# Big Arrow vs withHuman

> Big Arrow scores 71.1 (BB) to withHuman's 52.1 (D) for human approval. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-withhuman
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bigarrow-vs-withhuman.md (~4,450 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-01

Big Arrow scores 71.1 (BB) on agent readiness against withHuman's 52.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. withHuman leads on security & auth. Both do human approval.

- Big Arrow: grade BB, 71.1/100, rank #146 of 1253. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bigarrow.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bigarrow.json
- withHuman: grade D, 52.1/100, rank #906 of 1253. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/withhuman.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/withhuman.json
- Best human approval and handoff for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/human-in-the-loop/index.md
- All 55 human approval comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/human-in-the-loop/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 or hand over values and get a yes or no.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 75 against 16
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 70 against 49
- Transparency & trust, 63 against 56

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card
- Open source

Watch for: First commit 8 October 2026 and version 0.5.1, with flags removed or renamed between minor versions

### withHuman (D)

Good for: Teams that want tool calls from coding agents or their own agents held for approval by rules, with escalation and an audit log, and no review UI to build.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 73 against 67

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: The terms say the service is in early access, and the API document is version 0.1.0


## Why the edge

### Reliability: Big Arrow +59

- Big Arrow (75): Read with the local-software lines, since the owner runs the binary. First commit 8 October 2026. Installs from the author's Homebrew tap, which builds v0.5.1 from the tagged source and since 0.5.1 needs only the Command Line Tools, not Xcode, or as an ad hoc signed universal binary on GitHub Releases, with macOS 14 stated (20). CI runs SwiftLint in strict mode, a release build and `swift test` with the window-server tests switched on. The last 25 runs on main had passed by 15 October 2026, per the 15 October check, not re-read on 1 November because GitHub's pages answered 403 (25). Per the 15 October check, two open issues, a request for Windows and Linux and a note of thanks, and no open bug, with the one outside bug report fixed with a regression test in v0.4.3 the day it arrived. The issue list wasn't re-read on 1 November. The 0.5.1 changelog closes out #70 (the ports) and #71 (the Homebrew formula) (20). Keep a Changelog and semantic version tags, but flags removed or replaced in 0.2.0, 0.3.0 and 0.5.1 (`--raise`, `--shadow`, `--duration` on cards) are listed under Changed, not marked as breaking (10). Version 0.5.1, not 1.0 and not declared stable (0).
- withHuman (16): Graded as a hosted service. No status page is linked from the site, the docs or the support page, and status.withhuman.ai did not connect (0), so there is no incident history to read (5). No request rate limits are published. 429 is documented only for the plan's limit on pending requests or active agents, with no numbers in the docs (0). `Idempotency-Key` is required on four write commands with documented replay and conflict behaviour, and the long-poll guide says to call again after a dropped connection, but no Retry-After or backoff guidance was found for 429 (11 of 15). The terms give no uptime guarantee outside an enterprise agreement (0). The terms say the service is in early access and the API document is version 0.1.0 (0).

### Payments & pricing: Big Arrow +30

- Big Arrow (60): No payment protocol (0). Read with the self-hosted rule. Free under MIT with nothing to buy (20). No card or account (20). Installs with one Homebrew command and needs no signup (20).
- withHuman (30): No machine payment protocol (0). Public plan prices, Free at $0 for up to 5 members and Scale at $20 per user a month, with no per-request price and unpublished monthly allowances for gateway calls and phone messages (10). The Free plan and trial need no subscription per the billing docs. We did not sign up to confirm that no card is asked for (20). A person signs up in a browser and approves each agent's enrolment. Provisioner tokens then issue instance credentials by API (0).

### Maintenance & community: Big Arrow +21

- Big Arrow (70): v0.5.1 on 26 October 2026 (30). Fifteen tagged releases between 8 and 26 October 2026 (20). The Hacker News thread was triaged into ten tickets, closed the same day, and two outside pull requests were declined with reasons in the triage note. Two outside issues opened on 12 and 13 October had no maintainer reply by 15 October, per the 15 October check. On 26 October 0.5.1 linked the ports made by people from #70 and dropped the Xcode requirement after an outside pull request to the tap (#71), but the issue pages couldn't be re-read on 1 November (12 of 25). Not an MCP server and no SDK, and the skill is not in a registry (0). One dependency, current Swift 6 tooling, CI on every push to main. No Dependabot configuration found (8).
- withHuman (49): The CLI's `latest` build files were last modified on 8 October 2026, and the sitemap dates docs changes to 6 October (30). No versioned release notes or changelog were found. The sitemap shows docs edits on eight dates between 22 September and 6 October, which we count in part (5 of 20). Closed service with email support said to reply within one working day and a Discord for the protocol. The linked GitHub repositories returned 404 (6 of 15). No official SDK found. The CLI is the only client (5 of 15). CLI builds for four platforms ship with SHA256SUMS, and no public CI was found (3 of 10).

### Transparency & trust: Big Arrow +7

- Big Arrow (63): MIT in LICENSE and in the Homebrew formula, with the bundled Feather icons' MIT licence in THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md (30). No privacy policy. The README says there is no daemon, account or telemetry and that card secrets never reach disk, and the source we read has no network code, which agrees. Sign text, which can hold a value to paste, sits in a per-user temporary file while the arrow is shown, which the README does not mention (15). No deprecation policy. Removed and renamed flags are named in the dated changelog (4). No telemetry to disclose, and the README says so. Nothing is sent, so there is nothing to opt out of (16).
- withHuman (56): Closed hosted service with short, clear terms. The site calls the core open source, but the repository it links to returned 404 on 8 October 2026, so no licence could be read (15 of 30). The privacy policy and terms agree on no model training, server logs kept 30 days and records kept for the life of the organisation. The purge after deletion is only 'a short grace period', no DPA was found, and the AI Judge docs name OpenAI model keys while the processor list names no model provider (18 of 30). The terms promise notice of removals and 14 days' email notice of material changes to the terms, with no dated deprecation policy (5 of 20). Eight processors are named with purposes and hosting is stated as Azure UK South, less the missing model provider (14 of 20).

### Security & auth: withHuman +6

- Big Arrow (67): No credential model to grade, since the tool holds no secret of its own and makes no network call, so read with the framework lines as for other local agent tools. 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for least privilege and approvals, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. No network code, telemetry or account found in the source, and the only dependency is swift-argument-parser. A card's link row opens in the browser only when the person clicks it (30). It never clicks, types or captures, drawing needs no permission, and Accessibility is needed only for label targeting. Boxes and rings are outlines, the sign keeps clear of its target, and a click on the sign removes it. Since 0.5.0 a card can put a decision to the person with buttons and return it to the agent, and secrets go on a card from `pass:`, `keychain:`, `op:`, `env:` or `file:`, never the command line, show masked, copy as concealed and leave the clipboard after 30 s, per the README and source. Raising the target app is on by default with `--no-raise` to opt out (18). The skill tells the agent to put on the sign what an approval, payment or deletion does. Element labels read from other apps return as text the agent reads, with no guidance on treating them as untrusted (9). Live arrows are recorded in `$TMPDIR/bigarrow/<pid>.json`, sign text included, while shown, and a card's reply is written there with mode 0600 and no secret values until `wait` reads it. `--json` reports how each ended. No persistent log (6). No SECURITY.md, security.txt, bug bounty or advisories. The main branch is protected against force pushes and deletion, and the release binary is signed ad hoc and not notarised (4).
- withHuman (73): Purpose-limited credentials. An agent credential can only create and read its own requests, a provisioner token only manages instances, personal keys can be narrowed and expire after 90 days by default, and the MCP server uses OAuth with PKCE, dynamic client registration and 35 scopes. Choosing specific actions is limited to the hosted paid plans (28 of 30). Agents and organisation keys can never decide a request, sensitive grants need a recent sign-in, and the docs say the required-MFA settings don't yet work with the built-in sign-in methods (16 of 20). Reviewers see agent reasoning as a claim separate from the arguments, `server` is documented as an unverified label, and notifications never carry arguments (11 of 15). Append-only audit log with search by API, and every key's changes recorded under the key, in the hosted edition (13 of 15). The footer says SOC 2 Type II with no report, auditor or trust page. No security.txt (404 on both hosts), disclosure policy or bounty found (5 of 20).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Big Arrow | withHuman | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 75 | 16 | Big Arrow +59 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 81 | withHuman +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 74 | Big Arrow +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 67 | 73 | withHuman +6 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 30 | Big Arrow +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 49 | Big Arrow +21 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 63 | 56 | Big Arrow +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **71.1 · BB** | **52.1 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Big Arrow | withHuman |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | SDK + MCP | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Franz Enzenhofer | Metoro Inc |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://app.withhuman.ai` |
| Transports |  | HTTP |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary hosted service under Metoro Inc's terms. The site describes an open-source edition, but the repository it links to returned 404 on 8 October 2026 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-26 | 2026-10-08 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-09-04 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-09-04 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 747 stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 3.3/5 (4) | none |

## How the scores have moved

### Big Arrow

- +0.4 on 27 October 2026: checklist

### withHuman

- +0.3 on 27 October 2026: checklist

## Verdicts

**Big Arrow.** An agent can show a person which control to click, with a labelled arrow that needs no permission to draw and removes itself, and since 0.5.0 can collect an answer on a cue card. The tool is under a month old at version 0.5.1, runs only on macOS, and has no security policy.

**withHuman.** The approval API is small and carefully specified, with a public OpenAPI 3.1 document, mandatory idempotency keys and agent credentials that can never approve. The service is in early access under its own terms, with no status page, published rate limits or changelog, and the open-source repository the site links to returned 404 on 8 October 2026.

## 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 secrets to `bigarrow card` as `--secret Label=keychain:service/account` or another source, never as a literal value
4. After `bigarrow card`, run `bigarrow wait`. Exit 1 means the person closed the card without answering, so ask in the terminal
5. On exit 4, run `bigarrow doctor` and ask the person to grant Accessibility to the app running your shell, not to bigarrow

### withHuman

1. Send an `Idempotency-Key` header on `POST /api/aap/v1/requests`. The call answers 400 without one
2. Read the decision with `GET /api/aap/v1/requests/{id}?wait=30s` and repeat while `status` is `pending`. `wait` is capped at 30 seconds
3. Set `timeout` between one second and seven days, and treat `expired` and `cancelled` as a refusal
4. Start an approved call within five minutes of `decided_at`, because the decision carries an `expires_at`
5. Cancel a request when you stop waiting, so reviewers stop seeing it

## Questions

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

Big Arrow scores 71.1 (BB) on agent readiness against withHuman's 52.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. withHuman leads on security & auth.

### Can an agent call Big Arrow and withHuman without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for Big Arrow. withHuman has a hosted endpoint at https://app.withhuman.ai.

### Are Big Arrow and withHuman open source?

Big Arrow is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for withHuman.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Big Arrow or withHuman

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

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp