# Aider vs Sculptor (slim)

> Sculptor scores 53.1 (D) to Aider's 49.1 (D) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-sculptor.md (~4,600 tokens) · this version ~1,280 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-sculptor.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-sculptor
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Sculptor scores 53.1 (D) on agent readiness against Aider's 49.1 (D), and leads in 1 of 7 scored categories. Aider leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and transparency & trust. Both do agent harnesses.

- Aider: D 49.1, rank #1105 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/aider.min.md
- Sculptor: D 53.1, rank #966 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sculptor.min.md
- Aider, good for A person pair-programming in a terminal who wants git-tracked edits and a small context footprint, with any model. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 56 against 45; Agent ergonomics, 65 against 50; Transparency & trust, 65 against 57. Also Free to start without a card.
- Sculptor, good for Developers who want parallel coding agents in isolated workspaces and are fine with a research preview. Ahead on Maintenance & community, 75 against 13. Also No incidents deducted, where Aider loses 4 points for them.

| Category | Aider | Sculptor |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 44 | 43 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 56 | 45 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 65 | 50 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 59 | 57 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 13 | 75 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 65 | 57 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Aider | Sculptor |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Aider AI LLC | Imbue, Inc. |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Last release | 2026-02-12 | 2026-11-06 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Popularity | 49k stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 1/5 (2) | none |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, Sculptor +62: 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.); Sculptor 75 (Commits on 6 November 2026 and frequent tagged versions (30). More than three 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; the README says Imbue can't take many outside contributions yet (0). Current official downloads (15). CI on pull requests (10). 30 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 10 = 75.)
- Agent ergonomics, Aider +15: Aider 65 (Harness reading of the framework line, scored on what an agent or pipeline driving it has to supply. Aider doesn't use tool calls or MCP. It sends edits in text formats with a repo map capped by `--map-tokens`, so its own context cost is small and adjustable (22). `--map-tokens`, `--max-chat-history-tokens` and single-shot `--message` runs (14). Plain-text output, with no JSON mode or documented exit codes (8). Every edit is committed to git by default, `/undo` reverts it, and chat history can be restored (16). Python only, with an unofficial Python API and no MCP for adding tools (5).); Sculptor 50 (Harness reading. Workspaces as isolated copies, review and merge back, and built-in skills (50).)
- Schema & documentation, Aider +11: 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).); Sculptor 45 (Harness reading. A README, specs and agent docs in the repository; no API reference (45).)
- Transparency & trust, Aider +8: 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).); Sculptor 57 (MIT (30). Consent-based telemetry documented in the repository (18 of 30). The README warns of drastic changes during the research preview, with no deprecation policy (5). Opt-in telemetry (20). 30 + 18 + 5 + 20 = 73.)