{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "agent-zero", "name": "Agent Zero", "vendor": "Agent Zero, s.r.o.", "vendorUrl": "https://www.agent-zero.ai", "kind": "harness", "category": "agent-harnesses", "summary": "Agent Zero is an open-source agent framework that runs in a Docker container with a Linux desktop, a browser, a task scheduler and memory. Its owner reaches it through a web interface, Telegram, WhatsApp or email.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agent-zero", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agent-zero.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agent-zero.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agent-zero.json", "repo": "https://github.com/agent0ai/agent-zero", "license": "MIT", "transports": [], "packages": [ { "registry": "oci", "name": "agent0ai/agent-zero" } ], "auth": "none", "authNotes": "No account. The web interface has no login until the owner sets a username and password in Settings or as `AUTH_LOGIN` and `AUTH_PASSWORD`, which are stored in `/a0/usr/.env` (https://github.com/agent0ai/agent-zero/blob/main/docs/setup/vps-deployment.md). The external API takes an `X-API-KEY` header, and the optional MCP server and A2A endpoint carry the same token in the URL path. The token is derived from the instance id and the login, so it changes when either changes (https://github.com/agent0ai/agent-zero/blob/main/docs/guides/a2a-setup.md). Model access uses provider API keys or OAuth sign-in to ChatGPT (Codex), GitHub Copilot, Google Cloud Gemini or xAI (https://github.com/agent0ai/agent-zero/blob/main/plugins/_oauth/README.md).", "pricing": "free", "pricingNotes": "Free under MIT, with nothing to buy for the software. The owner pays the model provider they configure, or nothing with a local model. A beta LLM API on the vendor's site gives a daily quota to people who stake its A0T token and is separate from the software (checked 2026-10-12).", "priceSummary": "Free · OSS", "where": "local", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs or the source (checked 2026-10-12).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": 19429, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-12" }, "docsUrl": "https://github.com/agent0ai/agent-zero/tree/main/docs", "llmsTxt": "https://www.agent-zero.ai/llms.txt", "capabilities": [ "agent.harness", "agent.mcp-client" ], "tags": [ "open-source", "self-hosted", "local", "free", "python", "mit", "llms-txt", "docker" ], "lastRelease": "2026-09-23", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 54.2, "grade": "C", "agentReady": false, "rank": 709, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 986, "categoryRank": 19, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 62, "maintenance": 75, "payments": 60, "reliability": 57, "schema": 64, "security": 54, "transparency": 55 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-12" }, "negative": -6, "negativeNotes": [ "2026-03-17. CVE-2026-4307 (path traversal in `get_abs_path`, CVSS 4.3) and CVE-2026-4308 (server-side request forgery in document queries, CVSS 6.3), both against 0.9.7, with public exploits. The NVD entries say the vendor was contacted and did not respond. The v2.9 notes of 12 August 2026 list a fix for an SSRF regression under CVE-2026-4308. Whether CVE-2026-4307 is fixed was not established. -2. https://services.nvd.nist.gov/rest/json/cves/2.0?cveId=CVE-2026-4308", "2026-05-27. CVE-2026-47119, stored cross-site scripting through SVG files served by the `image_get` endpoint, CVSS 6.1, in versions before 1.15. The report (#1609) was closed as completed on 12 May 2026. Fixed, and no GitHub advisory was published. -1. https://github.com/agent0ai/agent-zero/issues/1609", "2026-09-30. CVE-2026-51852 and CVE-2026-51853, directory traversal in the file browser of versions 1.7 to 1.10, CVSS 7.5 each. Reported as issues #1539 and #1540 on 20 April 2026 and closed as completed on 24 July 2026. The file browser still starts at the container root by design. -1. https://github.com/agent0ai/agent-zero/issues/1540", "2026-09-09. Two flaws recorded in the project's own security-review ledger and fixed in v2.12 the same day. An unauthenticated Telegram webhook accepted forged updates, and WhatsApp document names could overwrite files outside the media cache before the sender check ran. The ledger rates both high. Named in the release notes, with no advisory. -2. https://github.com/agent0ai/agent-zero/blob/main/security-review/LEDGER.md" ], "verdict": "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.", "bestFor": "A technical owner who wants an agent with its own Linux machine, reachable from Telegram, WhatsApp or email, with scheduled tasks and editable memory.", "strengths": [ "MIT licence, with prompts, tools, plugins and settings readable and editable in one public repository", "Nine tagged releases between 17 July and 23 September 2026, and Breaking Changes sections in the v2.11, v2.12 and v2.13 notes", "Memory dashboard to search, edit, delete and bulk-delete entries, with memory kept apart for each project by default", "No usage telemetry found in the source. The one call home is an update check that a setting turns off", "Tool Access policy can allow or block each built-in and MCP tool for a project or an agent profile" ], "weaknesses": [ "No approval step before shell commands, file changes or outgoing messages. Tool Access defaults to allow", "The web interface has no login until the owner sets a username, and the README command publishes port 80", "Five CVEs published between 17 March and 30 September 2026, none as a GitHub advisory, and no SECURITY.md or security.txt", "Infection Check, the prompt-injection audit before tool calls, ships turned off", "Empty allow-lists in the Telegram, WhatsApp and email integrations accept messages from anyone", "No public CI runs the 191 test files. The only workflows publish Docker images and close inactive issues" ], "agentNotes": [ "Set a UI login and password in Settings before publishing the port or opening a tunnel. The default has none", "Fill `allowed_users`, `allowed_numbers` or `sender_whitelist` before enabling a channel. An empty list accepts every sender", "Enable the Infection Check plugin when the agent reads mail, web pages or MCP results. It ships disabled", "Run v2.12 or later. It fixes a Telegram webhook authentication bypass and a WhatsApp media path traversal", "Call `POST /api_message` with the `X-API-KEY` header. The token changes when the UI login or password changes" ], "metrics": { "kind": "local", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "C", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 54.2 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 62, "maintenance": 75, "payments": 60, "reliability": 57, "schema": 64, "security": 54, "transparency": 56 }, "provenanceScore": 53 }, "connect": { "install": "docker run -p 80:80 -v a0_usr:/a0/usr agent0ai/agent-zero # or: curl -fsSL https://bash.agent-zero.ai | bash" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/agent.harness", "tool": "https://letme.dev/agent-zero" }, "area": "frameworks", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Agent Zero, s.r.o.", "domain": "agent-zero.ai", "domainRegistered": "", "endpointOnVendorDomain": null, "terms": "", "privacy": "", "statusPage": "", "changelog": "https://github.com/agent0ai/agent-zero/releases", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-12", "notes": [ "The site footer names Agent Zero, s.r.o., ID no. 231 46 508, Nové sady 988/2, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic, and the `LICENSE` file carries the same company's copyright.", "No terms or privacy policy for the software was found. The site's terms page covers its community platform and its cookie page covers the website, so neither is linked here and the MIT licence stands in.", "`/.well-known/security.txt` on www.agent-zero.ai answered 404 on 12 October 2026, and the repository has no SECURITY.md.", "robots.txt on www.agent-zero.ai answered 404, read as no rules. agent-zero.ai redirects to www.agent-zero.ai.", "There is no hosted endpoint. An instance answers on its owner's own host.", "The domain's registration date was not looked up." ], "score": 53 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agent-zero.json" }, "answer": "Prime Agent scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Agent Zero's 54.2 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Agent Zero leads on schema \u0026 documentation.", "b": { "slug": "prime-agent", "name": "Prime Agent", "vendor": "Prime Intellect", "vendorUrl": "https://www.primeintellect.ai", "kind": "harness", "category": "agent-harnesses", "summary": "Prime Agent is an open-source coding and research agent from Prime Intellect, run from a terminal. The model works through a persistent Python REPL, spawns subagents as function calls and keeps sessions running in a background daemon.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/prime-agent", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/prime-agent.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/prime-agent.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/prime-agent.json", "repo": "https://github.com/PrimeIntellect-ai/prime-agent", "license": "MIT", "transports": [], "packages": [], "auth": "none", "authNotes": "No account of its own is required. `/login` on first launch picks a subscription or an API-key provider, and provider keys can also come from environment variables such as `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY`, `OPENAI_API_KEY`, `OPENROUTER_API_KEY` or `PRIME_API_KEY`.", "pricing": "free", "pricingNotes": "Free and MIT-licensed, with nothing to buy for the agent itself. The model provider is paid separately, and Prime Intellect's own inference service is one of the providers.", "priceSummary": "Free · OSS", "where": "local", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the README or the source (checked 2026-10-08).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": 21614, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-08" }, "docsUrl": "https://github.com/PrimeIntellect-ai/prime-agent#readme", "capabilities": [ "agent.harness", "agent.mcp-client", "agent.multi-agent" ], "tags": [ "open-source", "local", "free", "no-card", "rust", "mcp", "telemetry-default-on", "pre-1.0", "beta" ], "lastRelease": "2026-10-07", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 60.5, "grade": "C", "agentReady": false, "rank": 525, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 986, "categoryRank": 10, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 73, "maintenance": 79, "payments": 60, "reliability": 65, "schema": 42, "security": 50, "transparency": 64 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-08" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "Budgets for turns, tokens and time bound an autonomous run, and sessions survive a closed terminal through a supervising daemon. Model-written Python and shell commands run with the user's rights, with no approval step and no sandbox, and the Rust build on the main branch ships only as nightly betas.", "bestFor": "Long-running research and coding work where one model drives subagents, schedules and goals from code, and where the owner can isolate the machine.", "strengths": [ "MIT licence, with CI on main passing on 8 October 2026 (fmt, clippy with warnings as errors, sharded tests, cargo-deny)", "Three model tools (bash, edit, ipython). MCP tools are found and called from Python, so their definitions stay out of the prompt", "Autonomous mode takes limits on turns, tokens, time and continuations, plus user-defined quality gates with retries", "A daemon supervises one worker per session, restarts it with backoff and restores from append-only JSONL session files", "Telemetry is disclosed on first run, carries primitive values only and has four documented ways to turn it off" ], "weaknesses": [ "No approval prompts and no sandbox. The README says the worker and kernel processes are not a security sandbox", "The stable channel (v0.9.8, 29 September 2026) is the TypeScript build. The Rust code on main ships only as nightly betas", "No documentation site for Prime Agent. Headless, JSON, RPC and ACP modes are described only in source and crate READMEs", "Usage telemetry is on by default, and the vendor privacy policy (updated 23 February 2024) does not describe it", "No SECURITY.md in the repository, and public issues and unsolicited pull requests are closed automatically" ], "agentNotes": [ "Run it in a disposable clone, container or VM. It executes model-written Python and shell commands with the user's rights and asks nothing first", "Set `PRIME_AGENT_TELEMETRY=0` or `DO_NOT_TRACK=1` before the first run if usage metrics must not leave the machine", "For unattended runs pass `--autonomous-max-turns`, `--autonomous-max-tokens` and `--autonomous-timeout-ms`. Reaching a limit does not mean the task succeeded", "Headless use is `-p` with `--mode json` per the argument parser. A provider key must already be configured, because `/login` is interactive", "The `-t/--tools`, `-nt/--no-tools` and `-nbt/--no-builtin-tools` flags were removed and now fail as unknown options" ], "metrics": { "kind": "local", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "C", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 60.5 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 73, "maintenance": 79, "payments": 60, "reliability": 65, "schema": 42, "security": 50, "transparency": 67 }, "provenanceScore": 61 }, "connect": { "install": "curl -fsSL https://app.primeintellect.ai/prime-agent/install.sh | sh" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/agent.harness", "tool": "https://letme.dev/prime-agent" }, "area": "frameworks", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Prime Intellect, Inc.", "domain": "primeintellect.ai", "domainRegistered": "", "endpointOnVendorDomain": null, "terms": "https://www.primeintellect.ai/terms-of-service", "privacy": "https://www.primeintellect.ai/privacy-policy", "statusPage": "https://status.primeintellect.ai", "changelog": "https://github.com/PrimeIntellect-ai/prime-agent/releases", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-08", "notes": [ "The site footer, terms and privacy policy name Prime Intellect, Inc. of Dover, Delaware. The repository LICENSE names Prime Intellect Ltd. as copyright holder.", "www.primeintellect.ai/.well-known/security.txt returned 404 on 8 October 2026. A security policy with a reporting address is at https://www.primeintellect.ai/security.", "The status page covers Prime Intellect's hosted platform (API, inference, sandboxes), not the locally run agent.", "The LICENSE adds that the software is a port of the Prime Agent TypeScript product, originally copyright 2025 Mario Zechner, used under the MIT licence. GitHub's licence detector reports the file as unrecognised." ], "score": 61 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/prime-agent.json", "live": { "slug": "prime-agent", "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.primeintellect.ai", "indicator": "unknown", "summary": "no machine-readable status found", "checkedAt": "2026-10-12T03:24:56.7460949Z" }, "versions": [ { "registry": "github", "name": "PrimeIntellect-ai/prime-agent", "version": "v0.10.0", "released": "2026-10-09", "seenAt": "2026-10-11T19:52:02.213950903Z" } ], "githubStars": 21900, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://primeintellect.ai/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-10-12T15:43:35.858943746Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "primeintellect.ai", "registered": "2023-08-22", "source": "https://rdap.identitydigital.services/rdap/domain/primeintellect.ai", "checkedAt": "2026-10-11T13:24:04.117870769Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://www.primeintellect.ai/privacy-policy", "kind": "privacy", "status": 304, "checkedAt": "2026-10-11T19:41:41.988154305Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-10T19:17:28.365487063Z", "fingerprint": "98002f8659a3" }, { "url": "https://www.primeintellect.ai/terms-of-service", "kind": "terms", "status": 304, "checkedAt": "2026-10-11T19:41:44.148774882Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-10T19:17:30.645698403Z", "fingerprint": "ca2c09181b76" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-12T15:43:35.858943746Z" } }, "facts": [ { "a": "Agent harness", "b": "Agent harness", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Agent Zero, s.r.o.", "b": "Prime Intellect", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "no (local only)", "b": "no (local only)", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "None", "b": "None", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Free", "b": "Free", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "MIT", "b": "MIT", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "yes", "b": "no", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2026-09-23", "b": "2026-10-07", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "no document linked", "b": "no date given", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "no document linked", "b": "no date given", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "", "b": "yes", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "", "b": "yes", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "", "b": "yes", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "", "b": "yes", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "19k stars", "b": "22k stars", "name": "Popularity" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "Prime Agent scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Agent Zero's 54.2 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Agent Zero leads on schema \u0026 documentation.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Agent Zero or Prime Agent?" }, { "answer": "Yes. Agent Zero is open source (MIT). Prime Agent is open source (MIT).", "question": "Are Agent Zero and Prime Agent open source?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Schema \u0026 documentation, 64 against 42" ], "also": null, "goodFor": "A technical owner who wants an agent with its own Linux machine, reachable from Telegram, WhatsApp or email, with scheduled tasks and editable memory.", "slug": "agent-zero", "watchFor": "No approval step before shell commands, file changes or outgoing messages. Tool Access defaults to allow" }, { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 65 against 57", "Agent ergonomics, 73 against 62", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 64 against 55" ], "also": [ "Free to start without a card", "No incidents deducted, where Agent Zero loses 6 points for them" ], "goodFor": "Long-running research and coding work where one model drives subagents, schedules and goals from code, and where the owner can isolate the machine.", "slug": "prime-agent", "watchFor": "No approval prompts and no sandbox. The README says the worker and kernel processes are not a security sandbox" } ], "job": { "capability": "agent.harness", "name": "Agent harnesses" }, "others": [ { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-aider.json", "title": "Agent Zero vs Aider", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-aider" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-amp.json", "title": "Agent Zero vs Amp", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-amp" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-antigravity-cli.json", "title": "Agent Zero vs Antigravity CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-antigravity-cli" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-claude-code.json", "title": "Agent Zero vs Claude Code", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-claude-code" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-cline.json", "title": "Agent Zero vs Cline", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-cline" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-cursor-cli.json", "title": "Agent Zero vs Cursor CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-cursor-cli" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-devin.json", "title": "Agent Zero vs Devin", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-devin" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-droid-cli.json", "title": "Agent Zero vs Droid CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-droid-cli" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-earendil-pi.json", "title": "Agent Zero vs Pi", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-earendil-pi" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-gemini-cli.json", "title": "Agent Zero vs Gemini CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-gemini-cli" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-github-copilot-cli.json", "title": "Agent Zero vs GitHub Copilot CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-github-copilot-cli" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-goose.json", "title": "Agent Zero vs goose", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-goose" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-kilo-code-cli.json", "title": "Agent Zero vs Kilo Code CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-kilo-code-cli" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-kiro-cli.json", "title": "Agent Zero vs Kiro CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-kiro-cli" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-openai-codex.json", "title": "Agent Zero vs OpenAI Codex", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-openai-codex" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-opencode.json", "title": "Agent Zero vs OpenCode", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-opencode" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-openhands.json", "title": "Agent Zero vs OpenHands", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-openhands" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-qwen-code.json", "title": "Agent Zero vs Qwen Code", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-qwen-code" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-prime-agent.json", "title": "Aider vs Prime Agent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-prime-agent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-prime-agent.json", "title": "Amp vs Prime Agent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-prime-agent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-prime-agent.json", "title": "Antigravity CLI vs Prime Agent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-prime-agent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-prime-agent.json", "title": "Claude Code vs Prime Agent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-prime-agent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-prime-agent.json", "title": "Cline vs Prime Agent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-prime-agent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-prime-agent.json", "title": "Cursor CLI vs Prime Agent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-prime-agent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/devin-vs-prime-agent.json", "title": "Devin vs Prime Agent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/devin-vs-prime-agent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/droid-cli-vs-prime-agent.json", "title": "Droid CLI vs Prime Agent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/droid-cli-vs-prime-agent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/earendil-pi-vs-prime-agent.json", "title": "Pi vs Prime Agent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/earendil-pi-vs-prime-agent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-cli-vs-prime-agent.json", "title": "Gemini CLI vs Prime Agent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-cli-vs-prime-agent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/github-copilot-cli-vs-prime-agent.json", "title": "GitHub Copilot CLI vs Prime Agent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/github-copilot-cli-vs-prime-agent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-prime-agent.json", "title": "goose vs Prime Agent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-prime-agent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kilo-code-cli-vs-prime-agent.json", "title": "Kilo Code CLI vs Prime Agent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kilo-code-cli-vs-prime-agent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kiro-cli-vs-prime-agent.json", "title": "Kiro CLI vs Prime Agent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kiro-cli-vs-prime-agent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-codex-vs-prime-agent.json", "title": "OpenAI Codex vs Prime Agent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-codex-vs-prime-agent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/opencode-vs-prime-agent.json", "title": "OpenCode vs Prime Agent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/opencode-vs-prime-agent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openhands-vs-prime-agent.json", "title": "OpenHands vs Prime Agent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openhands-vs-prime-agent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prime-agent-vs-qwen-code.json", "title": "Prime Agent vs Qwen Code", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prime-agent-vs-qwen-code" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paperclip-vs-prime-agent.json", "title": "Paperclip vs Prime Agent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paperclip-vs-prime-agent" } ], "scores": [ { "agent-zero": 57, "by": 8, "edge": "prime-agent", "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "prime-agent": 65, "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "agent-zero": 64, "by": 22, "edge": "agent-zero", "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "prime-agent": 42, "weight": 13 }, { "agent-zero": 62, "by": 11, "edge": "prime-agent", "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "prime-agent": 73, "weight": 13 }, { "agent-zero": 54, "by": 4, "edge": "agent-zero", "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "prime-agent": 50, "weight": 14 }, { "agent-zero": 60, "by": 0, "edge": "", "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "prime-agent": 60, "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "agent-zero": 75, "by": 4, "edge": "prime-agent", "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "prime-agent": 79, "weight": 7 }, { "agent-zero": 55, "by": 9, "edge": "prime-agent", "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "prime-agent": 64, "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "Prime Agent scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Agent Zero's 54.2 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Agent Zero leads on schema \u0026 documentation. Both do agent harnesses.", "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.", "prime-agent": "Budgets for turns, tokens and time bound an autonomous run, and sessions survive a closed terminal through a supervising daemon. Model-written Python and shell commands run with the user's rights, with no approval step and no sandbox, and the Rust build on the main branch ships only as nightly betas." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-prime-agent", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-prime-agent.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-prime-agent.md", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-prime-agent.min.md" }, "markdown": "Prime Agent scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Agent Zero's 54.2 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Agent Zero leads on schema \u0026 documentation. Both do agent harnesses.\n\n- Agent Zero: grade C, 54.2/100, rank #709 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agent-zero.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agent-zero.json\n- Prime Agent: grade C, 60.5/100, rank #525 of 986. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/prime-agent.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/prime-agent.json\n- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md\n- All 205 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### Agent Zero (C)\n\nGood 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.\n\nAhead on:\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 64 against 42\n\nWatch for: No approval step before shell commands, file changes or outgoing messages. Tool Access defaults to allow\n\n### Prime Agent (C)\n\nGood for: Long-running research and coding work where one model drives subagents, schedules and goals from code, and where the owner can isolate the machine.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 65 against 57\n- Agent ergonomics, 73 against 62\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 64 against 55\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- Free to start without a card\n- No incidents deducted, where Agent Zero loses 6 points for them\n\nWatch for: No approval prompts and no sandbox. The README says the worker and kernel processes are not a security sandbox\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Agent Zero | Prime Agent | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 57 | 65 | Prime Agent +8 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 42 | Agent Zero +22 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 62 | 73 | Prime Agent +11 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 54 | 50 | Agent Zero +4 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 79 | Prime Agent +4 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 55 | 64 | Prime Agent +9 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | -6 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **54.2 · C** | **60.5 · C** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Agent Zero | Prime Agent |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |\n| Vendor | Agent Zero, s.r.o. | Prime Intellect |\n| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |\n| Transports | | |\n| Auth | None | None |\n| Pricing | Free | Free |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | MIT | MIT |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | yes | no |\n| Last release | 2026-09-23 | 2026-10-07 |\n| Terms last updated | no document linked | no date given |\n| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no date given |\n| Customer content may train models | | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict automated access | | yes |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | | yes |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | | yes |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | | yes |\n| Popularity | 19k stars | 22k stars |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**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.\n\n**Prime Agent.** Budgets for turns, tokens and time bound an autonomous run, and sessions survive a closed terminal through a supervising daemon. Model-written Python and shell commands run with the user's rights, with no approval step and no sandbox, and the Rust build on the main branch ships only as nightly betas.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### Agent Zero\n\n1. Set a UI login and password in Settings before publishing the port or opening a tunnel. The default has none\n2. Fill `allowed_users`, `allowed_numbers` or `sender_whitelist` before enabling a channel. An empty list accepts every sender\n3. Enable the Infection Check plugin when the agent reads mail, web pages or MCP results. It ships disabled\n4. Run v2.12 or later. It fixes a Telegram webhook authentication bypass and a WhatsApp media path traversal\n5. Call `POST /api_message` with the `X-API-KEY` header. The token changes when the UI login or password changes\n\n### Prime Agent\n\n1. Run it in a disposable clone, container or VM. It executes model-written Python and shell commands with the user's rights and asks nothing first\n2. Set `PRIME_AGENT_TELEMETRY=0` or `DO_NOT_TRACK=1` before the first run if usage metrics must not leave the machine\n3. For unattended runs pass `--autonomous-max-turns`, `--autonomous-max-tokens` and `--autonomous-timeout-ms`. Reaching a limit does not mean the task succeeded\n4. Headless use is `-p` with `--mode json` per the argument parser. A provider key must already be configured, because `/login` is interactive\n5. The `-t/--tools`, `-nt/--no-tools` and `-nbt/--no-builtin-tools` flags were removed and now fail as unknown options\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Agent Zero or Prime Agent?\n\nPrime Agent scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Agent Zero's 54.2 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Agent Zero leads on schema \u0026 documentation.\n\n### Are Agent Zero and Prime Agent open source?\n\nYes. Agent Zero is open source (MIT). Prime Agent is open source (MIT).\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-prime-agent.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-prime-agent.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"agent-zero\", \"b\": \"prime-agent\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare agent-zero prime-agent`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agent-zero.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/prime-agent.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Agent Zero or Prime Agent\n\n- [Agent Zero vs Aider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-aider.md)\n- [Agent Zero vs Amp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-amp.md)\n- [Agent Zero vs Antigravity CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-antigravity-cli.md)\n- [Agent Zero vs Claude Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-claude-code.md)\n- [Agent Zero vs Cline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-cline.md)\n- [Agent Zero vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-cursor-cli.md)\n- [Agent Zero vs Devin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-devin.md)\n- [Agent Zero vs Droid CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-droid-cli.md)\n- [Agent Zero vs Pi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-earendil-pi.md)\n- [Agent Zero vs Gemini CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-gemini-cli.md)\n- [Agent Zero vs GitHub Copilot CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-github-copilot-cli.md)\n- [Agent Zero vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-goose.md)\n- [Agent Zero vs Kilo Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-kilo-code-cli.md)\n- [Agent Zero vs Kiro CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-kiro-cli.md)\n- [Agent Zero vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-openai-codex.md)\n- [Agent Zero vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-opencode.md)\n- [Agent Zero vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-openhands.md)\n- [Agent Zero vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-qwen-code.md)\n- [Aider vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-prime-agent.md)\n- [Amp vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-prime-agent.md)\n- [Antigravity CLI vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-prime-agent.md)\n- [Claude Code vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-prime-agent.md)\n- [Cline vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-prime-agent.md)\n- [Cursor CLI vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-prime-agent.md)\n- [Devin vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/devin-vs-prime-agent.md)\n- [Droid CLI vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/droid-cli-vs-prime-agent.md)\n- [Pi vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/earendil-pi-vs-prime-agent.md)\n- [Gemini CLI vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-cli-vs-prime-agent.md)\n- [GitHub Copilot CLI vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/github-copilot-cli-vs-prime-agent.md)\n- [goose vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-prime-agent.md)\n- [Kilo Code CLI vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kilo-code-cli-vs-prime-agent.md)\n- [Kiro CLI vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kiro-cli-vs-prime-agent.md)\n- [OpenAI Codex vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-codex-vs-prime-agent.md)\n- [OpenCode vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/opencode-vs-prime-agent.md)\n- [OpenHands vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openhands-vs-prime-agent.md)\n- [Prime Agent vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prime-agent-vs-qwen-code.md)\n- [Paperclip vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paperclip-vs-prime-agent.md)\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-10-12", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.4", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", "preview": false, "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run" }, "page": { "breadcrumbs": [ { "name": "Home", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/" }, { "name": "Compare", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/" }, { "name": "Agent Zero vs Prime Agent", "url": "" } ], "description": "Prime Agent scores 60.5 (C) to Agent Zero's 54.2 (C) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "Agent Zero C 54.2", "Prime Agent C 60.5", "scores" ], "h1": "Agent Zero vs Prime Agent", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-agent-zero-vs-prime-agent.png", "path": "/compare/agent-zero-vs-prime-agent", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "Agent Zero vs Prime Agent for AI agents in 2026: scores and prices", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-12", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-prime-agent" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2650, "slim": 630 }, "version": 1 }