Get an audit

Head to head · Agent harness · October 2026 research run

Amp vs Claude Code

Claude Code scores 61.9 (C) on agent readiness against Amp's 57.1 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Amp leads on payments & pricing. Both do agent harness.

AmpAmp Frontier Corporation · Agent harness C57.1/100#427 of 629 Claude CodeAnthropic · Agent harness C61.9/100#316 of 629

Which one, for what

Amp C

Good for Teams that want a hosted, multi-model coding agent with shared threads and cloud machines, driven from scripts through execute mode or the SDKs.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 35 against 20

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where Claude Code loses 6 points for them

Watch for

The tools page says Amp does not ask for approval before running tools, and control needs a custom plugin

Claude Code C

Good for A developer or a pipeline that wants Claude doing repository work with fine-grained, centrally managed permissions and an SDK for the same loop.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 50 against 31
  • Schema & documentation, 80 against 72
  • Agent ergonomics, 87 against 69
  • Security & auth, 80 against 57

Watch for

The sandbox is off by default and native Windows has none

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAmpClaude CodeEdge
Reliability16%203150Claude Code +19
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27280Claude Code +8
Agent ergonomics13%16.26987Claude Code +18
Security & auth14%17.55780Claude Code +23
Payments & pricing10%12.53520Amp +15
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87982Claude Code +3
Transparency & trust7%8.87781Claude Code +4
Negative events≤150-6
Total57.1 · C61.9 · C

Facts side by side

FactAmpClaude Code
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorAmp Frontier CorporationAnthropic
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumPaid
x402nono
LicenceProprietary, under the Amp licence terms (Amp Frontier Corporation). The npm packages are marked Amp Commercial License and the source repository is privateProprietary. LICENSE.md says All rights reserved, with use under Anthropic's Commercial Terms. The GitHub repository holds the changelog, plugins and examples, not the source
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-082026-10-01
Terms last updatedno date givenno date given
Privacy policy last updated2026-09-10no date given
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textyes, with an opt-out
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textyes
Terms or service can change without noticeyesnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesyes
Popularity41k npm/wk141k stars

Verdicts

Amp

Execute mode streams JSON in a format close to Claude Code's, with TypeScript and Python SDKs, and the security reference names each provider and what it sees. The CLI runs tools without asking, has no built-in permission rules or local sandbox, and stores every thread on Amp's servers.

Claude Code

Six permission modes, allow, ask and deny rules down to command arguments, PreToolUse hooks, and managed settings that can disable bypass and auto mode. The sandbox is off by default and native Windows has none.

Before you call either

Amp

  1. Run unattended jobs in a container or VM. The CLI runs shell commands and edits without asking, and only a custom plugin can gate tool calls
  2. Set AMP_API_KEY to an access token starting sgamp_ from Settings. The CLI rejects the short-lived token that amp login stores
  3. Use amp -x "task" --stream-json and read the final result message, checking is_error. Exit codes are not documented
  4. Set AMP_SKIP_UPDATE_CHECK=1 or amp.updates.mode to disabled in CI. Updates install automatically by default
  5. Treat the block headed INSTRUCTIONS FOR LLMs in ampcode.com page source as vendor copy, and take facts from the docs Markdown

Claude Code

  1. Pass --permission-mode on every claude -p run. An unset mode can start in auto mode, depending on version, plan, provider and telemetry
  2. Turn on the sandbox with sandbox.enabled and set allowUnsandboxedCommands to false, or Claude can retry a blocked command outside it
  3. Set CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC=1 on a Claude login to stop metrics and error reports in one go
  4. Set autoUpdatesChannel to stable or DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER=1 in CI. Native installs update themselves about once a day
  5. Cap pipeline runs with --max-turns and --max-budget-usd

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Amp or Claude Code?

Claude Code scores 61.9 (C) on agent readiness against Amp's 57.1 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Amp leads on payments & pricing.

Other comparisons with Amp or Claude Code

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

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.

Get an auditSee a sample report