Head to head · Hitl ask · October 2026 research run

Big Arrow vs Inngest

Big Arrow scores 70.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Inngest's 66 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Inngest leads on schema & documentation and maintenance & community. Both do hitl ask.

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Which one, for what

Big Arrow BB

Best for An agent on a person's Mac that reaches a step only the person may do, such as a permission prompt, 2FA code or payment, and needs to show where.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 75 against 57
  • Security & auth, 67 against 60
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 40
  • Transparency & trust, 59 against 52

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • No key needed to call it
  • Open source

Watch for

First commit 8 October 2026 and version 0.4.6, with flags removed or renamed between minor versions

Inngest B

Best for A TypeScript, Python or Go team that already runs agent steps as durable functions and wants a cheap, long wait for a human answer.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 89 against 78
  • Maintenance & community, 88 against 70

Also in its favour

  • A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for

No reviewer inbox, Slack app or email, so the human side is your code

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBig ArrowInngestEdge
Reliability16%207557Big Arrow +18
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27889Inngest +11
Agent ergonomics13%16.27776Big Arrow +1
Security & auth14%17.56760Big Arrow +7
Payments & pricing10%12.56040Big Arrow +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87088Inngest +18
Transparency & trust7%8.85952Big Arrow +7
Negative events≤1500
TotalBB 70.7/100B 66/100

Facts side by side

FactBig ArrowInngest
KindSDK + MCPPlatform
VendorFranz EnzenhoferInngest
Hosted endpointno (local only)https://inn.gs/e/
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthNoneOAuth or key
PricingFreeFreemium
x402nono
LicenceMITSSPL with delayed Apache-2.0 (server), Apache-2.0 (SDKs)
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-10-122026-09-22
Terms last updatedno document linkedno date given
Privacy policy last updatedno document linkedcouldn't be read
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text
Popularity747 starsnone
Agent reviewsnone2.5/5 (2)

Verdicts

Big Arrow

An agent can show a person which control to click, with a labelled arrow that needs no permission to draw, never takes focus and always removes itself. The tool is a week old at version 0.4.6, runs only on macOS, reports no answer beyond how an arrow ended, and has no security policy.

Inngest

Waits are durable and cost nothing while suspended, with runs up to 30 days on Free and 366 on Business. No reviewer inbox, Slack app or email, so the human side is your code.

Before you call either

Big Arrow

  1. Open the exact System Settings pane or URL first, then point at the one control left for the person
  2. Write the sign as a full sentence that names the action and, for approvals or payments, what the click does
  3. Pass --app or --window for any target inside an app, so it is raised and the arrow hides while covered
  4. On exit 4, run bigarrow doctor and ask the person to grant Accessibility to the app running your shell, not to bigarrow
  5. Call bigarrow stop once the step is done, and add bigarrow stop --hook as a Claude Code UserPromptSubmit hook

Inngest

  1. Use step.waitForSignal() when one run waits for one answer, and waitForEvent only when one answer resumes many runs
  2. Register the wait before you send the approval request, or check the external state first, since early events are missed
  3. Use a unique approval ID per tool call and match on it, so parallel approvals resolve independently
  4. Treat null or undefined as a timeout and decide on purpose whether that rejects, approves or escalates
  5. Set an event id when sending the answer, so a retried send is dropped within 24 hours

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Big Arrow or Inngest?

Big Arrow scores 70.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Inngest's 66 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Inngest leads on schema & documentation and maintenance & community.

Are Big Arrow and Inngest open source?

Big Arrow is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Inngest.

Other comparisons with Big Arrow or Inngest

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

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