# Big Arrow vs Inngest

> Big Arrow scores 70.7 (BB) to Inngest's 66 (B) for hitl ask. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-inngest
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-inngest.md (~2,150 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-inngest.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-inngest.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-15

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.

- Big Arrow: grade BB, 70.7/100, rank #151 of 1094. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bigarrow.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bigarrow.json
- Inngest: grade B, 66/100, rank #323 of 1094. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/inngest.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/inngest.json
- Best human approval and handoff for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/human-in-the-loop/index.md
- All 53 human approval comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/human-in-the-loop/index.md
- Best workflow automation platforms with APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/workflow-automation/index.md
- All 112 workflows comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/workflow-automation/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Big Arrow (BB)

Good 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)

Good 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

| Category | Weight | Big Arrow | Inngest | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 75 | 57 | Big Arrow +18 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 89 | Inngest +11 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 76 | Big Arrow +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 67 | 60 | Big Arrow +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 40 | Big Arrow +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 88 | Inngest +18 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 59 | 52 | Big Arrow +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **70.7 · BB** | **66 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Big Arrow | Inngest |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | Platform |
| Vendor | Franz Enzenhofer | Inngest |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://inn.gs/e/` |
| Transports |  | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | SSPL with delayed Apache-2.0 (server), Apache-2.0 (SDKs) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-12 | 2026-09-22 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 747 stars | none |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.5/5 (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.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-inngest.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-inngest.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "bigarrow", "b": "inngest"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare bigarrow inngest`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bigarrow.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/inngest.json

## Other comparisons with Big Arrow or Inngest

- [gotoHuman vs Inngest](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-inngest.md)
- [Hatchet vs Inngest](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hatchet-vs-inngest.md)
- [Inngest vs Orkes Conductor Human tasks](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-orkes-conductor.md)
- [Inngest vs Permit MCP Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-permit-mcp-gateway.md)
- [Inngest vs Pushary](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-pushary.md)
- [Inngest vs Restate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-restate.md)
- [Inngest vs Temporal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-temporal.md)
- [Inngest vs Trigger.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-trigger-dev.md)
- [Inngest vs withHuman](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-withhuman.md)
- [Big Arrow vs gotoHuman](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-gotohuman.md)
- [Big Arrow vs Hatchet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-hatchet.md)
- [Big Arrow vs Pushary](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-pushary.md)
- [Big Arrow vs Restate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-restate.md)
- [Big Arrow vs Temporal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-temporal.md)
- [Big Arrow vs Trigger.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-trigger-dev.md)
- [Big Arrow vs Orkes Conductor Human tasks](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-orkes-conductor.md)