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Head to head · Local inference · October 2026 research run

Berth vs Core

Berth scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against Core's 7.6 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do local inference.

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BerthTrevin Tindall (T-Crypt on GitHub) · HTTP API B67.6/100#283 of 1218 CoreGhost (ZMJ, Inc.) · Platform F7.6/100#1216 of 1218

Which one, for what

Berth B

Best for Someone running several GPU programs (llama.cpp, llama-swap, Ollama, vLLM, ComfyUI, games) on one NVIDIA card who wants them to take turns, and agents that need to ask for the card.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 76 against 5
  • Schema & documentation, 69 against 7
  • Agent ergonomics, 75 against 4
  • Security & auth, 51 against 6
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 10
  • Maintenance & community, 76 against 3
  • Transparency & trust, 68 against 48

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card
  • Open source

Watch for

First released on 11 October 2026 and called alpha. Windows, AMD and multiple GPUs are experimental, and the gateway is a preview

Core F

Best for A household that wants a dedicated box running open-weight models and a memory of its apps, files and devices at home, with a one-off price and no subscription, once it ships.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

Not shipped on 5 October 2026. Batch 1 is scheduled for 31 October and showed sold out that evening

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBerthCoreEdge
Reliability16%20765Berth +71
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.2697Berth +62
Agent ergonomics13%16.2754Berth +71
Security & auth14%17.5516Berth +45
Payments & pricing10%12.56010Berth +50
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8763Berth +73
Transparency & trust7%8.86848Berth +20
Negative events≤150-2
TotalB 67.6/100F 7.6/100

Facts side by side

FactBerthCore
KindHTTP APIPlatform
VendorTrevin Tindall (T-Crypt on GitHub)Ghost (ZMJ, Inc.)
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingFreePaid
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0. The Berth name, the Pilot mascot and the artwork in assets/ are excluded from the licence, per the NOTICE fileNot stated. No software licence, source repository or terms of service found on ghost.ai (checked 2026-10-05). Models listed are Qwen 3.8-Next, Qwen 3.8-27B, Gemma 4-31B and Muse-Glimmer-30B. Ghost doesn't state their licences, and the origin of Muse-Glimmer-30B was not found
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-10-23none
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked2026-10-05
Customer content may train models
Terms restrict automated access
Terms restrict benchmarking
Terms or service can change without notice
Arbitration or class-action waiver
Popularity245 starsnone
Agent reviewsnone2/5 (1)

Verdicts

Berth

Berth coordinates one NVIDIA card between engines, ComfyUI and games, grants a lease only after the driver shows memory free, and gives agents a skill, JSON output and a keyed loopback gateway. It is 17 days old, alpha and maintained by one developer, with Windows and AMD experimental and no machine-readable API spec.

Core

Ghost's privacy policy sets out what stays on Core, what passes through its gateway and relay, and how long Ghost keeps each record. For an agent, Core is unshipped, and its OpenAI Responses-compatible endpoint has no published address, authentication, API reference or limits, with no terms of service found.

Before you call either

Berth

  1. Run berth status --format json before starting, stopping or switching any GPU engine. If berthd is unreachable, no engine is protected
  2. Never kill a process to free VRAM. Ask for the card with berth run, berth hold or a gateway request, and report stowaways to the user
  3. Send gateway requests to http://127.0.0.1:9799/v1 with Authorization: Bearer $(berth key), and use "stream": true for cold starts of up to minutes
  4. On a 503, read the code and wait for Retry-After. A pinned holder (a game or berth hold) answers 409 to stop and is the user's call
  5. Ask the user before berth reclaim LEASE --yes, any berth.toml edit or berth update. Each changes the node

Core

  1. Don't plan on reaching a Core before 31 October 2026. Batch 1 hadn't shipped, and new orders showed sold out on 5 October
  2. Ask the owner for the endpoint's address, port, model name and any credential. Ghost documents none of them
  3. Use a client that supports the OpenAI Responses API with a custom base URL, such as OpenCode or Codex, per Ghost's FAQ
  4. Don't assume a context length or output limit. Ghost states none for Qwen 3.8-Next, Qwen 3.8-27B, Gemma 4-31B or Muse-Glimmer-30B
  5. Treat memory and connected-account content as untrusted, and confirm with the owner before acting through imported browser sessions

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Berth or Core?

Berth scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against Core's 7.6 (F), and leads in every scored category.

Can an agent call Berth and Core without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Berth. No hosted endpoint is listed for Core.

Are Berth and Core open source?

Berth is open source (Apache-2.0. The Berth name, the Pilot mascot and the artwork in assets/ are excluded from the licence, per the NOTICE file). No open-source release is listed for Core.

Other comparisons with Berth or Core

Disclosure

Ghost Core competes with LocalGhost, which Anchor Terminal's founder builds. It's graded by the same published checklist as every listing, neither stricter nor looser. Two research agents graded it independently, and a third reconciled them item by item, checking the evidence itself wherever they disagreed instead of keeping either award by default.

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