# Big Arrow vs Trigger.dev

> Trigger.dev scores 74.7 (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-trigger-dev
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-trigger-dev.md (~2,150 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-trigger-dev.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-trigger-dev.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

Trigger.dev scores 74.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Big Arrow's 70.7 (BB), and leads in 5 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
- Trigger.dev: grade BB, 74.7/100, rank #70 of 1094. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/trigger-dev.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/trigger-dev.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 40

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

### Trigger.dev (BB)

Good for: A TypeScript team that wants an approval pause inside background jobs or AI chat agents, with the reviewer UI built in their own app.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 91 against 78
- Security & auth, 73 against 67
- Maintenance & community, 90 against 70
- Transparency & trust, 73 against 59

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: 10-minute default timeout on tokens


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Big Arrow | Trigger.dev | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 75 | 75 | even |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 91 | Trigger.dev +13 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 79 | Trigger.dev +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 67 | 73 | Trigger.dev +6 |
| 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 | 90 | Trigger.dev +20 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 59 | 73 | Trigger.dev +14 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **70.7 · BB** | **74.7 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Big Arrow | Trigger.dev |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | Platform |
| Vendor | Franz Enzenhofer | Trigger.dev |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.trigger.dev` |
| Transports |  | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | 31 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.triggerdotdev/trigger.dev` |
| Last release | 2026-10-12 | 2026-10-01 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-06-29 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2025-12-23 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| 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.

**Trigger.dev.** Tokens complete from a backend, a pre-signed callback URL or the browser with a token scoped to one waitpoint. 10-minute default timeout on tokens.

## 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

### Trigger.dev

1. Pass an explicit `timeout` to `wait.createToken()` and handle `ok: false` as a timeout
2. Use an idempotency key when creating the token so a retried step doesn't send the reviewer a second request
3. Give the browser the `publicAccessToken`, never the secret key, and don't call `token.url` from client code
4. Tag tokens with the user or task ID so pending approvals can be listed per reviewer
5. Start the MCP server with `--readonly` when the agent only needs to inspect runs

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Big Arrow or Trigger.dev?

Trigger.dev scores 74.7 (BB) on agent readiness against Big Arrow's 70.7 (BB), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Big Arrow leads on payments & pricing.

### Are Big Arrow and Trigger.dev open source?

Yes. Big Arrow is open source (MIT). Trigger.dev is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Big Arrow or Trigger.dev

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