{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "bigarrow", "name": "Big Arrow", "vendor": "Franz Enzenhofer", "vendorUrl": "https://github.com/franzenzenhofer/big-arrow-on-the-screen", "kind": "sdk", "category": "human-in-the-loop", "summary": "bigarrow is an open-source macOS command-line tool, with a skill for Claude Code and Codex, that lets an agent draw a click-through arrow and a sign over any window to show a person where to click, type or decide.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bigarrow", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bigarrow.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bigarrow.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bigarrow.json", "repo": "https://github.com/franzenzenhofer/big-arrow-on-the-screen", "license": "MIT", "transports": [], "packages": [], "auth": "none", "authNotes": "No account, key or network access. Drawing needs no macOS permission. Pointing at a UI element by label (`--element`, `elements`, `--until-click`, `--app App:title`) needs Accessibility, and `--window App:title` needs Screen Recording, both granted to the app that runs the shell (Terminal, Ghostty, VS Code), never to bigarrow itself.", "pricing": "free", "pricingNotes": "Free under MIT with nothing to buy. Installed from the author's Homebrew tap, which builds from source, or as an ad hoc signed universal binary from GitHub Releases.", "priceSummary": "Free · OSS", "where": "local", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the source, the README or the skill (checked 2026-10-15). The tool has no paid tier and makes no network calls.", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": 747, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-15" }, "docsUrl": "https://github.com/franzenzenhofer/big-arrow-on-the-screen#readme", "capabilities": [ "hitl.handoff", "hitl.ask" ], "tags": [ "open-source", "local", "free", "no-card", "mit", "macos", "swift", "cli", "agent-skill", "json-output", "pre-1.0", "new" ], "lastRelease": "2026-10-12", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 70.7, "grade": "BB", "agentReady": true, "rank": 151, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1094, "categoryRank": 4, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 77, "maintenance": 70, "payments": 60, "reliability": 75, "schema": 78, "security": 67, "transparency": 59 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-15" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "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.", "bestFor": "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.", "strengths": [ "Drawing needs no macOS permission, and the overlay never takes keyboard focus, which integration tests on the real window server check", "Every arrow ends on a time limit, when its agent process exits, on `stop`, or on a click, so none outlives the session by default", "Exit codes 0, 2, 3 and 4 and `--json` on every command, and a target-not-found error lists what exists", "No network code, telemetry or account. The only dependency is Apple's swift-argument-parser", "105 test functions, and the last 25 CI runs on main passed as of 15 October 2026" ], "weaknesses": [ "First commit 8 October 2026 and version 0.4.6, with flags removed or renamed between minor versions", "macOS 14 or later only. Windows and Linux exist only as third-party ports", "It shows where to act but does not collect an answer. The agent learns only how the arrow ended", "No SECURITY.md or disclosure route, and the release binary is signed ad hoc, not notarised", "Two outside issues opened on 12 and 13 October 2026 had no maintainer reply by 15 October" ], "agentNotes": [ "Open the exact System Settings pane or URL first, then point at the one control left for the person", "Write the sign as a full sentence that names the action and, for approvals or payments, what the click does", "Pass `--app` or `--window` for any target inside an app, so it is raised and the arrow hides while covered", "On exit 4, run `bigarrow doctor` and ask the person to grant Accessibility to the app running your shell, not to bigarrow", "Call `bigarrow stop` once the step is done, and add `bigarrow stop --hook` as a Claude Code UserPromptSubmit hook" ], "metrics": { "kind": "local", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "BB", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 70.7 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 77, "maintenance": 70, "payments": 60, "reliability": 75, "schema": 78, "security": 67, "transparency": 65 }, "provenanceScore": 53 }, "connect": { "install": "brew install franzenzenhofer/tap/bigarrow \u0026\u0026 bigarrow install-skill", "headless": { "check": "bigarrow doctor --json", "point": "bigarrow point --element \"Allow\" --app \"System Settings\" --text \"Franz, click Allow\" --json", "start": "bigarrow start --window \"Safari:Inbox\" --text \"This window\"", "stop": "bigarrow stop" } }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/hitl.handoff", "tool": "https://letme.dev/bigarrow" }, "area": "agent-runtime", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Franz Enzenhofer (individual, Vienna)", "domain": "", "domainRegistered": "", "endpointOnVendorDomain": null, "terms": "", "privacy": "", "statusPage": "", "changelog": "https://github.com/franzenzenhofer/big-arrow-on-the-screen/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-15", "notes": [ "The project has no website. The licence reads Copyright (c) 2026 Franz Enzenhofer. His GitHub account (created 2010) gives Vienna and links fullstackoptimization.com, and commits come from addresses at that domain.", "15 of 161 commits are by Arthur Ficial, with an address at the same domain, the account behind the merged README and guide pull requests.", "No terms, privacy policy, SECURITY.md or security.txt. The README says the tool has no account and no telemetry.", "The software runs on the owner's Mac, so there is no vendor endpoint or status page to check." ], "score": 53 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bigarrow.json" }, "answer": "Big Arrow scores 70.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Orkes Conductor Human tasks's 54 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Orkes Conductor Human tasks leads on maintenance \u0026 community.", "b": { "slug": "orkes-conductor", "name": "Orkes Conductor Human tasks", "vendor": "Orkes", "vendorUrl": "https://orkes.io", "kind": "platform", "category": "human-in-the-loop", "summary": "Workflow orchestration platform, built on the open-source Conductor, with a Human task that pauses a workflow, assigns a form to a user or group and resumes with the submitted answer.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/orkes-conductor", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/orkes-conductor.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/orkes-conductor.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/orkes-conductor.json", "repo": "https://github.com/conductor-oss/conductor", "license": "Apache-2.0 (Conductor OSS and SDKs), proprietary (Orkes Conductor)", "transports": [ "http", "stdio" ], "remoteUrl": "https://developer.orkescloud.com/api", "packages": [ { "registry": "pypi", "name": "conductor-python" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "@io-orkes/conductor-javascript" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "conductor-mcp" } ], "auth": "api-key", "authNotes": "Create an application in Conductor to get an access key ID and secret, exchange them at `POST /api/token` for a JWT, and send that JWT in an `X-Authorization` header. Tokens can be given an expiry in milliseconds, and a negative value means no expiry. External reviewers are identified by email or group name from your own identity system.", "pricing": "paid", "pricingNotes": "Two editions on https://orkes.io/pricing. Developer Edition is free and hosted at developer.orkescloud.com, includes Human tasks, and is meant for individual developers, with no SLA, variable performance and rate limits that may change. Enterprise is priced through sales and adds up to a 99.99 per cent availability SLA, SOC 2 Type II and a technical account manager. The Cloud support policy lists 99.9 and 99.0 per cent uptime plans with service credits (https://orkes.io/cloud-support-policy/). Conductor OSS is free under Apache-2.0, but the forms, assignment policies and Human Tasks API are documented for Orkes Conductor.", "priceSummary": "Paid", "where": "both", "x402": { "level": "no", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": 19, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-09-30" }, "docsUrl": "https://orkes.io/content/reference-docs/operators/human", "llmsTxt": "https://orkes.io/content/llms.txt", "registryName": "io.github.conductor-oss/conductor-mcp", "capabilities": [ "hitl.approve", "hitl.ask", "hitl.handoff", "hitl.audit", "agent.durable", "automation.workflows" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "self-hosted", "open-source", "mcp", "llms-txt", "python", "typescript", "enterprise" ], "lastRelease": "2026-09-10", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 54, "grade": "C", "agentReady": false, "rank": 746, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1094, "categoryRank": 8, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 69, "maintenance": 81, "payments": 20, "reliability": 32, "schema": 65, "security": 71, "transparency": 44 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-01" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "Escalation chains with a time limit per assignee and a choice of leaving the task open or failing the workflow. No built-in Slack or email prompt, so alerts need a trigger policy and a second workflow.", "bestFor": "Teams that already orchestrate agents as Conductor workflows and need formal routing, per-assignee deadlines and escalation without writing them.", "strengths": [ "Escalation chains with a time limit per assignee and a choice of leaving the task open or failing the workflow", "Reviewers can be Conductor users or people in your own identity system, by email or group", "Human task search by state, assignee, claimant, full text and input or output fields", "Application keys with roles and per-resource permissions", "Published uptime commitments of 99.9 per cent with service credits, up to 99.99 on Enterprise" ], "weaknesses": [ "No built-in Slack or email prompt, so alerts need a trigger policy and a second workflow", "Several objects to set up (form, task, workflow, application key) before the first approval", "Paid editions are contact sales only, and the free Developer Edition isn't for production", "No public status page or published API rate limits", "The MCP server has 19 tools but none for Human tasks, and no commit since January 2026" ], "agentNotes": [ "Give every assignment you want to escalate from a non-zero `slaMinutes`, since 0 never expires and nothing can follow it", "Pick `TERMINATE` for risky actions so an unanswered approval fails the workflow instead of staying open to anyone", "Start approval workflows with an `idempotencyKey` and `RETURN_EXISTING`, so a retried start doesn't ask twice", "Refresh the JWT from `/api/token` with a set expiry instead of requesting one that never expires", "Fetch single doc pages, not llms.txt, which is the whole documentation in 2.57 MB" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 2, "avgRating": 2.5, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "C", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 54 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 69, "maintenance": 81, "payments": 20, "reliability": 32, "schema": 65, "security": 71, "transparency": 41 }, "provenanceScore": 47 }, "connect": { "http": "TOKEN=$(curl -s -X POST https://developer.orkescloud.com/api/token -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \\\n -d \"{\\\"keyId\\\":\\\"$ORKES_KEY_ID\\\",\\\"keySecret\\\":\\\"$ORKES_KEY_SECRET\\\"}\" | jq -r .token)\ncurl -X POST https://developer.orkescloud.com/api/human/tasks/search -H \"X-Authorization: $TOKEN\" \\\n -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{\"searchType\":\"ADMIN\",\"start\":0,\"size\":10,\"states\":[\"ASSIGNED\"]}'", "config": { "mcpServers": { "conductor": { "args": [ "--config", "/absolute/path/to/conductor-config.json" ], "command": "conductor-mcp" } } } }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/hitl.approve", "tool": "https://letme.dev/orkes-conductor" }, "alsoIn": [ "workflow-automation" ], "area": "agent-runtime", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Orkes, Inc.", "domain": "orkes.io", "domainRegistered": "", "endpointOnVendorDomain": false, "terms": "https://orkes.io/cloud-services-agreement", "privacy": "https://orkes.io/privacy-policy", "statusPage": "", "changelog": "https://orkes.io/changelog", "securityTxt": "unknown", "checked": "2026-10-01", "notes": [ "The privacy policy (last updated 2022-02-23) names Orkes, Inc. of Cupertino, California, and says data is stored on servers in the United States.", "The Developer Edition API runs on developer.orkescloud.com, not on orkes.io.", "The docs repository (orkes-io/docs) was last updated on 2026-07-06. Its static/llms.txt is the whole documentation in one 2.57 MB file.", "No public status page found. The Cloud support policy at orkes.io/cloud-support-policy sets uptime commitments by plan.", "We couldn't read security.txt or RDAP on 2026-10-01." ], "score": 47 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/orkes-conductor.json", "live": { "slug": "orkes-conductor", "probe": { "target": "https://developer.orkescloud.com/api", "method": "get", "lastAt": "2026-10-15T11:30:04.534892732Z", "lastOk": true, "lastStatus": 401, "lastMs": 259, "lastNote": "asks for credentials", "authRequired": true, "uptime24h": 100, "uptime30d": 100, "p50ms24h": 265, "p95ms24h": 308, "samples24h": 254, "samples30d": 3595, "days": [ { "date": "2026-10-01", "probes": 109, "ok": 109 }, { "date": "2026-10-02", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-03", "probes": 271, "ok": 271 }, { "date": "2026-10-04", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-05", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-06", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-07", "probes": 272, "ok": 272 }, { "date": "2026-10-08", "probes": 268, "ok": 268 }, { "date": "2026-10-09", "probes": 250, "ok": 250 }, { "date": "2026-10-10", "probes": 247, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-11", "probes": 247, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-12", "probes": 247, "ok": 247 }, { "date": "2026-10-13", "probes": 248, "ok": 248 }, { "date": "2026-10-14", "probes": 249, "ok": 249 }, { "date": "2026-10-15", "probes": 123, "ok": 123 } ] }, "versions": [ { "registry": "github", "name": "conductor-oss/conductor", "version": "v3.32.5", "released": "2026-09-25", "seenAt": "2026-10-15T00:12:04.475597448Z" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "@io-orkes/conductor-javascript", "version": "4.0.0", "seenAt": "2026-10-15T00:12:02.589573426Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "conductor-mcp", "version": "0.1.9", "released": "2026-02-02", "seenAt": "2026-10-15T00:12:03.273611918Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "conductor-python", "version": "2.0.0", "released": "2026-08-03", "seenAt": "2026-10-15T00:12:02.390174805Z" } ], "githubStars": 32300, "npmWeekly": 20415, "pypiWeekly": 26942, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://orkes.io/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-10-14T15:47:38.382480402Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://orkes.io/content/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-14T14:14:48.402948217Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "orkes.io", "checkedAt": "2026-10-11T13:22:02.238642536Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://orkes.io/changelog", "kind": "changelog", "status": 304, "checkedAt": "2026-10-14T21:04:15.770740622Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-13T20:20:26.797406388Z", "fingerprint": "319e17fcef0f" }, { "url": "https://orkes.io/pricing", "kind": "pricing", "status": 304, "checkedAt": "2026-10-14T21:04:19.783340508Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-13T20:20:31.369735841Z", "fingerprint": "0ec96791783c" }, { "url": "https://orkes.io/privacy-policy", "kind": "privacy", "status": 304, "checkedAt": "2026-10-14T21:04:21.781124896Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-13T20:20:33.215363141Z", "fingerprint": "d6d70787897a" }, { "url": "https://orkes.io/cloud-services-agreement", "kind": "terms", "status": 304, "checkedAt": "2026-10-14T21:04:17.783903169Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-13T20:20:29.292892583Z", "fingerprint": "d1360f4b8d51" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-15T11:30:04.534892732Z" } }, "facts": [ { "a": "SDK + MCP", "b": "Platform", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Franz Enzenhofer", "b": "Orkes", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "no (local only)", "b": "https://developer.orkescloud.com/api", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "", "b": "HTTP, stdio", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "None", "b": "API key", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Free", "b": "Paid", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "MIT", "b": "Apache-2.0 (Conductor OSS and SDKs), proprietary (Orkes Conductor)", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "none", "b": "19", "name": "Tools exposed" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "no", "b": "yes", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "not listed", "b": "io.github.conductor-oss/conductor-mcp", "name": "MCP registry" }, { "a": "2026-10-12", "b": "2026-09-10", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "no document linked", "b": "no date given", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "no document linked", "b": "2022-02-23", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "747 stars", "b": "none", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "none", "b": "2.5/5 (2)", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "Big Arrow scores 70.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Orkes Conductor Human tasks's 54 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Orkes Conductor Human tasks leads on maintenance \u0026 community.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Big Arrow or Orkes Conductor Human tasks?" }, { "answer": "Yes. Big Arrow is open source (MIT). Orkes Conductor Human tasks is open source (Apache-2.0 (Conductor OSS and SDKs), proprietary (Orkes Conductor)).", "question": "Are Big Arrow and Orkes Conductor Human tasks open source?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Reliability, 75 against 32", "Schema \u0026 documentation, 78 against 65", "Agent ergonomics, 77 against 69", "Payments \u0026 pricing, 60 against 20", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 59 against 44" ], "also": [ "Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better", "No key needed to call it", "Free to start without a card" ], "goodFor": "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.", "slug": "bigarrow", "watchFor": "First commit 8 October 2026 and version 0.4.6, with flags removed or renamed between minor versions" }, { "aheadOn": [ "Maintenance \u0026 community, 81 against 70" ], "also": [ "A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install", "Runs on your own machine" ], "goodFor": "Teams that already orchestrate agents as Conductor workflows and need formal routing, per-assignee deadlines and escalation without writing them.", "slug": "orkes-conductor", "watchFor": "No built-in Slack or email prompt, so alerts need a trigger policy and a second workflow" } ], "job": { "capability": "hitl.handoff", "name": "Hitl handoff" }, "others": [ { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-orkes-conductor.json", "title": "gotoHuman vs Orkes Conductor Human tasks", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-orkes-conductor" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hatchet-vs-orkes-conductor.json", "title": "Hatchet vs Orkes Conductor Human tasks", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hatchet-vs-orkes-conductor" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-orkes-conductor.json", "title": "Inngest vs Orkes Conductor Human tasks", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-orkes-conductor" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-permit-mcp-gateway.json", "title": "Orkes Conductor Human tasks vs Permit MCP Gateway", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-permit-mcp-gateway" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-pushary.json", "title": "Orkes Conductor Human tasks vs Pushary", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-pushary" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-restate.json", "title": "Orkes Conductor Human tasks vs Restate", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-restate" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-temporal.json", "title": "Orkes Conductor Human tasks vs Temporal", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-temporal" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-trigger-dev.json", "title": "Orkes Conductor Human tasks vs Trigger.dev", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-trigger-dev" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-withhuman.json", "title": "Orkes Conductor Human tasks vs withHuman", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-withhuman" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-gotohuman.json", "title": "Big Arrow vs gotoHuman", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-gotohuman" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-hatchet.json", "title": "Big Arrow vs Hatchet", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-hatchet" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-inngest.json", "title": "Big Arrow vs Inngest", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-inngest" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-pushary.json", "title": "Big Arrow vs Pushary", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-pushary" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-restate.json", "title": "Big Arrow vs Restate", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-restate" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-temporal.json", "title": "Big Arrow vs Temporal", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-temporal" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-trigger-dev.json", "title": "Big Arrow vs Trigger.dev", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-trigger-dev" } ], "scores": [ { "bigarrow": 75, "by": 43, "edge": "bigarrow", "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "orkes-conductor": 32, "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "bigarrow": 78, "by": 13, "edge": "bigarrow", "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "orkes-conductor": 65, "weight": 13 }, { "bigarrow": 77, "by": 8, "edge": "bigarrow", "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "orkes-conductor": 69, "weight": 13 }, { "bigarrow": 67, "by": 4, "edge": "orkes-conductor", "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "orkes-conductor": 71, "weight": 14 }, { "bigarrow": 60, "by": 40, "edge": "bigarrow", "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "orkes-conductor": 20, "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "bigarrow": 70, "by": 11, "edge": "orkes-conductor", "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "orkes-conductor": 81, "weight": 7 }, { "bigarrow": 59, "by": 15, "edge": "bigarrow", "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "orkes-conductor": 44, "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "Big Arrow scores 70.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Orkes Conductor Human tasks's 54 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Orkes Conductor Human tasks leads on maintenance \u0026 community. Both do hitl handoff.", "verdicts": { "bigarrow": "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.", "orkes-conductor": "Escalation chains with a time limit per assignee and a choice of leaving the task open or failing the workflow. No built-in Slack or email prompt, so alerts need a trigger policy and a second workflow." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-orkes-conductor", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-orkes-conductor.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-orkes-conductor.md", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-orkes-conductor.min.md" }, "markdown": "Big Arrow scores 70.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Orkes Conductor Human tasks's 54 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Orkes Conductor Human tasks leads on maintenance \u0026 community. Both do hitl handoff.\n\n- 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\n- Orkes Conductor Human tasks: grade C, 54/100, rank #746 of 1094. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/orkes-conductor.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/orkes-conductor.json\n- Best human approval and handoff for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/human-in-the-loop/index.md\n- All 53 human approval comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/human-in-the-loop/index.md\n- Best workflow automation platforms with APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/workflow-automation/index.md\n- All 112 workflows comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/workflow-automation/index.md\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### Big Arrow (BB)\n\nGood 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.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 75 against 32\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 78 against 65\n- Agent ergonomics, 77 against 69\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 60 against 20\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 59 against 44\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better\n- No key needed to call it\n- Free to start without a card\n\nWatch for: First commit 8 October 2026 and version 0.4.6, with flags removed or renamed between minor versions\n\n### Orkes Conductor Human tasks (C)\n\nGood for: Teams that already orchestrate agents as Conductor workflows and need formal routing, per-assignee deadlines and escalation without writing them.\n\nAhead on:\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 81 against 70\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install\n- Runs on your own machine\n\nWatch for: No built-in Slack or email prompt, so alerts need a trigger policy and a second workflow\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Big Arrow | Orkes Conductor Human tasks | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 75 | 32 | Big Arrow +43 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 65 | Big Arrow +13 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 69 | Big Arrow +8 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 67 | 71 | Orkes Conductor Human tasks +4 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 20 | Big Arrow +40 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 81 | Orkes Conductor Human tasks +11 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 59 | 44 | Big Arrow +15 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **70.7 · BB** | **54 · C** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Big Arrow | Orkes Conductor Human tasks |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | SDK + MCP | Platform |\n| Vendor | Franz Enzenhofer | Orkes |\n| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://developer.orkescloud.com/api` |\n| Transports | | HTTP, stdio |\n| Auth | None | API key |\n| Pricing | Free | Paid |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 (Conductor OSS and SDKs), proprietary (Orkes Conductor) |\n| Tools exposed | none | 19 |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | no |\n| llms.txt | no | yes |\n| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.conductor-oss/conductor-mcp` |\n| Last release | 2026-10-12 | 2026-09-10 |\n| Terms last updated | no document linked | no date given |\n| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2022-02-23 |\n| Customer content may train models | | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict automated access | | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | | not found in the text |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | | not found in the text |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | | not found in the text |\n| Popularity | 747 stars | none |\n| Agent reviews | none | 2.5/5 (2) |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**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.\n\n**Orkes Conductor Human tasks.** Escalation chains with a time limit per assignee and a choice of leaving the task open or failing the workflow. No built-in Slack or email prompt, so alerts need a trigger policy and a second workflow.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### Big Arrow\n\n1. Open the exact System Settings pane or URL first, then point at the one control left for the person\n2. Write the sign as a full sentence that names the action and, for approvals or payments, what the click does\n3. Pass `--app` or `--window` for any target inside an app, so it is raised and the arrow hides while covered\n4. On exit 4, run `bigarrow doctor` and ask the person to grant Accessibility to the app running your shell, not to bigarrow\n5. Call `bigarrow stop` once the step is done, and add `bigarrow stop --hook` as a Claude Code UserPromptSubmit hook\n\n### Orkes Conductor Human tasks\n\n1. Give every assignment you want to escalate from a non-zero `slaMinutes`, since 0 never expires and nothing can follow it\n2. Pick `TERMINATE` for risky actions so an unanswered approval fails the workflow instead of staying open to anyone\n3. Start approval workflows with an `idempotencyKey` and `RETURN_EXISTING`, so a retried start doesn't ask twice\n4. Refresh the JWT from `/api/token` with a set expiry instead of requesting one that never expires\n5. Fetch single doc pages, not llms.txt, which is the whole documentation in 2.57 MB\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Big Arrow or Orkes Conductor Human tasks?\n\nBig Arrow scores 70.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Orkes Conductor Human tasks's 54 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Orkes Conductor Human tasks leads on maintenance \u0026 community.\n\n### Are Big Arrow and Orkes Conductor Human tasks open source?\n\nYes. Big Arrow is open source (MIT). Orkes Conductor Human tasks is open source (Apache-2.0 (Conductor OSS and SDKs), proprietary (Orkes Conductor)).\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-orkes-conductor.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-orkes-conductor.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"bigarrow\", \"b\": \"orkes-conductor\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare bigarrow orkes-conductor`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bigarrow.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/orkes-conductor.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Big Arrow or Orkes Conductor Human tasks\n\n- [gotoHuman vs Orkes Conductor Human tasks](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-orkes-conductor.md)\n- [Hatchet vs Orkes Conductor Human tasks](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hatchet-vs-orkes-conductor.md)\n- [Inngest vs Orkes Conductor Human tasks](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-orkes-conductor.md)\n- [Orkes Conductor Human tasks vs Permit MCP Gateway](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-permit-mcp-gateway.md)\n- [Orkes Conductor Human tasks vs Pushary](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-pushary.md)\n- [Orkes Conductor Human tasks vs Restate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-restate.md)\n- [Orkes Conductor Human tasks vs Temporal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-temporal.md)\n- [Orkes Conductor Human tasks vs Trigger.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-trigger-dev.md)\n- [Orkes Conductor Human tasks vs withHuman](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-withhuman.md)\n- [Big Arrow vs gotoHuman](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-gotohuman.md)\n- [Big Arrow vs Hatchet](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-hatchet.md)\n- [Big Arrow vs Inngest](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-inngest.md)\n- [Big Arrow vs Pushary](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-pushary.md)\n- [Big Arrow vs Restate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-restate.md)\n- [Big Arrow vs Temporal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-temporal.md)\n- [Big Arrow vs Trigger.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-trigger-dev.md)\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "attributionRequired": true, "credit": "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.", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-10-15", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.4", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", "preview": false, "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "terms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data" }, "page": { "breadcrumbs": [ { "name": "Home", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/" }, { "name": "Compare", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/" }, { "name": "Big Arrow vs Orkes Conductor Human tasks", "url": "" } ], "description": "Big Arrow scores 70.7 (BB) to Orkes Conductor Human tasks's 54 (C) for hitl handoff. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "Big Arrow BB 70.7", "Orkes Conductor Human tasks C 54", "scores" ], "h1": "Big Arrow vs Orkes Conductor Human tasks", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-bigarrow-vs-orkes-conductor.png", "path": "/compare/bigarrow-vs-orkes-conductor", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "Big Arrow vs Orkes Conductor Human tasks for AI agents (2026)", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-15", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-orkes-conductor" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2350, "slim": 780 }, "version": 1 }