Head to head · Agent frameworks · October 2026 research run

BoxLang AI vs guilds.run

BoxLang AI scores 65.8 (B) on agent readiness against guilds.run's 56.6 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. guilds.run leads on payments & pricing. Both do agent frameworks.

Best agent frameworks and SDKs · All 91 frameworks comparisons

Which one, for what

BoxLang AI B

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

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 66 against 53
  • Schema & documentation, 71 against 58
  • Agent ergonomics, 74 against 67
  • Maintenance & community, 83 against 41
  • Transparency & trust, 70 against 54

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it

Watch for

Runs only on BoxLang, a JVM language, so it suits teams already on BoxLang or CFML rather than Python or TypeScript stacks

guilds.run C

Best for A person or small team that wants a standing, inspectable team of agents with schedules, shared tables and a web app, run on one machine, and is comfortable tracking main.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 50

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

No tagged release, version number, changelog or published image. Users install whatever is on main

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.

Maintenance & community BoxLang AI +42

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.

guilds.run 41

No tagged release. Main, which the install clones and SECURITY.md names as the supported version, last changed on 13 October 2026, so 20 of 30 rather than full marks for a release. No releases or dated changelog entries (0). Eight issues and pull requests, all closed, the three issues closed within an hour, one with two comments, on five days of history (15 of 25). No published package (0). CI on every push with a frozen pnpm lockfile, no Dependabot configuration in the repository (6 of 10).

Transparency & trust BoxLang AI +16

BoxLang AI 70

Apache-2.0, OSI approved, though the licence file sits in src/main/resources rather than the repository root (30). The FAQ says prompts and history go to the chosen cloud provider and that Ollama keeps data local, and we found no telemetry in the source, but there's no statement for the module of what, if anything, Ortus receives. Ortus's privacy policy covers its website and customers and says data is collected when you use its products without naming which (15 of 30). Migration notes are dated in the changelog, and default models were moved off a Groq model on its removal date, but there's no written deprecation policy or support window (10 of 20). No telemetry statement either way in the docs (10 of 20). 65 in all.

guilds.run 54

AGPL-3.0-only, OSI approved (30). No privacy policy or terms. The footer links to both and they return 404. The docs say where data lives (PostgreSQL and STATE_ROOT on your host), that model keys go only to their provider, and that stored credentials are encrypted under one master key in .env (12 of 30). No deprecation policy or notices. The security register is dated (3 of 20). Sentry is opt-in and documented on the Configure page, and the Graft telemetry setting and its version lookup are disclosed on the code tools page (18 of 20).

Reliability BoxLang AI +13

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.

guilds.run 53

Read with the local-software lines, because the owner runs it. Docker with Compose is the stated requirement, and the install is a git clone of main plus ./setup.sh, which builds the images. No package, tagged release or published image exists, since the image workflow runs only on a v* tag and there are none (10 of 20). The verify workflow runs typecheck, lint, orchestrator, UI and web tests and a smoke test of the Compose stack, and all 13 runs on main from 9 to 13 October 2026 passed. The clone has 196 test files (25). No open issues, and the three issues filed were closed within an hour, on five days of public history (18 of 25). No version numbers, tags or changelog (0). Not versioned or declared stable (0).

Schema & documentation BoxLang AI +13

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.

guilds.run 58

Framework reading. No OpenAPI document for the HTTP API. The recipe format guilds.recipe v2 rejects unknown keys, and connector manifests are validated with TypeBox at load (12 of 25). No llms.txt on guilds.run or docs.guilds.run (404). The docs are Markdown in the repository with an AGENTS.md (5 of 10). Pages state what the code does today, which page to read for which job, and the trust boundary in numbered rules (15 of 20). Tool input schemas, recipe caps and typed manifest fields (11 of 15). The getting-started walk says what you should see at each step, and the Operate page explains each startup error message (11 of 15). No changelog or versioned releases. The security register is the one page that keeps dated history (4 of 15).

Payments & pricing guilds.run +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.

guilds.run 60

No payment protocol (0). Self-hosted rule. The software is free under AGPL-3.0 with nothing to buy today (20), needs no card (20) and needs no account with Cigale AI (20). The hosted edition at $19 a month is listed as coming soon and was not scored.

Agent ergonomics BoxLang AI +7

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.

guilds.run 67

Framework reading, scored on what it takes to run a tool-calling team with MCP. No code is needed. Three commands and a model key start a guild, and each agent is offered only the tools turned on for it (18 of 25). max_tool_calls defaults to 50 per run, max_input_tokens trims old tool results and hands off to a new run, and remaining_tool_calls is appended to each result after the platform cap (15 of 20). Runs end with named codes such as generation.max_tool_calls and workspace.full, and interrupted tool calls get an error result so the next model request is valid (13 of 20). readOnlyHint and destructiveHint are stored for each MCP tool and writing tools start Off. Startup does not replay a model call (14 of 20). Sensible defaults and a guided first-run dialog, but it is an application with an HTTP API and no SDK in any language (7 of 15).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runBoxLang AIguilds.runEdge
Reliability16%206653BoxLang AI +13
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27158BoxLang AI +13
Agent ergonomics13%16.27467BoxLang AI +7
Security & auth14%17.57168BoxLang AI +3
Payments & pricing10%12.55060guilds.run +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88341BoxLang AI +42
Transparency & trust7%8.87054BoxLang AI +16
Negative events≤15-3-2
TotalB 65.8/100C 56.6/100

Facts side by side

FactBoxLang AIguilds.run
KindAgent frameworkAgent framework
VendorOrtus SolutionsCigale AI
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthNoneAPI key
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceApache-2.0AGPL-3.0-only
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
Last release2026-10-20none
Terms last updatedno date givenno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno date givenno document linked
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot read yet
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot read yet
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot read yet
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot read yet
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot read yet
Popularitynone57 stars

How the scores have moved

BoxLang AI

No score change since it was listed.

guilds.run

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.

guilds.run

A self-hosted multi-agent system that records each run's prompt, tool calls and memory changes, with per-agent models and tools and no telemetry by default. Public since 9 October 2026, it has no tagged release or published package, its own security register lists 13 open issues, and the site's terms and privacy links return 404.

Before you call either

BoxLang AI

  1. Set mcp.stdio.allowedCommands to the executables you need. The default empty list lets any command start as a stdio MCP server.
  2. Pass allowedPaths when you create FileSystemTools. With none, its tools can read, write and delete anywhere the JVM user can.
  3. Attach HumanInTheLoopMiddleware with a checkpointer for tools that write or spend. Approval is opt-in.
  4. Create MCP clients with MCP() rather than the class, since 3.6.0 renamed MCPClient to MCPHttpClient without an alias.
  5. Use the mock provider to test agent wiring and guardrails with no API key or network.

guilds.run

  1. Keep the box on loopback or behind an authenticating proxy with AUTH_MODE=trusted-header. The default mode does not authenticate
  2. Put agents that hold different secrets or GitHub tokens on different machines. Agents on one machine can read each other's homes and tokens
  3. Back up the .env file written by ./setup.sh. It holds the only copy of the key that encrypts stored credentials
  4. Set a spend limit at your model provider. guilds.run sets no spend cap, and max_tool_calls defaults to 50 per run
  5. Pin a commit of main when you deploy. There are no tagged releases or versioned images yet

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, BoxLang AI or guilds.run?

BoxLang AI scores 65.8 (B) on agent readiness against guilds.run's 56.6 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. guilds.run leads on payments & pricing.

Are BoxLang AI and guilds.run open source?

Yes. BoxLang AI is open source (Apache-2.0). guilds.run is open source (AGPL-3.0-only).

Other comparisons with BoxLang AI or guilds.run

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