives to brain-in-the-fish or simple-evals? GraphCanon lists graph-backed alternatives at [brain-in-the-fish alternatives](/tools/fabio-rovai-brain-in-the-fish/alternatives) and [simple-evals alternatives](/tools/openai-simple-evals/alternatives) ([brain-in-the-fish markdown twin](/tools/fabio-rovai-brain-in-the-fish/alternatives.md), [simple-evals markdown twin](/tools/openai-simple-evals/alternatives.md)), ranked by typed relationship edges rather than popularity votes. ### Is there a machine-readable version of this comparison? Yes. The markdown twin at [this comparison](/compare/fabio-rovai-brain-in-the-fish-vs-openai-simple-evals.md) mirrors this page for agents and LLM crawlers, with the same stats table and FAQ answers. ### Which is better maintained, brain-in-the-fish or simple-evals? brain-in-the-fish: Slowing. simple-evals: Slowing. Compare maintenance labels, days since push, and release cadence in the trust section below - stars alone do not measure maintenance. ### Where are the full trust reports for brain-in-the-fish and simple-evals? GraphCanon publishes per-repo trust reports with dated maintenance, provenance, and scan summaries: [brain-in-the-fish trust report](/tools/fabio-rovai-brain-in-the-fish/trust); [simple-evals trust report](/tools/openai-simple-evals/trust). --- **Machine-readable endpoints** - JSON: [`/api/graphcanon/graph?tool=fabio-rovai-brain-in-the-fish`](/api/graphcanon/graph?tool=fabio-rovai-brain-in-the-fish) - LLM index: [/llms.txt](/llms.txt) - Full corpus: [/llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt) _GraphCanon - The knowledge graph for AI development. https://www.graphcanon.com/_