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Head to head · Local inference · October 2026 research run

Berth vs KoboldCpp

Berth scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against KoboldCpp's 60.7 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. KoboldCpp leads on maintenance & community. Both do local inference.

Best local AI models and assistants · All 229 local ai comparisons

BerthTrevin Tindall (T-Crypt on GitHub) · HTTP API B67.6/100#283 of 1218 KoboldCppLostRuins (Concedo) · HTTP API C60.7/100#574 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 68
  • Agent ergonomics, 75 against 63
  • Security & auth, 51 against 38
  • Transparency & trust, 68 against 51

Watch for

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

KoboldCpp C

Best for An owner who wants text, image, speech and music models behind one executable with a writing and roleplay interface, and clients that speak the KoboldAI, OpenAI, Ollama or Anthropic formats.

Ahead on

  • Maintenance & community, 82 against 76

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it

Watch for

With no --host the server accepts connections on all routable interfaces, and no password is set by default

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBerthKoboldCppEdge
Reliability16%207668Berth +8
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26968Berth +1
Agent ergonomics13%16.27563Berth +12
Security & auth14%17.55138Berth +13
Payments & pricing10%12.56060even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87682KoboldCpp +6
Transparency & trust7%8.86851Berth +17
Negative events≤1500
TotalB 67.6/100C 60.7/100

Facts side by side

FactBerthKoboldCpp
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorTrevin Tindall (T-Crypt on GitHub)LostRuins (Concedo)
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyNone
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 for KoboldCpp and KoboldAI Lite. The bundled GGML, llama.cpp and stable-diffusion.cpp code stays under MIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-10-232026-09-27
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedno 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
Popularity245 stars12k stars
Agent reviewsnone2.8/5 (4)

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.

KoboldCpp

One file runs text, image, speech and music models behind a published OpenAPI 3.0.3 document, with eight releases in 90 days. The server listens on every interface with no password by default, and --password leaves the image routes open.

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

KoboldCpp

  1. Start with --host 127.0.0.1 and --password. The default listens on every interface with no key
  2. Send the password as Authorization: Bearer <password>. It is not read from the query string
  3. Treat 503 as both busy and rate limited. The server never sends 429 or Retry-After, and the wait in seconds is in detail.msg
  4. Pass max_length or max_tokens. The default is 2,048 tokens unless --defaultgenamt changes it
  5. Send a genkey with each generation so /api/extra/generate/check and /api/extra/abort act on your request and not another caller's

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Berth or KoboldCpp?

Berth scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against KoboldCpp's 60.7 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. KoboldCpp leads on maintenance & community.

Do Berth and KoboldCpp need an API key?

Berth needs an API key. KoboldCpp needs no key.

Can an agent call Berth and KoboldCpp without installing anything?

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

Are Berth and KoboldCpp 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). KoboldCpp is open source (AGPL-3.0 for KoboldCpp and KoboldAI Lite. The bundled GGML, llama.cpp and stable-diffusion.cpp code stays under MIT).

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