# Big Arrow vs Temporal

> 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.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-temporal
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-temporal.md (~2,100 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-temporal.min.md (~580 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-temporal.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

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 & pricing. 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
- 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
- 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:
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card

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

### Temporal (BB)

Good for: A team that already runs, or wants to run, agents as durable workflows with strict guarantees and an audit trail per run.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 85 against 75
- Schema & documentation, 91 against 78
- Agent ergonomics, 85 against 77
- Security & auth, 86 against 67
- Maintenance & community, 90 against 70
- Transparency & trust, 70 against 59

Watch for: No reviewer inbox, notifications or routing, so the human side is all your code


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Big Arrow | Temporal | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 75 | 85 | Temporal +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 91 | Temporal +13 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 85 | Temporal +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 67 | 86 | Temporal +19 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 20 | Big Arrow +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 90 | Temporal +20 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 59 | 70 | Temporal +11 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **70.7 · BB** | **77.2 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Big Arrow | Temporal |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | Platform |
| Vendor | Franz Enzenhofer | Temporal Technologies |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-12 | 2026-09-15 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-04-22 |
| Customer content may train models |  |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Popularity | 747 stars | none |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.6/5 (8) |

## 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.

**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.

## 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

### Temporal

1. Put the decision in a typed Signal payload (approver, decision, comments, timestamp) instead of a bare boolean
2. Always wait with a timeout and treat the timeout path as a rejection or an escalation on purpose
3. Use the workflow ID as the approval ID, so the reviewer's tool only needs one value to send the Signal
4. Use an Update instead of a Signal when the approver's tool needs an acknowledgement back
5. Expect `ResourceExhausted` under load and let the SDK retry it, since signals are throttled last

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Big Arrow or Temporal?

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 & pricing.

### Are Big Arrow and Temporal open source?

Yes. Big Arrow is open source (MIT). Temporal is open source (MIT).


## For agents

- 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
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "bigarrow", "b": "temporal"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare bigarrow temporal`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bigarrow.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/temporal.json

## Other comparisons with Big Arrow or Temporal

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