Head to head · Agent frameworks · October 2026 research run
BoxLang AI vs Agent Development Kit (ADK)
Agent Development Kit (ADK) scores 68.7 (B) on agent readiness against BoxLang AI's 65.8 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent frameworks.
Best agent frameworks and SDKs · All 91 frameworks comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for Teams already running BoxLang or modernising CFML on the JVM who want agents, RAG and MCP with approval and guardrails in the same language
No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.
Watch for
Runs only on BoxLang, a JVM language, so it suits teams already on BoxLang or CFML rather than Python or TypeScript stacks
Best for Teams on Google Cloud or working outside Python, and for anyone who wants approval, guardrail callbacks and evaluation in one framework.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 80 against 66
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 71
- Agent ergonomics, 80 against 74
- Security & auth, 92 against 71
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 50
- Maintenance & community, 90 against 83
Watch for
Six CVEs in 2026, three of them critical, one in tool confirmation itself
Why the edge
Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.
Security & auth Agent Development Kit (ADK) +21
BoxLang AI 71
Framework reading. 30 for what leaves the machine and credentials, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt injection, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. No telemetry in the module's source, requests go only to configured providers, keys come from settings or environment variables, and request logging is off by default. 3.4.0 fixed a Gemini key leaking into logs through the request URL (27 of 30). Approval is enforced in code by HumanInTheLoopMiddleware with five policies, GuardrailMiddleware blocks tools by name and argument pattern, and stdio commands never use a shell. All of it is opt-in. allowedCommands allows any executable by default, FileSystemTools allows any path without allowedPaths, and the MCP server has no authentication unless configured (12 of 20). Unicode hygiene and fencing of ${context} are on by default, with opt-in input sanitiser, LLM judge and output guard. Streaming guards detect after the fact, which the changelog says (14 of 15). About 70 interception points, LoggingMiddleware, FlightRecorderMiddleware and MCP server statistics, with no OpenTelemetry export (11 of 15). CONTRIBUTING.md asks for reports to security@ortussolutions.com and the Slack #security channel. No security.txt (410), no bounty, and no published advisory found, while 3.6.0 lists a SQL injection fix in MySQL vector memory under Fixed (7 of 20). 71 in all.
Agent Development Kit (ADK) 92
We found no usage telemetry in the docs or the Python source, and capturing message content in traces is opt-in (30). Tool confirmation for human approval, extended to workflow tool nodes in 2.11.0 and to any workflow node through require_confirmation in 2.12.0, the docs say to always pass tool_filter to McpToolset, 2.12.0 limits the mutating /dev and agent builder endpoints of adk web to local clients by default, and sandboxed code execution is recommended for model-written code (20). Before-tool callbacks, an after_tool_callback that screens tool output since 2.12.0, plugins, a Model Armor plugin, an optional ToolCallIntegrityPlugin since 2.11.0, and a safety page that covers indirect prompt injection through tool results (15). OpenTelemetry traces with Cloud Trace and about 20 third-party integrations (15). SECURITY.md routes reports to Google's g.co/vulnz with a one-day triage target, per the 1 October check, not re-read on 1 November (the repository still has no SECURITY.md file and GitHub's security page answered 403). Google as CNA has published six 2026 CVEs with fixed versions, the newest on 23 and 28 October, but there are no repository advisories and no bounty is mentioned in the policy (12). Framework reading, so SOC 2 isn't scored.
Schema & documentation Agent Development Kit (ADK) +16
BoxLang AI 71
Framework reading. A reference page for each built-in function with its arguments, and tool schemas generated from typed function arguments with required fields since 3.3.1. BoxLang is dynamically typed and no published API reference was found, though the repository builds DocBox API docs (15 of 25). llms.txt with about 150 entries and a Markdown copy of every page (10). The FAQ says when to use aiChat() or aiAgent() and the security guide says which guards to use when, though some FAQ links still say coming soon for pages that exist (14 of 20). Tool arguments are typed with required lists, and stdio options a server doesn't have throw InvalidArgument (11 of 15). About 100 example scripts in the repository and a gallery on ai.boxlang.io, but the production guide catches RateLimitException, TimeoutException and AuthenticationException, which the module's source never throws, and there is no exception reference (9 of 15). Keep a Changelog and a release-history page per version, but the 3.6.0 page still read unreleased on 1 November and two old versions appear twice in the changelog (12 of 15). 71 in all.
Agent Development Kit (ADK) 87
An API reference on adk.dev (25). llms.txt with about 250 entries and Markdown versions of each page (10). The docs explain the agent types and when to use workflow agents, but say little about when not to use ADK (15). Tools are typed functions, and McpToolset keeps the server's schemas (12). Examples throughout, but the MCP page has no error handling section and we found no exception reference (10). Dated changelog and release notes (15).
Reliability Agent Development Kit (ADK) +14
BoxLang AI 66
Read with the local-software lines. Official package on ForgeBox, installed with install-bx-module bx-ai or box install bx-ai, with BoxLang 1.14.0 or later in box.json and JDK 21 in CONTRIBUTING.md, but the 3.6 announcement says BoxLang 1.18 or later (18 of 20). tests.yml runs about 140 test classes against Ollama and the vector stores in Docker Compose, and against paid providers on development and releases, on pull requests and pushes to development. Whether runs pass wasn't read, since WebFetch refused github.com (15 of 25). Open issues and replies weren't read for the same reason. The changelog closes issues #182 to #259 in 3.3.1 to 3.4.0, and bugs also go to Ortus's Jira (10 of 25). Keep a Changelog with semantic versioning stated and Migration sections, but breaking changes ship in minor releases (8 of 15). 3.6.0, past 1.0 (15). 66 in all.
Agent Development Kit (ADK) 80
Official packages on PyPI (Requires-Python >=3.11 since 2.12.0, constraint files for 3.11 to 3.15) and npm (20). The continuous-integration workflow passes on main, per the 1 October check, not re-read on 1 November (25). 300 open issues and 261 open pull requests, per the 1 October check, not re-read on 1 November (12). The changelog calls out breaking changes, but they keep shipping in minor releases of a post-1.0 package (2.6.0 on 2026-07-29 and 2.7.0 on 2026-08-13), 2.12.0 on 2026-10-13 dropped Python 3.10 with no line in its changelog, and 2.8.0 reverted an A2A guard that had broken every tool confirmation. On 8 October the changelog relabelled the 2.11.0 dev UI config change a bug fix and the 2.9.0 resumption changes behaviour changes. 2.13.0 (22 October) marks one more breaking change, the telemetry schema default, in a minor release (8). 2.12.0, past 1.0 (15).
Payments & pricing Agent Development Kit (ADK) +10
BoxLang AI 50
Self-hosted rule, scored on the paid option. No payment protocol (0). BoxLang runtime plans are public without a login, Starter $749 a year and BoxLang+ and BoxLang++ from $1,999 to $4,999 a server or node a year, plan pricing rather than per unit (10). The Apache-2.0 module installs with no card (20) and no account or sign-up (20). 50 in all.
Agent Development Kit (ADK) 60
No payment protocol (0). Scored on Agent Runtime, the hosted option, which publishes per-unit prices without a login ($0.085 a vCPU-hour, $0.009 a GiB-hour, 50 vCPU-hours and 100 GiB-hours free a month) (20). The Apache-2.0 package installs with no card (20) and no account, and runs local models (20).
Maintenance & community Agent Development Kit (ADK) +7
BoxLang AI 83
3.6.0 on 2026-10-20 (30). Three releases in the 90 days to 1 November, 3.4.0 on 1 September, 3.5.0 on 11 September and 3.6.0 on 20 October (20). 79 commits on the development branch in those 90 days from Luis Majano, Doug Cain, Copilot and dependency bots, with pull requests up to #326 merged on 1 November. Issue reply times couldn't be read (10 of 25). The ForgeBox package is current at 3.6.0 (15). Dependabot for Gradle monthly and Actions quarterly, tests on pull requests and development, and a format check (8 of 10). 83 in all.
Agent Development Kit (ADK) 90
2.13.0 on 2026-10-23 (30). 15 Python releases in the 90 days from 3 August across the 1.x and 2.x lines, from 2.6.2 to 2.13.0, the newest 1.x being 1.39.1 on 2026-08-27 (20). 300 open issues and 261 open pull requests per the 1 October check, and we couldn't see reply times (15). Python is current, @google/adk is at 2.4.0 on npm, the Go module at v1.9.0 (tagged 15 October) and the Java artefact at 1.13.0 (21 October) (15). CI passes per the 1 October check, and 2.7.0 fixed zizmor findings in the workflows (10).
Agent ergonomics Agent Development Kit (ADK) +6
BoxLang AI 74
Framework reading, scored on what a tool-calling agent with MCP takes. An agent with an MCP server is one aiAgent() call with mcpServers, and toolFilter and prefix limit what each server adds. Skills can load lazily, but autoLoadSkills is on by default and injects every SKILL.md under /.agents/skills into every agent (20 of 25). MaxToolCallsMiddleware caps tool calls, window and summary memory bound history by messages or tokens, withMaxResponseBytes caps MCP answers and listTools( cursor ) pages tools (17 of 20). Named exceptions (ProviderError, UnsupportedCapability, InvalidArgument, MCPCommandRefused, BXAI.SecurityViolation) but no reference page, and the changelog says a timed-out call still surfaces as a JSON parse error (12 of 20). RetryMiddleware with exponential backoff, approval resumes that don't replay the model call or rerun executed tools, and a stdio client that never repeats an in-flight call. MCP tool annotations such as readOnlyHint aren't read (15 of 20). An agent needs a name and works with defaults, and a mock provider runs with no key, but it is one language (10 of 15). 74 in all.
Agent Development Kit (ADK) 80
An agent with one MCP server is about 15 lines with the built-in McpToolset, and tool_filter limits which tools load, with no dynamic filtering or deferred loading that we saw (20). RunConfig caps model calls per run, and the context compression page documents token-based and sliding-window compaction through EventsCompactionConfig, plus context caching (20). No exception reference or MCP error handling documented (5). Invocations are resumable, model calls take retry options, and 2.11.0 adds an abort_signal for graceful cancellation (20). An agent needs a name, a model and an instruction, in Python, TypeScript, Go, Java or Kotlin (15).
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | BoxLang AI | Agent Development Kit (ADK) | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 66 | 80 | Agent Development Kit (ADK) +14 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 71 | 87 | Agent Development Kit (ADK) +16 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 74 | 80 | Agent Development Kit (ADK) +6 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 71 | 92 | Agent Development Kit (ADK) +21 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 50 | 60 | Agent Development Kit (ADK) +10 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 83 | 90 | Agent Development Kit (ADK) +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 70 | 69 | BoxLang AI +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | -12 | |
| Total | B 65.8/100 | B 68.7/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | BoxLang AI | Agent Development Kit (ADK) |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent framework | Agent framework |
| Vendor | Ortus Solutions | |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-20 | 2026-10-23 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Popularity | none | 22k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (8) |
How the scores have moved
Verdicts
BoxLang AI
A JVM agent framework with human approval, guardrail middleware and an MCP client over HTTP and stdio, all enforced in code, with three releases in the 90 days to 1 November 2026. It runs only on BoxLang, the stronger guards are opt-in, and minor releases have renamed public classes without a deprecation period.
Agent Development Kit (ADK)
Python, TypeScript, Go, Java and Kotlin, with tool confirmation and context compaction built in. Google has published six CVEs against ADK in 2026, three of them critical, one in tool confirmation itself, and minor 2.x releases keep carrying breaking changes.
Before you call either
BoxLang AI
- Set
mcp.stdio.allowedCommandsto the executables you need. The default empty list lets any command start as a stdio MCP server. - Pass
allowedPathswhen you create FileSystemTools. With none, its tools can read, write and delete anywhere the JVM user can. - Attach HumanInTheLoopMiddleware with a checkpointer for tools that write or spend. Approval is opt-in.
- Create MCP clients with
MCP()rather than the class, since 3.6.0 renamed MCPClient to MCPHttpClient without an alias. - Use the
mockprovider to test agent wiring and guardrails with no API key or network.
Agent Development Kit (ADK)
- Run Python 2.7.0 or later and Java 1.13.0 or later, which fix the adk web code-injection CVE, the tool-confirmation forgery and the Java dev server's cross-origin flaw
- Always pass tool_filter to McpToolset
- Pin a 2.x minor and read the changelog before each bump. 2.12.0 needs Python 3.11 or later, which its changelog doesn't say
- Set EventsCompactionConfig on the App for long sessions so context doesn't grow without limit
- Keep ADK Web off public interfaces
- Set
ADK_TELEMETRY_SCHEMA_VERSION_OPT_IN=otel_semconv_1_36on 2.13.0 or later if dashboards or alerts read thecall_llmspan
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, BoxLang AI or Agent Development Kit (ADK)?
Agent Development Kit (ADK) scores 68.7 (B) on agent readiness against BoxLang AI's 65.8 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.
Are BoxLang AI and Agent Development Kit (ADK) open source?
Yes. BoxLang AI is open source (Apache-2.0). Agent Development Kit (ADK) is open source (Apache-2.0).
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/boxlang-ai-vs-google-adk.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/boxlang-ai.json·/api/v1/tools/google-adk.json - From a terminal
anchor compare boxlang-ai google-adk(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "boxlang-ai", "b": "google-adk"}at/mcp, no key