{ "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": "Temporal scores 77.2 (BB) on agent readiness against Big Arrow's 70.7 (BB), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Big Arrow leads on payments \u0026 pricing.", "b": { "slug": "temporal", "name": "Temporal", "vendor": "Temporal Technologies", "vendorUrl": "https://temporal.io", "kind": "platform", "category": "human-in-the-loop", "summary": "Open-source durable execution platform with SDKs in Go, Java, Python, TypeScript, .NET, PHP, Ruby and Rust, run yourself or on Temporal Cloud.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/temporal", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/temporal.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/temporal.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/temporal.json", "repo": "https://github.com/temporalio/temporal", "license": "MIT", "transports": [ "http" ], "packages": [ { "registry": "pypi", "name": "temporalio" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "@temporalio/client" } ], "auth": "mixed", "authNotes": "Temporal Cloud clients and workers authenticate with an API key or mTLS certificates per namespace. A self-hosted server has whatever auth you configure.", "pricing": "usage", "pricingNotes": "Temporal Cloud bills Actions, storage and a plan. Developer has no base fee and adds 10 per cent of usage spend. Business is the greater of $500 a month or 10 per cent of usage, with 2.5 million Actions, 2.5 GB active and 100 GB retained storage included. Enterprise and Mission Critical are priced annually through sales. Actions cost $50 per million, and from Business up the price steps down with volume to $25 per million between 100 and 200 million. Active storage is $0.042 and retained $0.00105 per GB-hour (https://docs.temporal.io/cloud/pricing). Every Signal and every timer, including the implicit one behind a wait with a timeout, counts as an Action (https://docs.temporal.io/evaluate/cloud/actions). New Cloud accounts get $150 of credits for 90 days, and the pricing page says a card is required (https://temporal.io/pricing). Self-hosting is free under MIT.", "priceSummary": "$0.05 / 1k calls", "where": "local", "x402": { "level": "no", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-09-30" }, "docsUrl": "https://docs.temporal.io/design-patterns/approval", "llmsTxt": "https://docs.temporal.io/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://github.com/temporalio/api/blob/master/openapi/openapiv3.yaml", "capabilities": [ "hitl.approve", "hitl.ask", "hitl.audit", "agent.durable", "automation.workflows", "automation.code" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "self-hosted", "open-source", "llms-txt", "python", "typescript", "enterprise" ], "lastRelease": "2026-09-15", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 77.2, "grade": "BB", "agentReady": true, "rank": 24, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1094, "categoryRank": 1, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 85, "maintenance": 90, "payments": 20, "reliability": 85, "schema": 91, "security": 86, "transparency": 70 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-01" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "Waits of any length with a timeout survive worker restarts and deploys. No reviewer inbox, notifications or routing, so the human side is all your code.", "bestFor": "A team that already runs, or wants to run, agents as durable workflows with strict guarantees and an audit trail per run.", "strengths": [ "Waits of any length with a timeout survive worker restarts and deploys", "Each workflow's event history is an audit trail of every signal, without extra logging", "Contractual SLA of 99.9 per cent per namespace, 99.99 with High Availability", "Namespace-scoped API keys with RBAC, expiry warnings and a read-only role", "MIT-licensed server and SDKs in eight languages, with OpenAPI for the HTTP API" ], "weaknesses": [ "No reviewer inbox, notifications or routing, so the human side is all your code", "Needs running workers and a Temporal service before the first approval", "Signals and timers are billed Actions on Cloud, and the $150 trial credit needs a card", "History caps of 51,200 events or 50 MB per run push long agent loops towards Continue-As-New", "Control-plane audit logs leave out data-plane events such as workflow starts and terminations" ], "agentNotes": [ "Put the decision in a typed Signal payload (approver, decision, comments, timestamp) instead of a bare boolean", "Always wait with a timeout and treat the timeout path as a rejection or an escalation on purpose", "Use the workflow ID as the approval ID, so the reviewer's tool only needs one value to send the Signal", "Use an Update instead of a Signal when the approver's tool needs an acknowledgement back", "Expect `ResourceExhausted` under load and let the SDK retry it, since signals are throttled last" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 8, "avgRating": 3.6, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "BB", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 77.2 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 85, "maintenance": 90, "payments": 20, "reliability": 85, "schema": 91, "security": 86, "transparency": 75 }, "provenanceScore": 65 }, "connect": { "install": "pip install temporalio" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/hitl.approve", "tool": "https://letme.dev/temporal" }, "alsoIn": [ "workflow-automation" ], "area": "agent-runtime", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "Actions, first 5 million", "unit": "1k-calls", "usd": 0.05, "note": "$50 per million. Each Signal and timer is an Action" }, { "item": "Business plan minimum", "unit": "month", "usd": 500, "note": "Or 10 per cent of usage if higher, 2.5 million Actions included" } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Temporal Technologies Inc.", "domain": "temporal.io", "domainRegistered": "", "endpointOnVendorDomain": true, "terms": "", "privacy": "https://temporal.io/global-privacy-policy", "statusPage": "https://status.temporal.io", "changelog": "https://github.com/temporalio/temporal/releases", "securityTxt": "unknown", "checked": "2026-10-01", "notes": [ "The legal entity is from the server's MIT licence and the docs footer.", "status.temporal.io runs on Atlassian Statuspage with components for 14 AWS regions, 6 GCP regions and 8 global services. Its history page renders with JavaScript and we read only the recent incidents on the front page.", "Server v1.32.0 is on a commit dated 2026-09-10, with patch releases v1.31.3 (2026-09-14) and v1.30.7 (2026-09-15). A v1.33.0 release candidate was tagged on 2026-09-29.", "The privacy policy (updated 2026-04-22) names Temporal Technologies Inc., 2337 148th Ave NE #1335, Bellevue, WA 98007. We couldn't read the terms, security.txt or RDAP on 2026-10-01." ], "score": 65 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/temporal.json", "live": { "slug": "temporal", "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.temporal.io", "indicator": "none", "summary": "All Systems Operational", "checkedAt": "2026-10-15T11:32:34.286655358Z" }, "versions": [ { "registry": "github", "name": "temporalio/temporal", "version": "v1.32.1", "released": "2026-10-08", "seenAt": "2026-10-15T00:25:47.000244101Z" }, { "registry": "npm", "name": "@temporalio/client", "version": "1.24.0", "seenAt": "2026-10-15T00:25:46.212825399Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "temporalio", "version": "1.34.0", "released": "2026-09-30", "seenAt": "2026-10-15T00:25:46.095985192Z" } ], "githubStars": 23711, "npmWeekly": 4445601, "pypiWeekly": 9196269, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://temporal.io/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "valid", "expires": "2027-01-15T00:00:00Z", "checkedAt": "2026-10-14T15:47:30.575381609Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://docs.temporal.io/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-14T14:15:13.178323321Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "temporal.io", "checkedAt": "2026-10-11T13:23:39.875649926Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://docs.temporal.io/cloud/pricing", "kind": "pricing", "status": 304, "checkedAt": "2026-10-14T20:59:38.779842916Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-08T18:19:35.447960248Z", "fingerprint": "c62f3339158e" }, { "url": "https://temporal.io/pricing", "kind": "pricing", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-14T21:08:38.36911774Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-13T20:24:30.057396113Z", "fingerprint": "b6b862fa3a93" }, { "url": "https://temporal.io/global-privacy-policy", "kind": "privacy", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-14T21:08:36.15185034Z", "changedAt": "2026-10-13T20:24:27.75336411Z", "fingerprint": "20507ec9e07d" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-15T11:32:34.286655358Z" } }, "facts": [ { "a": "SDK + MCP", "b": "Platform", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Franz Enzenhofer", "b": "Temporal Technologies", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "no (local only)", "b": "no (local only)", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "", "b": "HTTP", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "None", "b": "OAuth or key", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Free", "b": "Pay per use", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "MIT", "b": "MIT", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "no", "b": "yes", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "no", "b": "yes", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2026-10-12", "b": "2026-09-15", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "no document linked", "b": "no document linked", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "no document linked", "b": "2026-04-22", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "", "b": "", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "747 stars", "b": "none", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "none", "b": "3.6/5 (8)", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "Temporal scores 77.2 (BB) on agent readiness against Big Arrow's 70.7 (BB), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Big Arrow leads on payments \u0026 pricing.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Big Arrow or Temporal?" }, { "answer": "Yes. Big Arrow is open source (MIT). Temporal is open source (MIT).", "question": "Are Big Arrow and Temporal open source?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Payments \u0026 pricing, 60 against 20" ], "also": [ "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": [ "Reliability, 85 against 75", "Schema \u0026 documentation, 91 against 78", "Agent ergonomics, 85 against 77", "Security \u0026 auth, 86 against 67", "Maintenance \u0026 community, 90 against 70", "Transparency \u0026 trust, 70 against 59" ], "also": null, "goodFor": "A team that already runs, or wants to run, agents as durable workflows with strict guarantees and an audit trail per run.", "slug": "temporal", "watchFor": "No reviewer inbox, notifications or routing, so the human side is all your code" } ], "job": { "capability": "hitl.ask", "name": "Hitl ask" }, "others": [ { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-temporal.json", "title": "gotoHuman vs Temporal", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-temporal" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hatchet-vs-temporal.json", "title": "Hatchet vs Temporal", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hatchet-vs-temporal" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-temporal.json", "title": "Inngest vs Temporal", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-temporal" }, { "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/permit-mcp-gateway-vs-temporal.json", "title": "Permit MCP Gateway vs Temporal", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/permit-mcp-gateway-vs-temporal" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pushary-vs-temporal.json", "title": "Pushary vs Temporal", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pushary-vs-temporal" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/restate-vs-temporal.json", "title": "Restate vs Temporal", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/restate-vs-temporal" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/temporal-vs-trigger-dev.json", "title": "Temporal vs Trigger.dev", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/temporal-vs-trigger-dev" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/temporal-vs-withhuman.json", "title": "Temporal vs withHuman", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/temporal-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-trigger-dev.json", "title": "Big Arrow vs Trigger.dev", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-trigger-dev" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-orkes-conductor.json", "title": "Big Arrow vs Orkes Conductor Human tasks", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-orkes-conductor" } ], "scores": [ { "bigarrow": 75, "by": 10, "edge": "temporal", "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "temporal": 85, "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "bigarrow": 78, "by": 13, "edge": "temporal", "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "temporal": 91, "weight": 13 }, { "bigarrow": 77, "by": 8, "edge": "temporal", "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "temporal": 85, "weight": 13 }, { "bigarrow": 67, "by": 19, "edge": "temporal", "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "temporal": 86, "weight": 14 }, { "bigarrow": 60, "by": 40, "edge": "bigarrow", "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "temporal": 20, "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "bigarrow": 70, "by": 20, "edge": "temporal", "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "temporal": 90, "weight": 7 }, { "bigarrow": 59, "by": 11, "edge": "temporal", "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "temporal": 70, "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "Temporal scores 77.2 (BB) on agent readiness against Big Arrow's 70.7 (BB), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Big Arrow leads on payments \u0026 pricing. Both do hitl ask.", "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.", "temporal": "Waits of any length with a timeout survive worker restarts and deploys. No reviewer inbox, notifications or routing, so the human side is all your code." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-temporal", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-temporal.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-temporal.md", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-temporal.min.md" }, "markdown": "Temporal scores 77.2 (BB) on agent readiness against Big Arrow's 70.7 (BB), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Big Arrow leads on payments \u0026 pricing. Both do hitl ask.\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- Temporal: grade BB, 77.2/100, rank #24 of 1094. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/temporal.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/temporal.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- Payments \u0026 pricing, 60 against 20\n\nAlso in its favour:\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### Temporal (BB)\n\nGood for: A team that already runs, or wants to run, agents as durable workflows with strict guarantees and an audit trail per run.\n\nAhead on:\n- Reliability, 85 against 75\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 91 against 78\n- Agent ergonomics, 85 against 77\n- Security \u0026 auth, 86 against 67\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 90 against 70\n- Transparency \u0026 trust, 70 against 59\n\nWatch for: No reviewer inbox, notifications or routing, so the human side is all your code\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Big Arrow | Temporal | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 75 | 85 | Temporal +10 |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 91 | Temporal +13 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 85 | Temporal +8 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 67 | 86 | Temporal +19 |\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 | 90 | Temporal +20 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 59 | 70 | Temporal +11 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |\n| **Total** | | **70.7 · BB** | **77.2 · BB** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Big Arrow | Temporal |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | SDK + MCP | Platform |\n| Vendor | Franz Enzenhofer | Temporal Technologies |\n| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |\n| Transports | | HTTP |\n| Auth | None | OAuth or key |\n| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | MIT | MIT |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |\n| llms.txt | no | yes |\n| Last release | 2026-10-12 | 2026-09-15 |\n| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |\n| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-04-22 |\n| Customer content may train models | | |\n| Terms restrict automated access | | |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | | |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | | |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | | |\n| Popularity | 747 stars | none |\n| Agent reviews | none | 3.6/5 (8) |\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**Temporal.** Waits of any length with a timeout survive worker restarts and deploys. No reviewer inbox, notifications or routing, so the human side is all your code.\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### Temporal\n\n1. Put the decision in a typed Signal payload (approver, decision, comments, timestamp) instead of a bare boolean\n2. Always wait with a timeout and treat the timeout path as a rejection or an escalation on purpose\n3. Use the workflow ID as the approval ID, so the reviewer's tool only needs one value to send the Signal\n4. Use an Update instead of a Signal when the approver's tool needs an acknowledgement back\n5. Expect `ResourceExhausted` under load and let the SDK retry it, since signals are throttled last\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Big Arrow or Temporal?\n\nTemporal scores 77.2 (BB) on agent readiness against Big Arrow's 70.7 (BB), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Big Arrow leads on payments \u0026 pricing.\n\n### Are Big Arrow and Temporal open source?\n\nYes. Big Arrow is open source (MIT). Temporal is open source (MIT).\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-temporal.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-temporal.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"bigarrow\", \"b\": \"temporal\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare bigarrow temporal`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bigarrow.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/temporal.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Big Arrow or Temporal\n\n- [gotoHuman vs Temporal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gotohuman-vs-temporal.md)\n- [Hatchet vs Temporal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hatchet-vs-temporal.md)\n- [Inngest vs Temporal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/inngest-vs-temporal.md)\n- [Orkes Conductor Human tasks vs Temporal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/orkes-conductor-vs-temporal.md)\n- [Permit MCP Gateway vs Temporal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/permit-mcp-gateway-vs-temporal.md)\n- [Pushary vs Temporal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pushary-vs-temporal.md)\n- [Restate vs Temporal](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/restate-vs-temporal.md)\n- [Temporal vs Trigger.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/temporal-vs-trigger-dev.md)\n- [Temporal vs withHuman](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/temporal-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 Trigger.dev](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-trigger-dev.md)\n- [Big Arrow vs Orkes Conductor Human tasks](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-orkes-conductor.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 Temporal", "url": "" } ], "description": "Temporal scores 77.2 (BB) to Big Arrow's 70.7 (BB) for hitl ask. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "Big Arrow BB 70.7", "Temporal BB 77.2", "scores" ], "h1": "Big Arrow vs Temporal", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-bigarrow-vs-temporal.png", "path": "/compare/bigarrow-vs-temporal", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "Big Arrow vs Temporal for AI agents in 2026: scores and prices", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-15", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-temporal" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2100, "slim": 580 }, "version": 1 }