{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "aider", "name": "Aider", "vendor": "Aider AI LLC", "vendorUrl": "https://aider.chat", "kind": "harness", "category": "agent-harnesses", "summary": "Terminal pair-programming tool that edits files in a local git repository through text edit formats rather than tool calls, builds a repo map with tree-sitter, and commits each change.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aider", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aider.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aider.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/aider.json", "dns": "aider.grade.anchorterminal.com", "repo": "https://github.com/Aider-AI/aider", "license": "Apache-2.0", "transports": [], "packages": [ { "registry": "pypi", "name": "aider-chat" } ], "auth": "none", "authNotes": "No account. Model keys come from environment variables, a `.env` file or `--api-key` flags, and go straight to the provider through LiteLLM.", "pricing": "free", "pricingNotes": "Free and Apache-2.0, with nothing to buy. You pay your model provider, or nothing with a local model.", "priceSummary": "Free · OSS", "where": "local", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the docs or the source (checked 2026-10-01).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": 49300, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-01" }, "docsUrl": "https://aider.chat/docs/", "capabilities": [ "agent.harness" ], "tags": [ "open-source", "local", "free", "no-card", "python", "pre-1.0" ], "lastRelease": "2026-02-12", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 49.1, "grade": "D", "agentReady": false, "rank": 1105, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1510, "categoryRank": 43, "methodology": "0.7", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 65, "maintenance": 13, "payments": 60, "reliability": 44, "schema": 56, "security": 59, "transparency": 65 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "high", "date": "2026-11-05" }, "negative": -4, "negativeNotes": [ "2026-09-04. CVE-2026-85674 (CVSS 3.1 7.8, filed by VulnCheck). Aider loads `.aider.conf.yml` from the root of the repository it starts in, and a crafted file's `test-cmd` runs at startup and `lint-cmd` on the first edit, through a shell, with no confirmation, model call or API key. It affects 0.86.2 and earlier, no release or commit on main fixes it on 5 November 2026, and the report (#5254) was open on 1 October. An unfixed High filed by a third party, counted on its own at this run's value for an unfixed High, -2. https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/85xxx/CVE-2026-85674.json", "2026-10-23. CVE-2026-115726 (CVSS 3.1 7.8, filed by VulnCheck). The same auto-loaded `.aider.conf.yml` can set `notifications-command` or `editor`, which aider runs through a shell after model replies or `/editor`, with no trust prompt. It affects 0.86.2 and earlier and no release or commit on main fixes it. A separate record on another path, counted on its own at this run's value for an unfixed High, -2. https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/blob/main/cves/2026/115xxx/CVE-2026-115726.json" ], "verdict": "Analytics are 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 in February 2026 and no commit since 22 May 2026, and two unfixed CVEs let a cloned repository's `.aider.conf.yml` run shell commands without a prompt.", "bestFor": "A person pair-programming in a terminal who wants git-tracked edits and a small context footprint, with any model.", "strengths": [ "Analytics opt-in and offered to 10 per cent of users, with a permanent opt-out and a local log", "A git commit per edit by default, with `/undo`", "Asks before running shell commands the model suggests", "A repo map sized by `--map-tokens` keeps its own context cost small", "Any model through LiteLLM, local ones included, with no account" ], "weaknesses": [ "No release since 0.86.2 in February 2026 and no commit since 22 May 2026", "CVE-2026-85674 and CVE-2026-115726 let a repository's `.aider.conf.yml` run shell commands without a prompt, both unfixed", "No MCP support and no JSON output mode", "The released package requires Python below 3.13", "About 1,300 open issues and 512 open pull requests without visible triage (1 October count)" ], "agentNotes": [ "Read `.aider.conf.yml` in any cloned repository before starting aider. Its `test-cmd`, `lint-cmd`, `notifications-command` and `editor` run without asking", "Script edits with `--message` and `--no-suggest-shell-commands`, not `--yes-always`", "Use Python 3.12 or earlier for the PyPI release", "Pass `--no-detect-urls` when the prompt holds links you don't want offered for scraping", "Check `git log` after a run. Each edit is its own commit" ], "metrics": { "kind": "local", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 2, "avgRating": 1, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "high", "grade": "D", "methodology": "0.7", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 49.1 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 65, "maintenance": 13, "payments": 60, "reliability": 44, "schema": 56, "security": 59, "transparency": 71 }, "provenanceScore": 59, "checked": { "categories": { "ergonomics": "2026-11-05", "maintenance": "2026-11-05", "payments": "2026-11-05", "reliability": "2026-11-05", "schema": "2026-11-05", "security": "2026-11-05", "transparency": "2026-11-05" }, "last": "2026-11-05", "lastMoved": "2026-11-05", "oldest": "2026-11-05", "stale": false, "staleAfterDays": 90 } }, "connect": { "install": "python -m pip install aider-chat # Python 3.10 to 3.12", "headless": { "command": "aider --message \"$TASK\" --no-suggest-shell-commands --no-analytics --no-detect-urls path/to/file.py", "env": { "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "\u003ckey\u003e" } } }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/agent.harness", "tool": "https://letme.dev/aider" }, "area": "frameworks", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Aider AI LLC", "domain": "aider.chat", "domainRegistered": "", "endpointOnVendorDomain": null, "terms": "", "privacy": "https://aider.chat/docs/legal/privacy.html", "statusPage": "", "changelog": "https://aider.chat/HISTORY.html", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-01", "notes": [ "The privacy policy names Aider AI LLC and covers the website and the tool's opt-in analytics.", "We found no terms of service and no security.txt in the site's source, which lives in the repository under aider/website." ], "score": 59 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aider.json", "live": { "slug": "aider", "versions": [ { "registry": "github", "name": "Aider-AI/aider", "version": "v0.86.0", "released": "2025-08-09", "seenAt": "2026-11-06T23:04:32.024554009Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "aider-chat", "version": "0.86.2", "released": "2026-02-12", "seenAt": "2026-11-06T23:04:31.912601573Z" } ], "githubStars": 49989, "pypiWeekly": 71886, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://aider.chat/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T16:01:20.790228959Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "aider.chat", "registered": "2023-05-15", "source": "https://rdap.identitydigital.services/rdap/domain/aider.chat", "checkedAt": "2026-11-01T14:16:42.858633112Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://aider.chat/HISTORY.html", "kind": "changelog", "status": 304, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T13:58:56.909539954Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "3bc7d2e4729c" }, { "url": "https://aider.chat/docs/legal/privacy.html", "kind": "privacy", "status": 304, "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T13:58:58.956996128Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "4b2b6386e645" } ], "github": { "repo": "aider-ai/aider", "checkedAt": "2026-11-02T08:29:26.553646306Z", "stars": 49895, "archived": false, "issuesEnabled": true, "pushedAt": "2026-05-22T14:02:20Z", "openIssues": 1408, "openPRs": 539, "issuesOpened90d": 267, "issuesClosed90d": 178, "prsMerged90d": 0, "ci": { "branch": "main", "runs": 50, "success": 47, "failure": 3, "other": 0, "latest": "success", "latestAt": "2026-05-22T14:02:46Z" }, "replies": { "sampled": 25, "unanswered": 4, "medianDays": 0.2 } }, "updatedAt": "2026-11-07T16:01:20.790228959Z" } }, "answer": "Orca scores 57.4 (C) on agent readiness against Aider's 49.1 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Aider leads on security \u0026 auth, payments \u0026 pricing and transparency \u0026 trust.", "b": { "slug": "orca", "name": "Orca", "vendor": "Lovecast Inc.", "vendorUrl": "https://www.onorca.dev", "kind": "harness", "category": "agent-harnesses", "summary": "Orca is an open-source app that runs Claude Code, Codex and other coding agents in parallel, each in its own worktree, in chat or terminal, on a laptop or in the cloud, with an orchestrator that splits tasks across workers.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/orca", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/orca.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/orca.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/orca.json", "dns": "orca.grade.anchorterminal.com", "repo": "https://github.com/stablyai/orca", "license": "MIT", "transports": [], "packages": [], "auth": "none", "pricing": "free", "pricingNotes": "Free and open source. You pay for the coding agents it runs, through your own subscriptions or API keys (checked 2026-11-07).", "priceSummary": "Free · OSS", "where": "local", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No payment protocol in the repository or README (checked 2026-11-07).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-11-07" }, "docsUrl": "https://www.onorca.dev/docs", "capabilities": [ "agent.harness", "agent.multi-agent" ], "tags": [ "open-source", "mit", "desktop-app", "mobile", "cli", "telemetry", "new" ], "lastRelease": "2026-11-06", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 57.4, "grade": "C", "agentReady": false, "rank": 795, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1510, "categoryRank": 25, "methodology": "0.7", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 70, "maintenance": 75, "payments": 40, "reliability": 58, "schema": 65, "security": 43, "transparency": 54 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "low", "date": "2026-11-07" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "An open-source orchestrator for coding agents with worker agents in their own worktrees, chat and terminal views, a browser and a CLI, on desktop and mobile, with heavy test automation. It collects anonymous usage data by default, and the cloud option's pricing wasn't found.", "bestFor": "Developers who want an orchestrator agent to split work across parallel coding agents, on desktop or mobile.", "strengths": [ "An orchestrator agent splits a task across worker agents in their own workspaces", "Chat UI or the raw CLI, switching without losing context", "Desktop and mobile apps and a CLI", "MIT, with extensive unit and end-to-end CI" ], "weaknesses": [ "Anonymous usage data collected by default, with an opt-out", "Cloud pricing not found on the pages read", "No changelog file" ], "agentNotes": [ "See the telemetry docs on onorca.dev to opt out of anonymous usage data", "Use the orchestration CLI to hand a large task to one agent that starts workers" ], "metrics": { "kind": "local", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "low", "grade": "C", "methodology": "0.7", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 57.4 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 70, "maintenance": 75, "payments": 40, "reliability": 58, "schema": 65, "security": 43, "transparency": 68 }, "provenanceScore": 40, "checked": { "categories": { "ergonomics": "2026-11-07", "maintenance": "2026-11-07", "payments": "2026-11-07", "reliability": "2026-11-07", "schema": "2026-11-07", "security": "2026-11-07", "transparency": "2026-11-07" }, "last": "2026-11-07", "oldest": "2026-11-07", "stale": false, "staleAfterDays": 90 } }, "connect": { "install": "Download from the releases page or Homebrew (Casks in the repository)" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/agent.harness", "tool": "https://letme.dev/orca" }, "area": "frameworks", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Lovecast Inc.", "domain": "onorca.dev", "domainRegistered": "", "domainNote": "Not looked up: RDAP isn't requested under the 1 November 2026 rules.", "endpointOnVendorDomain": null, "terms": "", "privacy": "", "statusPage": "", "changelog": "", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-11-07", "notes": [ "The licence names Lovecast Inc.. The repository is github.com/stablyai/orca." ], "score": 40 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/orca.json", "live": { "slug": "orca", "securityTxt": { "url": "https://onorca.dev/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-11-07T16:01:18.358018303Z" }, "updatedAt": "2026-11-07T16:01:18.358018303Z" } }, "edges": [ { "by": 62, "category": "maintenance", "leads": "orca", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "reasons": { "a": "0.86.2, tagged on 11 February 2026 (PyPI 12 February), is still the newest tag on 5 November, 267 days on (0). No release in the 90 days from 7 August (0). No commit on main since 2026-05-22 (5dc9490). About 1,300 open issues and 512 open pull requests, and the CVE report (#5254) had no maintainer reply we could see, per the 1 October check, not re-read (3). The PyPI package lags main, which declares Python 3.13 and 3.14 support that the release doesn't allow (5). CI ran on the last commits and dependencies are pinned, as of May (5). 0 + 0 + 3 + 5 + 5 = 13.", "b": "Tags to v1.4.251 and commits on 6 November 2026 (30). Many releases in 90 days (20). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Current builds (15). Extensive CI (10). 30 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 10 = 75." }, "scores": { "a": 13, "b": 75 } }, { "by": 20, "category": "payments", "leads": "aider", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "reasons": { "a": "No payment protocol (0). Free and Apache-2.0 with nothing to buy, so 20, 20 and 20 on the last three lines. Any model through LiteLLM, local ones included, with no signup.", "b": "Scored on the cloud option. No protocol (0). The cloud price wasn't found on the pages read (0). The desktop app is free and MIT with no card (20). The local app needs no sign-up that we found (20). 0 + 0 + 20 + 20 = 40." }, "scores": { "a": 60, "b": 40 } }, { "by": 16, "category": "security", "leads": "aider", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "reasons": { "a": "Harness reading of the framework checklist, used for all five harnesses in this batch. 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. Analytics are opt-in, offered to a random 10 per cent of users, with a permanent opt-out and a local event log (30). Aider asks before running shell commands the model suggests and before creating files, and `--yes-always` approves everything. Edits apply without asking but each lands in a git commit. A `.aider.conf.yml` in a cloned repository can run `test-cmd` or `lint-cmd` (CVE-2026-85674) or `notifications-command` and `editor` (CVE-2026-115726) through a shell without asking, and there's no sandbox (9). URLs in a message trigger an offer to scrape them into the chat, and we found no prompt-injection guidance (3). Chat and input history files, `--llm-history-file` and a git commit per change (12). No SECURITY.md in the repository and no advisories published by the project. The open CVE report had a reply only from a contributor on 1 October (5). 30 + 9 + 3 + 12 + 5 = 59.", "b": "Harness reading. Anonymous usage data with an opt-out, per the README's link to its telemetry docs (15 of 30). Worktrees per agent and a sandboxed Linux build (12 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance (5). No audit log (5). A dependency-security workflow (6 of 20). 15 + 12 + 5 + 5 + 6 = 43." }, "scores": { "a": 59, "b": 43 } }, { "by": 14, "category": "reliability", "leads": "orca", "name": "Reliability", "reasons": { "a": "Read as a local package. aider-chat on PyPI, but the latest release (0.86.2, tagged 11 February 2026) requires Python below 3.13, while main declares 3.10 to 3.14 (18). The Ubuntu test workflow runs pytest on Python 3.10 to 3.14 on every push to main, and a Windows workflow sits beside it. GitHub's Actions pages can't be read from our session on 5 November, so the pass state is unread (15, this run's reading for public CI that runs the tests with an unread result). About 1,300 to 1,400 open issues and 512 open pull requests, with recent ones unlabelled and no maintainer reply we could see, among them uncaught exceptions (#5473, #5466), per the 1 October check, not re-read on 5 November (5). HISTORY.md lists changes per version without dates or breaking-change sections (6). 0.86, pre-1.0, and classed 4 - Beta (0). 18 + 15 + 5 + 6 + 0 = 44.", "b": "Local software. Desktop and mobile builds and a Homebrew cask (20). Unit, end-to-end and platform test workflows; pass state not read (15). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Tags to v1.4.251, no changelog file (8). Version 1.4 (15). 20 + 15 + 0 + 8 + 15 = 58." }, "scores": { "a": 44, "b": 58 } }, { "by": 11, "category": "transparency", "leads": "aider", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "reasons": { "a": "Apache-2.0 (30). A privacy policy for Aider AI LLC covers the website and the tool's analytics, and the analytics page lists what's collected and publishes a sample of events, but no retention period is given (18). No deprecation policy or dated notices found (3). Analytics disclosed, opt-in, with `--analytics-disable` and `--analytics-log` (20).", "b": "MIT (30). Privacy and telemetry docs on the site (not read) (18 of 30). No deprecation policy (5). Disclosed with an opt-out (15 of 20). 30 + 18 + 5 + 15 = 68." }, "scores": { "a": 65, "b": 54 } }, { "by": 9, "category": "schema", "leads": "orca", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "reasons": { "a": "No machine-readable contract. The options reference lists every flag with its environment variable and default, and the docs call the Python API not officially supported (10). No llms.txt or Markdown versions of pages found in the site source (0). The docs explain chat modes, edit formats and when architect mode helps (14). Typed config through `.aider.conf.yml` and flags with defaults (10). Many usage examples and troubleshooting pages (12). A release history per version without dates (10).", "b": "Harness reading. A docs site with CLI orchestration and native chat pages (65)." }, "scores": { "a": 56, "b": 65 } } ], "facts": [ { "a": "Agent harness", "b": "Agent harness", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Aider AI LLC", "b": "Lovecast Inc.", "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": "Apache-2.0", "b": "MIT", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2026-02-12", "b": "2026-11-06", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "no document linked", "b": "no document linked", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "no date given", "b": "no document linked", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "49k stars", "b": "none", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "1/5 (2)", "b": "none", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "Orca scores 57.4 (C) on agent readiness against Aider's 49.1 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Aider leads on security \u0026 auth, payments \u0026 pricing and transparency \u0026 trust.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Aider or Orca?" }, { "answer": "Yes. Aider is open source (Apache-2.0). Orca is open source (MIT).", "question": "Are Aider and Orca open source?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Security \u0026 auth, 59 against 43", "Payments \u0026 pricing, 60 against 40", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 65 against 54" ], "also": [ "Free to start without a card" ], "goodFor": "A person pair-programming in a terminal who wants git-tracked edits and a small context footprint, with any model.", "slug": "aider", "watchFor": "No release since 0.86.2 in February 2026 and no commit since 22 May 2026" }, { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 58 against 44", "Schema \u0026 documentation, 65 against 56", "Agent ergonomics, 70 against 65", "Maintenance \u0026 community, 75 against 13" ], "also": [ "No incidents deducted, where Aider loses 4 points for them" ], "goodFor": "Developers who want an orchestrator agent to split work across parallel coding agents, on desktop or mobile.", "slug": "orca", "watchFor": "Anonymous usage data collected by default, with an opt-out" } ], "history": { "aider": [ { "causes": [ "evidence", "correction" ], "date": "2026-11-05", "delta": 2, "from": 47.1, "fromGrade": "D", "to": 49.1, "toGrade": "D" }, { "causes": [ "evidence" ], "date": "2026-10-28", "delta": -0.2, "from": 47.3, "fromGrade": "D", "to": 47.1, "toGrade": "D" }, { "causes": [ "method" ], "date": "2026-10-27", "delta": 0.4, "from": 46.9, "fromGrade": "D", "to": 47.3, "toGrade": "D" } ], "orca": null }, "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-orca.json", "title": "Agent Zero vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-amp.json", "title": "Aider vs Amp", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-amp" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-antigravity-cli.json", "title": "Aider vs Antigravity CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-antigravity-cli" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-auggie.json", "title": "Aider vs Auggie CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-auggie" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-axlr.json", "title": "Aider vs AXLR", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-axlr" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-claude-code.json", "title": "Aider vs Claude Code", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-claude-code" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-cline.json", "title": "Aider vs Cline", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-cline" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-conductor.json", "title": "Aider vs Conductor", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-conductor" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-crush.json", "title": "Aider vs Crush", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-crush" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-cursor-cli.json", "title": "Aider vs Cursor CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-cursor-cli" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-deepseek-harness.json", "title": "Aider vs DeepSeek Harness (dsh)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-deepseek-harness" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-deepseek-superagent.json", "title": "Aider vs dsh-superagent (DeepSeek)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-deepseek-superagent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-devin.json", "title": "Aider vs Devin", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-devin" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-droid-cli.json", "title": "Aider vs Droid CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-droid-cli" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-earendil-pi.json", "title": "Aider vs Pi", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-earendil-pi" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-emdash.json", "title": "Aider vs Emdash", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-emdash" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-gemini-cli.json", "title": "Aider vs Gemini CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-gemini-cli" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-github-copilot-cli.json", "title": "Aider vs GitHub Copilot CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-github-copilot-cli" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-goose.json", "title": "Aider vs goose", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-goose" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-harness2.json", "title": "Aider vs Harness²", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-harness2" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-harnessrouter.json", "title": "Aider vs HarnessRouter", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-harnessrouter" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-jules.json", "title": "Aider vs Jules", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-jules" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-junie.json", "title": "Aider vs Junie CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-junie" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-kilo-code-cli.json", "title": "Aider vs Kilo Code CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-kilo-code-cli" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-kimi-code-cli.json", "title": "Aider vs Kimi Code CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-kimi-code-cli" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-kiro-cli.json", "title": "Aider vs Kiro CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-kiro-cli" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-letta.json", "title": "Aider vs Letta", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-letta" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-mini-swe-agent.json", "title": "Aider vs mini-swe-agent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-mini-swe-agent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-minimax-code.json", "title": "Aider vs MiniMax Code", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-minimax-code" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-mistral-vibe-cli.json", "title": "Aider vs Mistral Vibe CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-mistral-vibe-cli" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-muse-code.json", "title": "Aider vs Muse Code", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-muse-code" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-openai-agents-api.json", "title": "Aider vs OpenAI Agents API", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-openai-agents-api" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-openai-codex.json", "title": "Aider vs OpenAI Codex", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-openai-codex" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-opencode.json", "title": "Aider vs OpenCode", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-opencode" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-openhands.json", "title": "Aider vs OpenHands", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-openhands" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-openmausbot.json", "title": "Aider vs OpenMausBot", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-openmausbot" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-paseo.json", "title": "Aider vs Paseo", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-paseo" }, { "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/aider-vs-qoder-cli.json", "title": "Aider vs Qoder CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-qoder-cli" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-qwen-code.json", "title": "Aider vs Qwen Code", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-qwen-code" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-reflection-mirror.json", "title": "Aider vs Mirror CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-reflection-mirror" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-rovo-dev-cli.json", "title": "Aider vs Rovo Dev CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-rovo-dev-cli" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-sculptor.json", "title": "Aider vs Sculptor", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-sculptor" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-t3-code.json", "title": "Aider vs T3 Code", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-t3-code" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-traycer.json", "title": "Aider vs Traycer", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-traycer" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-unstoppable.json", "title": "Aider vs Unstoppable", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-unstoppable" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-verdent.json", "title": "Aider vs Verdent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-verdent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-vibe-trading.json", "title": "Aider vs Vibe-Trading", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-vibe-trading" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-warp.json", "title": "Aider vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-warp" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-orca.json", "title": "Amp vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-orca.json", "title": "Antigravity CLI vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/auggie-vs-orca.json", "title": "Auggie CLI vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/auggie-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axlr-vs-orca.json", "title": "AXLR vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axlr-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-orca.json", "title": "Claude Code vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-orca.json", "title": "Cline vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-orca.json", "title": "Conductor vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-orca.json", "title": "Crush vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-orca.json", "title": "Cursor CLI vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-harness-vs-orca.json", "title": "DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-harness-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-superagent-vs-orca.json", "title": "dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-superagent-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/devin-vs-orca.json", "title": "Devin vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/devin-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/droid-cli-vs-orca.json", "title": "Droid CLI vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/droid-cli-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/earendil-pi-vs-orca.json", "title": "Pi vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/earendil-pi-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/emdash-vs-orca.json", "title": "Emdash vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/emdash-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-cli-vs-orca.json", "title": "Gemini CLI vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-cli-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/github-copilot-cli-vs-orca.json", "title": "GitHub Copilot CLI vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/github-copilot-cli-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-orca.json", "title": "goose vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harness2-vs-orca.json", "title": "Harness² vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harness2-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harnessrouter-vs-orca.json", "title": "HarnessRouter vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harnessrouter-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-orca.json", "title": "Jules vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/junie-vs-orca.json", "title": "Junie CLI vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/junie-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kilo-code-cli-vs-orca.json", "title": "Kilo Code CLI vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kilo-code-cli-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kimi-code-cli-vs-orca.json", "title": "Kimi Code CLI vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kimi-code-cli-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kiro-cli-vs-orca.json", "title": "Kiro CLI vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kiro-cli-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letta-vs-orca.json", "title": "Letta vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letta-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-orca.json", "title": "mini-swe-agent vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-code-vs-orca.json", "title": "MiniMax Code vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-code-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-vibe-cli-vs-orca.json", "title": "Mistral Vibe CLI vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-vibe-cli-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-code-vs-orca.json", "title": "Muse Code vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-code-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-agents-api-vs-orca.json", "title": "OpenAI Agents API vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-agents-api-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-codex-vs-orca.json", "title": "OpenAI Codex vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-codex-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/opencode-vs-orca.json", "title": "OpenCode vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/opencode-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openhands-vs-orca.json", "title": "OpenHands vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openhands-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-paseo.json", "title": "Orca vs Paseo", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-paseo" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-prime-agent.json", "title": "Orca vs Prime Agent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-prime-agent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-qoder-cli.json", "title": "Orca vs Qoder CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-qoder-cli" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-qwen-code.json", "title": "Orca vs Qwen Code", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-qwen-code" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-reflection-mirror.json", "title": "Orca vs Mirror CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-reflection-mirror" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-rovo-dev-cli.json", "title": "Orca vs Rovo Dev CLI", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-rovo-dev-cli" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-sculptor.json", "title": "Orca vs Sculptor", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-sculptor" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-t3-code.json", "title": "Orca vs T3 Code", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-t3-code" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-traycer.json", "title": "Orca vs Traycer", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-traycer" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-unstoppable.json", "title": "Orca vs Unstoppable", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-unstoppable" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-verdent.json", "title": "Orca vs Verdent", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-verdent" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-vibe-trading.json", "title": "Orca vs Vibe-Trading", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-vibe-trading" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-warp.json", "title": "Orca vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-warp" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clawboo-vs-orca.json", "title": "Clawboo vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clawboo-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-orca.json", "title": "CLI Manager vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harness-autonomous-vs-orca.json", "title": "Harness vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harness-autonomous-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openmausbot-vs-orca.json", "title": "OpenMausBot vs Orca", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openmausbot-vs-orca" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-paperclip.json", "title": "Orca vs Paperclip", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-paperclip" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-parallax-agents.json", "title": "Orca vs Parallax", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-parallax-agents" } ], "panel": null, "scores": [ { "aider": 44, "by": 14, "edge": "orca", "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "orca": 58, "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "aider": 56, "by": 9, "edge": "orca", "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "orca": 65, "weight": 13 }, { "aider": 65, "by": 5, "edge": "orca", "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "orca": 70, "weight": 13 }, { "aider": 59, "by": 16, "edge": "aider", "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "orca": 43, "weight": 14 }, { "aider": 60, "by": 20, "edge": "aider", "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "orca": 40, "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "aider": 13, "by": 62, "edge": "orca", "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "orca": 75, "weight": 7 }, { "aider": 65, "by": 11, "edge": "aider", "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "orca": 54, "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "Orca scores 57.4 (C) on agent readiness against Aider's 49.1 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Aider leads on security \u0026 auth, payments \u0026 pricing and transparency \u0026 trust. Both do agent harnesses.", "tasks": null, "tutorials": [], "verdicts": { "aider": "Analytics are 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 in February 2026 and no commit since 22 May 2026, and two unfixed CVEs let a cloned repository's `.aider.conf.yml` run shell commands without a prompt.", "orca": "An open-source orchestrator for coding agents with worker agents in their own worktrees, chat and terminal views, a browser and a CLI, on desktop and mobile, with heavy test automation. It collects anonymous usage data by default, and the cloud option's pricing wasn't found." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-orca", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-orca.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-orca.md", "mcp": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-orca.min.md" }, "markdown": "Orca scores 57.4 (C) on agent readiness against Aider's 49.1 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Aider leads on security \u0026 auth, payments \u0026 pricing and transparency \u0026 trust. Both do agent harnesses.\n\n- Aider: grade D, 49.1/100, rank #1105 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aider.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/aider.json\n- Orca: grade C, 57.4/100, rank #795 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/orca.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/orca.json\n- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md\n- All 1500 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### Aider (D)\n\nGood for: A person pair-programming in a terminal who wants git-tracked edits and a small context footprint, with any model.\n\nAhead on:\n- Security \u0026 auth, 59 against 43\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 60 against 40\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 65 against 54\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- Free to start without a card\n\nWatch for: No release since 0.86.2 in February 2026 and no commit since 22 May 2026\n\n### Orca (C)\n\nGood for: Developers who want an orchestrator agent to split work across parallel coding agents, on desktop or mobile.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 58 against 44\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 65 against 56\n- Agent ergonomics, 70 against 65\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 75 against 13\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- No incidents deducted, where Aider loses 4 points for them\n\nWatch for: Anonymous usage data collected by default, with an opt-out\n\n\n## Why the edge\n\n### Maintenance \u0026 community: Orca +62\n\n- Aider (13): 0.86.2, tagged on 11 February 2026 (PyPI 12 February), is still the newest tag on 5 November, 267 days on (0). No release in the 90 days from 7 August (0). No commit on main since 2026-05-22 (5dc9490). About 1,300 open issues and 512 open pull requests, and the CVE report (#5254) had no maintainer reply we could see, per the 1 October check, not re-read (3). The PyPI package lags main, which declares Python 3.13 and 3.14 support that the release doesn't allow (5). CI ran on the last commits and dependencies are pinned, as of May (5). 0 + 0 + 3 + 5 + 5 = 13.\n- Orca (75): Tags to v1.4.251 and commits on 6 November 2026 (30). Many releases in 90 days (20). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Current builds (15). Extensive CI (10). 30 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 10 = 75.\n\n### Payments \u0026 pricing: Aider +20\n\n- Aider (60): No payment protocol (0). Free and Apache-2.0 with nothing to buy, so 20, 20 and 20 on the last three lines. Any model through LiteLLM, local ones included, with no signup.\n- Orca (40): Scored on the cloud option. No protocol (0). The cloud price wasn't found on the pages read (0). The desktop app is free and MIT with no card (20). The local app needs no sign-up that we found (20). 0 + 0 + 20 + 20 = 40.\n\n### Security \u0026 auth: Aider +16\n\n- Aider (59): Harness reading of the framework checklist, used for all five harnesses in this batch. 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. Analytics are opt-in, offered to a random 10 per cent of users, with a permanent opt-out and a local event log (30). Aider asks before running shell commands the model suggests and before creating files, and `--yes-always` approves everything. Edits apply without asking but each lands in a git commit. A `.aider.conf.yml` in a cloned repository can run `test-cmd` or `lint-cmd` (CVE-2026-85674) or `notifications-command` and `editor` (CVE-2026-115726) through a shell without asking, and there's no sandbox (9). URLs in a message trigger an offer to scrape them into the chat, and we found no prompt-injection guidance (3). Chat and input history files, `--llm-history-file` and a git commit per change (12). No SECURITY.md in the repository and no advisories published by the project. The open CVE report had a reply only from a contributor on 1 October (5). 30 + 9 + 3 + 12 + 5 = 59.\n- Orca (43): Harness reading. Anonymous usage data with an opt-out, per the README's link to its telemetry docs (15 of 30). Worktrees per agent and a sandboxed Linux build (12 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance (5). No audit log (5). A dependency-security workflow (6 of 20). 15 + 12 + 5 + 5 + 6 = 43.\n\n### Reliability: Orca +14\n\n- Aider (44): Read as a local package. aider-chat on PyPI, but the latest release (0.86.2, tagged 11 February 2026) requires Python below 3.13, while main declares 3.10 to 3.14 (18). The Ubuntu test workflow runs pytest on Python 3.10 to 3.14 on every push to main, and a Windows workflow sits beside it. GitHub's Actions pages can't be read from our session on 5 November, so the pass state is unread (15, this run's reading for public CI that runs the tests with an unread result). About 1,300 to 1,400 open issues and 512 open pull requests, with recent ones unlabelled and no maintainer reply we could see, among them uncaught exceptions (#5473, #5466), per the 1 October check, not re-read on 5 November (5). HISTORY.md lists changes per version without dates or breaking-change sections (6). 0.86, pre-1.0, and classed 4 - Beta (0). 18 + 15 + 5 + 6 + 0 = 44.\n- Orca (58): Local software. Desktop and mobile builds and a Homebrew cask (20). Unit, end-to-end and platform test workflows; pass state not read (15). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Tags to v1.4.251, no changelog file (8). Version 1.4 (15). 20 + 15 + 0 + 8 + 15 = 58.\n\n### Transparency \u0026 trust: Aider +11\n\n- Aider (65): Apache-2.0 (30). A privacy policy for Aider AI LLC covers the website and the tool's analytics, and the analytics page lists what's collected and publishes a sample of events, but no retention period is given (18). No deprecation policy or dated notices found (3). Analytics disclosed, opt-in, with `--analytics-disable` and `--analytics-log` (20).\n- Orca (54): MIT (30). Privacy and telemetry docs on the site (not read) (18 of 30). No deprecation policy (5). Disclosed with an opt-out (15 of 20). 30 + 18 + 5 + 15 = 68.\n\n### Schema \u0026 documentation: Orca +9\n\n- Aider (56): No machine-readable contract. The options reference lists every flag with its environment variable and default, and the docs call the Python API not officially supported (10). No llms.txt or Markdown versions of pages found in the site source (0). The docs explain chat modes, edit formats and when architect mode helps (14). Typed config through `.aider.conf.yml` and flags with defaults (10). Many usage examples and troubleshooting pages (12). A release history per version without dates (10).\n- Orca (65): Harness reading. A docs site with CLI orchestration and native chat pages (65).\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Aider | Orca | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 44 | 58 | Orca +14 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 56 | 65 | Orca +9 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 70 | Orca +5 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 59 | 43 | Aider +16 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 40 | Aider +20 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 13 | 75 | Orca +62 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 54 | Aider +11 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | -4 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **49.1 · D** | **57.4 · C** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Aider | Orca |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |\n| Vendor | Aider AI LLC | Lovecast Inc. |\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 | Apache-2.0 | MIT |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | no | no |\n| Last release | 2026-02-12 | 2026-11-06 |\n| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |\n| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no document linked |\n| Popularity | 49k stars | none |\n| Agent reviews | 1/5 (2) | none |\n\n## How the scores have moved\n\n### Aider\n\n- +2.0 on 5 November 2026: new evidence, correction\n- -0.2 on 28 October 2026: new evidence\n- +0.4 on 27 October 2026: checklist\n\n### Orca\n\nNo score change since it was listed.\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**Aider.** Analytics are 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 in February 2026 and no commit since 22 May 2026, and two unfixed CVEs let a cloned repository's `.aider.conf.yml` run shell commands without a prompt.\n\n**Orca.** An open-source orchestrator for coding agents with worker agents in their own worktrees, chat and terminal views, a browser and a CLI, on desktop and mobile, with heavy test automation. It collects anonymous usage data by default, and the cloud option's pricing wasn't found.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### Aider\n\n1. Read `.aider.conf.yml` in any cloned repository before starting aider. Its `test-cmd`, `lint-cmd`, `notifications-command` and `editor` run without asking\n2. Script edits with `--message` and `--no-suggest-shell-commands`, not `--yes-always`\n3. Use Python 3.12 or earlier for the PyPI release\n4. Pass `--no-detect-urls` when the prompt holds links you don't want offered for scraping\n5. Check `git log` after a run. Each edit is its own commit\n\n### Orca\n\n1. See the telemetry docs on onorca.dev to opt out of anonymous usage data\n2. Use the orchestration CLI to hand a large task to one agent that starts workers\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Aider or Orca?\n\nOrca scores 57.4 (C) on agent readiness against Aider's 49.1 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Aider leads on security \u0026 auth, payments \u0026 pricing and transparency \u0026 trust.\n\n### Are Aider and Orca open source?\n\nYes. Aider is open source (Apache-2.0). Orca is open source (MIT).\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-orca.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-orca.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"aider\", \"b\": \"orca\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare aider orca`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/aider.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/orca.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Aider or Orca\n\n- [Agent Zero vs Aider](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-aider.md)\n- [Agent Zero vs Orca](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-orca.md)\n- [Aider vs Amp](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-amp.md)\n- [Aider vs Antigravity CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-antigravity-cli.md)\n- [Aider vs Auggie CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-auggie.md)\n- [Aider vs AXLR](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-axlr.md)\n- [Aider vs Claude Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-claude-code.md)\n- [Aider vs Cline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-cline.md)\n- [Aider vs Conductor](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-conductor.md)\n- [Aider vs 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Orca](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letta-vs-orca.md)\n- [mini-swe-agent vs Orca](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-orca.md)\n- [MiniMax Code vs Orca](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/minimax-code-vs-orca.md)\n- [Mistral Vibe CLI vs Orca](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mistral-vibe-cli-vs-orca.md)\n- [Muse Code vs Orca](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-code-vs-orca.md)\n- [OpenAI Agents API vs Orca](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-agents-api-vs-orca.md)\n- [OpenAI Codex vs Orca](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-codex-vs-orca.md)\n- [OpenCode vs Orca](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/opencode-vs-orca.md)\n- [OpenHands vs Orca](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openhands-vs-orca.md)\n- [Orca vs Paseo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-paseo.md)\n- [Orca vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-prime-agent.md)\n- [Orca vs Qoder CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-qoder-cli.md)\n- [Orca vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-qwen-code.md)\n- [Orca vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-reflection-mirror.md)\n- [Orca vs Rovo Dev CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-rovo-dev-cli.md)\n- [Orca vs Sculptor](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-sculptor.md)\n- [Orca vs T3 Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-t3-code.md)\n- [Orca vs Traycer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-traycer.md)\n- [Orca vs Unstoppable](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-unstoppable.md)\n- [Orca vs Verdent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-verdent.md)\n- [Orca vs Vibe-Trading](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-vibe-trading.md)\n- [Orca vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-warp.md)\n- [Clawboo vs Orca](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clawboo-vs-orca.md)\n- [CLI Manager vs Orca](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-orca.md)\n- [Harness vs Orca](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harness-autonomous-vs-orca.md)\n- [OpenMausBot vs Orca](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openmausbot-vs-orca.md)\n- [Orca vs Paperclip](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-paperclip.md)\n- [Orca vs Parallax](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orca-vs-parallax-agents.md)\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "attributionRequired": true, "credit": "CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link the page or API address you took it from (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-11-07", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.7", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", 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