# Agent Zero vs Muse Code

> Muse Code scores 61.3 (C) to Agent Zero's 54.2 (C) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-muse-code
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-muse-code.md (~2,700 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-muse-code.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-muse-code.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-12

Muse Code scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against Agent Zero's 54.2 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Agent Zero leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do agent harnesses.

- Agent Zero: grade C, 54.2/100, rank #710 of 993. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agent-zero.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agent-zero.json
- Muse Code: grade C, 61.3/100, rank #487 of 993. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/muse-code.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/muse-code.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 226 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Agent Zero (C)

Good for: A technical owner who wants an agent with its own Linux machine, reachable from Telegram, WhatsApp or email, with scheduled tasks and editable memory.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 57 against 45
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: No approval step before shell commands, file changes or outgoing messages. Tool Access defaults to allow

### Muse Code (C)

Good for: Developers who want Meta's Muse models, Muse Wonder Full included, in a terminal or CI agent with the sandbox and approvals on from the first run.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 84 against 64
- Agent ergonomics, 79 against 62
- Security & auth, 67 against 54

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Agent Zero loses 6 points for them

Watch for: Closed source, with no public CI or issue tracker for the CLI found and release notes that carry no dates


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Agent Zero | Muse Code | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 57 | 45 | Agent Zero +12 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 84 | Muse Code +20 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 62 | 79 | Muse Code +17 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 54 | 67 | Muse Code +13 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 20 | Agent Zero +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 75 | even |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 55 | 57 | Muse Code +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -6 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **54.2 · C** | **61.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Agent Zero | Muse Code |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Agent Zero, s.r.o. | Meta |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary binary, used under the Meta Model API Terms of Service, which cover Meta's coding harness. Subscriptions are also under the Meta Subscription Terms of Service. The TypeScript and Python SDKs in the linked repository are MIT. |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-23 | 2026-10-11 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models |  |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Popularity | 19k stars | 63k npm/wk |

## Verdicts

**Agent Zero.** Self-hosted under the MIT licence, with nine releases in the 90 days to 12 October 2026 and breaking changes listed in the release notes. The agent runs shell commands in its container with no approval step, the web interface has no login by default, and five CVEs from the past year have no published GitHub advisory.

**Muse Code.** Muse Code runs with approvals and an OS sandbox on by default, per-host network approval, an append-only event log and a headless mode with documented exit codes. It is the only route to Muse Wonder Full. It is closed source with undated release notes and no free route, and subscriptions allow training on code unless Contributor mode is turned off.

## Before you call either

### Agent Zero

1. Set a UI login and password in Settings before publishing the port or opening a tunnel. The default has none
2. Fill `allowed_users`, `allowed_numbers` or `sender_whitelist` before enabling a channel. An empty list accepts every sender
3. Enable the Infection Check plugin when the agent reads mail, web pages or MCP results. It ships disabled
4. Run v2.12 or later. It fixes a Telegram webhook authentication bypass and a WhatsApp media path traversal
5. Call `POST /api_message` with the `X-API-KEY` header. The token changes when the UI login or password changes

### Muse Code

1. Set `META_API_KEY` for headless runs. Browser sign-in isn't available in CI or for Meta Managed Accounts
2. Gate on your own test command, not the exit code. `muse exec` returns 0 when the turn completes even if tests still fail
3. Pass `--max-model-steps` on unattended runs so a stuck task can't loop
4. Prefer `--disable-approval` to `--yolo` in CI so the sandbox stays on. On Linux the runner needs a working bubblewrap and a non-musl build
5. Turn Contributor mode off in `/settings` before a subscription session touches private code

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Agent Zero or Muse Code?

Muse Code scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against Agent Zero's 54.2 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Agent Zero leads on reliability and payments & pricing.

### Are Agent Zero and Muse Code open source?

Agent Zero is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Muse Code.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-muse-code.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-muse-code.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "agent-zero", "b": "muse-code"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare agent-zero muse-code`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agent-zero.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/muse-code.json

## Other comparisons with Agent Zero or Muse Code

- [Agent Zero vs Aider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-aider.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Amp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-amp.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Antigravity CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-antigravity-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Claude Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-claude-code.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Cline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-cline.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-cursor-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Devin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-devin.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Droid CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-droid-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Pi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-earendil-pi.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Gemini CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-gemini-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs GitHub Copilot CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-github-copilot-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-goose.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Kilo Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-kilo-code-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Kiro CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-kiro-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-openai-codex.md)
- [Agent Zero vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-opencode.md)
- [Agent Zero vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-openhands.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-qwen-code.md)
- [Aider vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Amp vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Claude Code vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Cline vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Devin vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/devin-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Droid CLI vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/droid-cli-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Pi vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/earendil-pi-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Gemini CLI vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-cli-vs-muse-code.md)
- [GitHub Copilot CLI vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/github-copilot-cli-vs-muse-code.md)
- [goose vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Kilo Code CLI vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kilo-code-cli-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Kiro CLI vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kiro-cli-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Muse Code vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-code-vs-openai-codex.md)
- [Muse Code vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-code-vs-opencode.md)
- [Muse Code vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-code-vs-openhands.md)
- [Muse Code vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-code-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Muse Code vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-code-vs-qwen-code.md)
- [Muse Code vs Paperclip](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-code-vs-paperclip.md)