# Aider vs mini-swe-agent

> mini-swe-agent scores 56.7 (C) to Aider's 46.9 (D) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-18

mini-swe-agent scores 56.7 (C) on agent readiness against Aider's 46.9 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Aider leads on transparency & trust. Both do agent harnesses.

- Aider: grade D, 46.9/100, rank #959 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aider.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/aider.json
- mini-swe-agent: grade C, 56.7/100, rank #698 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mini-swe-agent.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mini-swe-agent.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 713 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Aider (D)

Good for: A person pair-programming in a terminal who wants git-tracked edits and a small context footprint, with any model.

Ahead on:
- Transparency & trust, 63 against 51

Watch for: No release since 0.86.2 on 12 February 2026 and no commit since 22 May 2026

### mini-swe-agent (C)

Good for: Benchmark runs, research baselines and RL or fine-tuning pipelines that want a minimal, readable agent with a linear trajectory, and for people who want to read every line of their harness.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 70 against 54
- Maintenance & community, 49 against 13

Also in its favour:
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 1.0 out of 5

Watch for: The default local environment runs commands on the host with no isolation and the full host environment


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Aider | mini-swe-agent | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 54 | 70 | mini-swe-agent +16 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 56 | 58 | mini-swe-agent +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 69 | mini-swe-agent +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 59 | 56 | Aider +3 |
| 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) | 13 | 49 | mini-swe-agent +36 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 51 | Aider +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -8 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **46.9 · D** | **56.7 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Aider | mini-swe-agent |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Aider AI LLC | SWE-bench team (Princeton and Stanford) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-02-12 | 2026-07-23 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| 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 | 49k stars | 8.6k stars, 4.4M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 1/5 (2) | 3/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Aider.** Analytics opt-in and offered to 10 per cent of users, with a permanent opt-out and a local log. No release since 0.86.2 on 12 February 2026 and no commit since 22 May 2026.

**mini-swe-agent.** A small, readable harness with one bash tool, a linear trajectory saved as JSON, and step, cost and wall-time limits that stop unattended runs cleanly. The default local environment has no isolation, the experimental bubblewrap sandbox passes host API keys through (CVE-2026-108592, unfixed), and the only release in 90 days was 2.4.6 on 23 July 2026.

## Before you call either

### Aider

1. Read `.aider.conf.yml` in any cloned repository before starting aider. Its `test-cmd` and `lint-cmd` run without asking
2. Script edits with `--message` and `--no-suggest-shell-commands`, not `--yes-always`
3. Use Python 3.12 or earlier for the PyPI release
4. Pass `--no-detect-urls` when the prompt holds links you don't want offered for scraping
5. Check `git log` after a run. Each edit is its own commit

### mini-swe-agent

1. Run with `-y --exit-immediately` for unattended use. Without `--exit-immediately` it waits for input when the agent finishes
2. Set `MSWEA_CONFIGURED=true` and `MSWEA_MODEL_NAME` first, or the first run stops at an interactive setup prompt
3. Read `info.exit_status` in the `-o` trajectory file. A run that hits its limits still exits normally
4. For untrusted repositories use `-c mini.yaml -c environment.environment_class=docker -c environment.image=<image>`. The local and bubblewrap environments both expose host variables
5. Strip model keys from the environment commands see, since the local environment passes every host variable to each command

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Aider or mini-swe-agent?

mini-swe-agent scores 56.7 (C) on agent readiness against Aider's 46.9 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Aider leads on transparency & trust.

### Are Aider and mini-swe-agent open source?

Yes. Aider is open source (Apache-2.0). mini-swe-agent is open source (MIT).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Aider or mini-swe-agent

- [Agent Zero vs Aider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-aider.md)
- [Agent Zero vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Aider vs Amp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-amp.md)
- [Aider vs Antigravity CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-antigravity-cli.md)
- [Aider vs Auggie CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-auggie.md)
- [Aider vs Claude Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-claude-code.md)
- [Aider vs Cline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-cline.md)
- [Aider vs Crush](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-crush.md)
- [Aider vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-cursor-cli.md)
- [Aider vs DeepSeek Harness (dsh)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-deepseek-harness.md)
- [Aider vs Devin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-devin.md)
- [Aider vs Droid CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-droid-cli.md)
- [Aider vs Pi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-earendil-pi.md)
- [Aider vs Gemini CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-gemini-cli.md)
- [Aider vs GitHub Copilot CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-github-copilot-cli.md)
- [Aider vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-goose.md)
- [Aider vs Harness²](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-harness2.md)
- [Aider vs HarnessRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-harnessrouter.md)
- [Aider vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-jules.md)
- [Aider vs Junie CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-junie.md)
- [Aider vs Kilo Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-kilo-code-cli.md)
- [Aider vs Kimi Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-kimi-code-cli.md)
- [Aider vs Kiro CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-kiro-cli.md)
- [Aider vs Mistral Vibe CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-mistral-vibe-cli.md)
- [Aider vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Aider vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-openai-codex.md)
- [Aider vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-opencode.md)
- [Aider vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-openhands.md)
- [Aider vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Aider vs Qoder CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-qoder-cli.md)
- [Aider vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-qwen-code.md)
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- [Aider vs Rovo Dev CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-rovo-dev-cli.md)
- [Aider vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-warp.md)
- [Amp vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Auggie CLI vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/auggie-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
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- [Cline vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Crush vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
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- [Harness² vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harness2-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [HarnessRouter vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harnessrouter-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
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- [Kimi Code CLI vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kimi-code-cli-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Kiro CLI vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kiro-cli-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
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- [mini-swe-agent vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-muse-code.md)
- [mini-swe-agent vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-openai-codex.md)
- [mini-swe-agent vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-opencode.md)
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- [mini-swe-agent vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-qwen-code.md)
- [mini-swe-agent vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [mini-swe-agent vs Rovo Dev CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-rovo-dev-cli.md)
- [mini-swe-agent vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-warp.md)

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