# AgentOS vs Strands Agents

> Strands Agents scores 80 (A) to AgentOS's 75.8 (BB) for agent frameworks. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-strands-agents
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- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
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- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

Strands Agents scores 80 (A) on agent readiness against AgentOS's 75.8 (BB), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent frameworks.

- AgentOS: grade BB, 75.8/100, rank #52 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/agentos.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/agentos.json
- Strands Agents: grade A, 80/100, rank #15 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/strands-agents.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/strands-agents.json
- Best agent frameworks and SDKs: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/frameworks/index.md
- All 171 frameworks comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/frameworks/index.md

## Which one, for what

### AgentOS (BB)

Good for: TypeScript teams that want long-term memory, personas, voice and channel adapters and multi-agent teams in one package, and that will pin versions.

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: Version 0.15.69, with 95 release tags after 0.14.2 to 1 November 2026 and breaking minors 0.14.0 and 0.15.0 in that time

### Strands Agents (A)

Good for: Python or TypeScript teams, especially on AWS, who want a model-driven loop with MCP, multi-agent patterns and approval gates.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 87 against 77
- Agent ergonomics, 87 against 74
- Security & auth, 89 against 81

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

Watch for: Three advisories in October 2026 on A2A session sharing and world-readable default session files, fixed in 1.43.0 and 1.48.0


## Why the edge

### Agent ergonomics: Strands Agents +13

- AgentOS (74): An agent is about five lines with the provider detected from the environment, and capability discovery selects tools by meaning, but no MCP client was found in the package source on 1 November or in the docs sitemap, which this line is read on for a framework (12). Session history is capped at about 120K tokens by default, with `history.maxTokens`, `reseed()` and `maxSteps` (20). Typed error classes and a `fallbacksUsed` field on results, with error documentation spread across pages (14). Checkpoints replay or re-run a node by its declared effect class on resume, and providers fall back in order, though the shipped checkpoint store is in memory (18). Few required options, TypeScript only (10).
- Strands Agents (87): Framework reading. An MCPClient is passed straight to the agent in a few lines and its lifecycle is managed, with tool filtering per client (22). Conversation managers, turn limits, token budgets and cancellation bound each run (20). Stop reasons and typed events, and hooks that can retry a model or tool call (16). Retry strategies, session managers that persist and resume a conversation, and interrupts that resume where they paused (17). Two official languages, but the default provider is Bedrock, which needs AWS credentials and model access (12). 22+20+16+17+12 = 87.

### Reliability: Strands Agents +10

- AgentOS (77): Official npm package with Node 22 or newer stated in package.json on 1 November (20). A public CI workflow builds, lints, type-checks and runs the tests with coverage, and the 12 most recent runs on master on 8 October 2026 passed, per the 8 October check, not re-read on 1 November (25). 16 open issues and pull requests in total, most filed by the maintainer, with one outside suggestion from 12 September unanswered, per the 8 October check, not re-read on 1 November (20). Written release rules give a breaking change a minor version, and a workflow fails a pull request with a breaking-change marker unless a maintainer approves it, but feature commits ship as patches and breaking minors 0.11.0 and 0.12.0 (7 October), 0.13.0 (8 October), 0.14.0 (17 October) and 0.15.0 (21 October, two persona changes marked BREAKING CHANGE) landed within two weeks (12). Version 0.15.69, not declared stable (0). Local-software reading.
- Strands Agents (87): Local-package reading. Official PyPI and npm packages with Python 3.10 and Node 22 stated (20). A public CI workflow runs lint, type checks, unit and integration tests for each package on pull requests to main, plus security-audit workflows, and the latest Python, TypeScript, harness and MCP runs on main passed on 6 November (25). 664 open issues and 1,151 open issues and pull requests on 6 November, with 545 issues opened in the 90 days to 3 November. Of the 50 newest, 12 had a comment and 15 were closed, and 9 of the 40 newest open items carry a bug label. An issue-responder workflow runs on new issues (12). A written semantic versioning policy, experimental APIs kept apart, and deprecations removed only at a major (15). 1.0 since 15 July 2025 (15). 20+25+12+15+15 = 87.

### Security & auth: Strands Agents +8

- AgentOS (81): No analytics or telemetry code found in the source, and the privacy and security pages say the runtime sends nothing to the vendor. OpenTelemetry is off by default and the host installs the exporter (30). Approval gates on five triggers, five security tiers and a rule that composed tools chain a side-effecting step only when the host lists it. Agent-written code runs by default in an in-process node:vm context with a 5-second limit and no memory cap, off unless the host enables it. An optional QuickJS executor runs each call in its own WebAssembly instance with a memory cap. No gate is on unless configured (17). SECURITY.md names model output, tool results and retrieved content as untrusted input, and injection detection is an opt-in extension pack. The security page says that pack's default ONNX model has no prompt-injection label, so injection is scored only when that model can't load, and points to a phrase-list guard (11). OpenTelemetry spans, a usage ledger, a reasoning trace and an opt-in signed audit log (15). SECURITY.md with a private advisory form, acknowledgement in 5 business days and disclosure at 90 days, and the site's security page now gives the same times. No security.txt, no bounty and no published advisory found (8). Framework reading.
- Strands Agents (89): Framework reading (telemetry defaults, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing). No usage analytics found in either SDK, and OpenTelemetry is opt-in (25). Interrupts and the harness's interventions gate tool calls behind human approval or Cedar policies, but the default sandbox is the local host (16). Guardrails, PII redaction and trusted message history pages, with Bedrock Guardrails integration (13). OpenTelemetry traces for every model and tool call (15). The AWS Vulnerability Disclosure Program on HackerOne and three advisories in October 2026 published with fixed versions (20). 25+16+13+15+20 = 89.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | AgentOS | Strands Agents | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 77 | 87 | Strands Agents +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 92 | 95 | Strands Agents +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 87 | Strands Agents +13 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 81 | 89 | Strands Agents +8 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 87 | 87 | even |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 72 | Strands Agents +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **75.8 · BB** | **80 · A** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | AgentOS | Strands Agents |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent framework | Agent framework |
| Vendor | Framers Lab, Inc. | Amazon Web Services |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-31 | 2026-11-04 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-11-06 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-11-06 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Popularity | 677 stars, 5.3k npm/wk | 9.1k stars, 698k npm/wk, 8.9M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.8/5 (4) | none |

## How the scores have moved

### AgentOS

- +0.5 on 27 October 2026: checklist

### Strands Agents

No score change since it was listed.

## Verdicts

**AgentOS.** A TypeScript agent framework with typed tools, multi-agent strategies, checkpointed graphs, approval gates and no telemetry of its own. It is at 0.15.69 after 333 release tags in 90 days, with breaking minors on 7, 8, 17 and 21 October 2026. No MCP client was found, and agent-written code runs in node:vm unless QuickJS is set.

**Strands Agents.** An Apache-2.0 agent SDK for Python and TypeScript with a managed MCP client, multi-agent patterns, interrupts and Cedar policies for approval, opt-in OpenTelemetry and no usage analytics. Bedrock is the default model, the default sandbox is the local host, and three session-isolation advisories were fixed in October 2026.

## Before you call either

### AgentOS

1. Pin an exact version of @framers/agentos. Feature commits ship as patch releases while it is 0.x, and breaking changes ship as minors
2. Leave emergentConfig.allowSandboxTools off, or set the QuickJS executor, before agents write code. The default node:vm executor shares the host process
3. Pass your own ICheckpointStore to compile() for runs that must survive a restart. The default store is in memory
4. Set hitl.approvals.beforeTool for tools that write, and choose a handler. No approval gate is on by default
5. Use Node 22 or newer, and set a provider key such as OPENAI_API_KEY or ANTHROPIC_API_KEY. The provider is detected from the environment

### Strands Agents

1. Upgrade to strands-agents 1.48.0 or later, and set a private session directory rather than the /tmp default
2. Pass a model explicitly when AWS credentials aren't configured, since Bedrock is the default
3. Use interrupts or the harness's `interventions` for tools that write, send or pay
4. Run shell and file tools in the Docker or SSH sandbox when the agent runs untrusted code
5. Pin a minor version when using A2A, MCP or experimental modules

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, AgentOS or Strands Agents?

Strands Agents scores 80 (A) on agent readiness against AgentOS's 75.8 (BB), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

### Are AgentOS and Strands Agents open source?

Yes. AgentOS is open source (Apache-2.0). Strands Agents is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with AgentOS or Strands Agents

- [AgentOS vs Agno](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-agno.md)
- [AgentOS vs BoxLang AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-boxlang-ai.md)
- [AgentOS vs Claude Agent SDK](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-claude-agent-sdk.md)
- [AgentOS vs CrewAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-crewai.md)
- [AgentOS vs Cursor Agent SDK](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-cursor-agent-sdk.md)
- [AgentOS vs Docker Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-docker-agent.md)
- [AgentOS vs Agent Development Kit (ADK)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-google-adk.md)
- [AgentOS vs guilds.run](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-guilds-run.md)
- [AgentOS vs LangGraph](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-langgraph.md)
- [AgentOS vs LlamaIndex Framework](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-llamaindex.md)
- [AgentOS vs Mastra](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-mastra.md)
- [AgentOS vs Microsoft Agent Framework](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-microsoft-agent-framework.md)
- [AgentOS vs OpenAI Agents SDK](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-openai-agents-sdk.md)
- [AgentOS vs Pydantic AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-pydantic-ai.md)
- [AgentOS vs smolagents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-smolagents.md)
- [AgentOS vs TradingAgents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-tradingagents.md)
- [AgentOS vs AI SDK](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-vercel-ai-sdk.md)
- [Agno vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agno-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [BoxLang AI vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boxlang-ai-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [Claude Agent SDK vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-agent-sdk-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [CrewAI vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crewai-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [Cursor Agent SDK vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-agent-sdk-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [Docker Agent vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/docker-agent-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [Agent Development Kit (ADK) vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-adk-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [guilds.run vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guilds-run-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [LangGraph vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/langgraph-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [LlamaIndex Framework vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llamaindex-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [Mastra vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mastra-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [Microsoft Agent Framework vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-agent-framework-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [OpenAI Agents SDK vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-agents-sdk-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [Pydantic AI vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pydantic-ai-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [smolagents vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/smolagents-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [Strands Agents vs TradingAgents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-agents-vs-tradingagents.md)
- [Strands Agents vs AI SDK](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-agents-vs-vercel-ai-sdk.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp