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Head to head · Local inference · October 2026 research run

Berth vs TextGen

Berth scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against TextGen's 45.5 (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 TextGenoobabooga · Platform E45.5/100#1028 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 51
  • Schema & documentation, 69 against 61
  • Agent ergonomics, 75 against 50
  • Security & auth, 51 against 40
  • Maintenance & community, 76 against 24
  • Transparency & trust, 68 against 53

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where TextGen loses 4 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

TextGen E

Best for A person who wants one app for several backends (llama.cpp, ExLlamaV3, Transformers) with an OpenAI and Anthropic-compatible endpoint, LoRA training and image generation.

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

Watch for

No release since v4.9 on 20 May 2026 and no code commit on main or dev since 31 May 2026

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBerthTextGenEdge
Reliability16%207651Berth +25
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26961Berth +8
Agent ergonomics13%16.27550Berth +25
Security & auth14%17.55140Berth +11
Payments & pricing10%12.56060even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87624Berth +52
Transparency & trust7%8.86853Berth +15
Negative events≤150-4
TotalB 67.6/100E 45.5/100

Facts side by side

FactBerthTextGen
KindHTTP APIPlatform
VendorTrevin Tindall (T-Crypt on GitHub)oobabooga
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTPHTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI 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
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last release2026-10-232026-05-20
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 stars48k stars
Agent reviewsnone2.5/5 (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.

TextGen

AGPL-3.0 with no telemetry, and a local API on 127.0.0.1:5000 that checks the Host header, limits CORS to localhost and separates an admin key from the caller's key. No release since v4.9 on 20 May 2026, no code commits since 31 May, no test suite, and ten security advisories in the year, all fixed.

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

TextGen

  1. Ask the owner to launch with --api. Nothing listens on port 5000 without it, and a model must be loaded first
  2. Call http://127.0.0.1:5000/v1. Any Host header other than localhost or 127.0.0.1 gets 400 Invalid host header unless --listen is set
  3. Send the key as Authorization: Bearer on OpenAI routes and as x-api-key on /v1/messages. Model loading needs the admin key
  4. Read http://127.0.0.1:5000/docs or modules/api/typing.py for parameters. max_tokens defaults to 512 on chat completions
  5. Run tool calls yourself. The API returns finish_reason: "tool_calls" and executes nothing on the server
  6. Use the repository name oobabooga/textgen. The old text-generation-webui URL redirects

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Berth or TextGen?

Berth scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against TextGen's 45.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Can an agent call Berth and TextGen without installing anything?

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

Are Berth and TextGen 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). TextGen is open source (AGPL-3.0).

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