# Atticus vs nanobot

> nanobot scores 62.4 (B) to Atticus's 42.9 (E) for assistants that remember you. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atticus-vs-nanobot
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atticus-vs-nanobot.md (~3,300 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atticus-vs-nanobot.min.md (~530 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/atticus-vs-nanobot.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-15

nanobot scores 62.4 (B) on agent readiness against Atticus's 42.9 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Atticus leads on transparency & trust. Both do assistants that remember you.

- Atticus: grade E, 42.9/100, rank #974 of 1094. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/atticus.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/atticus.json
- nanobot: grade B, 62.4/100, rank #466 of 1094. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nanobot.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/nanobot.json
- Best AI personal assistants that act for one person: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/personal-assistants/index.md
- All 875 assistants comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/personal-assistants/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Atticus (E)

Good for: A person on macOS 26 with a Claude Pro or Max plan who wants voice control of apps, windows, files and the browser.

Ahead on:
- Transparency & trust, 56 against 48

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card
- No incidents deducted, where nanobot loses 6 points for them

Watch for: No API, MCP server or documented command an outside agent can call

### nanobot (B)

Good for: A technical owner who wants an assistant on their own machine across many chat apps, with file-based memory and a free choice of model.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 77 against 15
- Agent ergonomics, 74 against 9
- Security & auth, 63 against 49
- Maintenance & community, 82 against 51

Watch for: No per-action approval was found in the docs or source. The agent sends messages, runs shell commands and edits files without asking


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Atticus | nanobot | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 68 | 70 | nanobot +2 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 15 | 77 | nanobot +62 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 9 | 74 | nanobot +65 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 49 | 63 | nanobot +14 |
| 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) | 51 | 82 | nanobot +31 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 48 | Atticus +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -6 | |
| **Total** | | **42.9 · E** | **62.4 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Atticus | nanobot |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Platform | Agent harness |
| Vendor | SaarthurR (Saarth Ranka) | HKUDS |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Your plan | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-14 | 2026-09-15 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 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 | 163 stars | 49k stars |

## Verdicts

**Atticus.** Atticus runs a person's Mac by voice on their existing Claude or Devin plan, with a sandboxed safe mode and a local log of every command. It has no API, MCP server or documented command for another agent, it is five days old, and it rebuilds itself from the main branch every six hours by default.

**nanobot.** nanobot runs on the owner's machine under the MIT licence, with no telemetry found in its source and memory kept as files the owner can read and restore. No per-action approval step was found, and the shell sandbox and workspace restriction are off by default. Five security advisories were published between March and September 2026, all with fixes.

## Before you call either

### Atticus

1. Don't plan to call Atticus from another agent. It takes requests only from its own shortcut and typing box
2. If a user runs Atticus beside you, expect it to move windows and type into apps on the same Mac
3. Point a user who wants pinned versions to Settings > About & Updates to turn off self-update

### nanobot

1. Set `tools.restrictToWorkspace` to true and `tools.exec.sandbox` to `bwrap` or `seatbelt` before giving it real accounts. Both are off by default
2. Run 0.3.0 or later. Earlier versions carry the published SSRF flaw in web fetch (GHSA-vc5v-6vwm-wf9m)
3. Keep `allowFrom` narrow on every channel and never set `["*"]` on Email, which has no pairing
4. Write secrets as `${VAR}` references in `~/.nanobot/config.json`. Plain values are stored in clear text
5. Use `nanobot -m "..."` for a one-shot run, and keep `nanobot gateway` running for channels, schedules and heartbeat

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Atticus or nanobot?

nanobot scores 62.4 (B) on agent readiness against Atticus's 42.9 (E), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Atticus leads on transparency & trust.

### Are Atticus and nanobot open source?

Yes. Atticus is open source (MIT). nanobot is open source (MIT).


## For agents

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

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