Yes. The developers of Bitcoin Knots created a copy of Bitcoin Core project which in software development is called a fork (not to be confused with what we call fork in cryptocurrencies). They made certain non-consensus related changes which they believe is an improvement on the original project.

As far as consensus rules go, they are both exactly the same since they are both "bitcoin" clients.
But they have different preferences, for example Knots give you more flexibility on controlling how your node operates. Like not relaying abusive or spam transactions to try and keep the bitcoin blockchain clean.

BTW if you ask me most of the stuff you read these days about "core vs knots" is being blown out of proportion.