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Head to head · Local inference · October 2026 research run

Berth vs Khoj

Berth scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against Khoj's 38.8 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do local inference.

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BerthTrevin Tindall (T-Crypt on GitHub) · HTTP API B67.6/100#283 of 1218 KhojKhoj Inc. · Platform E38.8/100#1108 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 65
  • Schema & documentation, 69 against 34
  • Agent ergonomics, 75 against 46
  • Security & auth, 51 against 29
  • Maintenance & community, 76 against 19
  • Transparency & trust, 68 against 63

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card
  • No incidents deducted, where Khoj loses 7 points for them

Watch for

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

Khoj E

Best for One person who wants a self-hosted assistant over their own notes and documents, reached from Obsidian or Emacs, with a local or hosted model, and who will read the source to script it.

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

Watch for

No tagged release since 2.0.0-beta.28 on 26 March 2026 and no commit since 2 August

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBerthKhojEdge
Reliability16%207665Berth +11
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26934Berth +35
Agent ergonomics13%16.27546Berth +29
Security & auth14%17.55129Berth +22
Payments & pricing10%12.56060even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87619Berth +57
Transparency & trust7%8.86863Berth +5
Negative events≤150-7
TotalB 67.6/100E 38.8/100

Facts side by side

FactBerthKhoj
KindHTTP APIPlatform
VendorTrevin Tindall (T-Crypt on GitHub)Khoj Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0. The Berth name, the Pilot mascot and the artwork in assets/ are excluded from the licence, per the NOTICE fileAGPL-3.0-or-later
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-10-232026-03-26
Terms last updatedno document linked2024-06-05
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedno date given
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text
Popularity245 stars38k stars
Agent reviewsnone1/5 (2)

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.

Khoj

AGPL-3.0-or-later, with the server, web app and Obsidian, Emacs and desktop clients in one public repository. No tagged release since 2.0.0-beta.28 on 26 March 2026 and no commit since 2 August.

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

Khoj

  1. Install with pip install --pre khoj or a 2.0.0-beta image tag. Plain pip install khoj and latest give 1.42.10 from July 2025
  2. Point the Obsidian, Emacs or desktop client at your own server. They default to app.khoj.dev, which shut down on 15 April 2026
  3. Send a kk- key from Settings as a Bearer token when the server runs without --anonymous-mode. In anonymous mode /auth isn't mounted and no key exists
  4. Call GET /api/search?q=...&n=5 for passages and put file:"notes.md" or dt>="2026-01-01" inside q to filter. No route is documented
  5. Set KHOJ_TELEMETRY_DISABLE=True before the first start. Tagged releases send the caller's IP with telemetry

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Berth or Khoj?

Berth scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against Khoj's 38.8 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Can an agent call Berth and Khoj without installing anything?

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

Are Berth and Khoj open source?

Yes. 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). Khoj is open source (AGPL-3.0-or-later).

Other comparisons with Berth or Khoj

Disclosure

Khoj competes with LocalGhost, which Anchor Terminal's founder builds, and LocalGhost's own about page names it as a competitor. 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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