Head to head · Agent frameworks · October 2026 research run
Agno vs Claude Agent SDK
Agno and Claude Agent SDK score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 72.8 (BB) and 72.1 (BB). Claude Agent SDK leads on agent ergonomics and security & auth. Both do agent frameworks.
Which one, for what
Agno BB
Good for Python teams that want agents, teams and workflows plus a self-hosted server with REST, MCP, approvals and scheduling in one package.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 83 against 70
- Payments & pricing, 50 against 40
Also in its favour
- Open source
Watch for
Usage telemetry is on by default and sends session, run and agent identifiers unhashed. Prompts and outputs are not sent
Good for Agents that work on files, code and shells and want Claude Code's tool set and permission model without building them.
Ahead on
- Agent ergonomics, 94 against 76
- Security & auth, 83 against 64
Watch for
Claude models only, so a person has to set up a Claude API key or cloud account first
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Agno | Claude Agent SDK | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 83 | 70 | Agno +13 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 90 | 89 | Agno +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 76 | 94 | Claude Agent SDK +18 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 64 | 83 | Claude Agent SDK +19 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 50 | 40 | Agno +10 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 86 | 87 | Claude Agent SDK +1 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 83 | 83 | even |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | -6 | |
| Total | 72.8 · BB | 72.1 · BB |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Agno | Claude Agent SDK |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent framework | Agent framework |
| Vendor | Agno Inc. | Anthropic |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT (Python wrapper), proprietary (TypeScript package and the bundled Claude Code binary) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-02 | 2026-09-30 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | yes |
| Popularity | 43k stars, 476k PyPI/wk | 8.2k stars, 10.1M npm/wk, 6.1M PyPI/wk |
Verdicts
Agno
An Apache 2.0 Python agent framework at 3.1.1 with an MCP client, tool confirmation and admin approvals, a durable job queue and 25 stable releases in 90 days. Usage telemetry is on by default with unhashed identifiers, and three high or critical advisories were published against it in the last 12 months, all fixed.
Claude Agent SDK
Claude Code's file, shell, search and web tools, with six permission modes, a canUseTool callback and PreToolUse hooks. Claude models only, so a person has to set up a Claude API key or cloud account first.
Before you call either
Agno
- Set AGNO_TELEMETRY=false before the first run, and pass telemetry=False to AgentOS and to each eval, which ignore the variable
- Configure JWT_VERIFICATION_KEY with AgentOS authorisation switched on, or OS_SECURITY_KEY, before exposing AgentOS. With neither set, REST and MCP routes take no credential
- Mark tools that write with requires_confirmation, and resume with continue_run once every requirement is resolved
- Set tool_call_limit on agents. The default is None
- Install extras for what you use, such as agno[mcp] for MCPTools and agno[os,mcp] for AgentOS with its MCP server
Claude Agent SDK
- Set DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 before the first run on the Claude API
- List MCP tools in allowed_tools, or the agent sees them and can't call them
- Pass permission_mode explicitly. An unset mode can start in auto mode since TypeScript 0.3.286
- Pin the version. Releases land almost daily and some get yanked
- Check the init message for MCP servers in failed or needs-auth. They don't raise
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Agno or Claude Agent SDK?
Agno and Claude Agent SDK score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 72.8 (BB) and 72.1 (BB). Claude Agent SDK leads on agent ergonomics and security & auth.
Are Agno and Claude Agent SDK open source?
Agno is open source (Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for Claude Agent SDK.
Other comparisons with Agno or Claude Agent SDK
- AgentOS vs Agno
- AgentOS vs Claude Agent SDK
- Agno vs CrewAI
- Agno vs Docker Agent
- Agno vs Agent Development Kit (ADK)
- Agno vs LangGraph
- Agno vs Microsoft Agent Framework
- Agno vs OpenAI Agents SDK
- Agno vs Pydantic AI
- Claude Agent SDK vs CrewAI
- Claude Agent SDK vs Docker Agent
- Claude Agent SDK vs Agent Development Kit (ADK)
- Claude Agent SDK vs LangGraph
- Claude Agent SDK vs Microsoft Agent Framework
- Claude Agent SDK vs OpenAI Agents SDK
- Claude Agent SDK vs Pydantic AI
Disclosure
Anthropic makes the models this research run and the review panel run on. This listing was graded by agents running on Claude, by the same published checklist as every other listing, and the panel doesn't review it, because every reviewer runs on Claude too.
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/agno-vs-claude-agent-sdk.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/agno.json·/api/v1/tools/claude-agent-sdk.json - From a terminal
anchor compare agno claude-agent-sdk(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "agno", "b": "claude-agent-sdk"}at/mcp, no key