# Claude Agent SDK vs guilds.run

> Claude Agent SDK scores 72.1 (BB) to guilds.run's 56.5 (C) for agent frameworks. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-agent-sdk-vs-guilds-run
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-agent-sdk-vs-guilds-run.md (~2,300 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-agent-sdk-vs-guilds-run.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-agent-sdk-vs-guilds-run.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: 2026-10-14

Claude Agent SDK scores 72.1 (BB) on agent readiness against guilds.run's 56.5 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. guilds.run leads on payments & pricing. Both do agent frameworks.

- Claude Agent SDK: grade BB, 72.1/100, rank #115 of 1084. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/claude-agent-sdk.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/claude-agent-sdk.json
- guilds.run: grade C, 56.5/100, rank #674 of 1084. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/guilds-run.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/guilds-run.json
- Best agent frameworks and SDKs: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/frameworks/index.md
- All 55 frameworks comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/frameworks/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Claude Agent SDK (BB)

Good for: Agents that work on files, code and shells and want Claude Code's tool set and permission model without building them.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 70 against 53
- Schema & documentation, 89 against 58
- Agent ergonomics, 94 against 67
- Security & auth, 83 against 68
- Maintenance & community, 87 against 41
- Transparency & trust, 83 against 52

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: Claude models only, so a person has to set up a Claude API key or cloud account first

### guilds.run (C)

Good 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 40

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card
- Open source

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


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Claude Agent SDK | guilds.run | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 70 | 53 | Claude Agent SDK +17 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 89 | 58 | Claude Agent SDK +31 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 94 | 67 | Claude Agent SDK +27 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 83 | 68 | Claude Agent SDK +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 60 | guilds.run +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 87 | 41 | Claude Agent SDK +46 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 52 | Claude Agent SDK +31 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -6 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **72.1 · BB** | **56.5 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Claude Agent SDK | guilds.run |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent framework | Agent framework |
| Vendor | Anthropic | Cigale AI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT (Python wrapper), proprietary (TypeScript package and the bundled Claude Code binary) | AGPL-3.0-only |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-30 | none |
| Terms last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out |  |
| 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 | yes |  |
| Popularity | 8.2k stars, 10.1M npm/wk, 6.1M PyPI/wk | 57 stars |

## Verdicts

**Claude Agent SDK.** Claude Code's file, shell, search and web tools, with six permission modes, a canUseTool callback and PreToolUse hooks. Claude models only, so a person has to set up a Claude API key or cloud account first.

**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

### Claude Agent SDK

1. Set DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 before the first run on the Claude API
2. List MCP tools in allowed_tools, or the agent sees them and can't call them
3. Pass permission_mode explicitly. An unset mode can start in auto mode since TypeScript 0.3.286
4. Pin the version. Releases land almost daily and some get yanked
5. Check the init message for MCP servers in failed or needs-auth. They don't raise

### 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, Claude Agent SDK or guilds.run?

Claude Agent SDK scores 72.1 (BB) on agent readiness against guilds.run's 56.5 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. guilds.run leads on payments & pricing.

### Are Claude Agent SDK and guilds.run open source?

No open-source release is listed for Claude Agent SDK. guilds.run is open source (AGPL-3.0-only).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Claude Agent SDK or guilds.run

- [AgentOS vs Claude Agent SDK](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-claude-agent-sdk.md)
- [AgentOS vs guilds.run](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-guilds-run.md)
- [Agno vs Claude Agent SDK](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agno-vs-claude-agent-sdk.md)
- [Agno vs guilds.run](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agno-vs-guilds-run.md)
- [Claude Agent SDK vs CrewAI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-agent-sdk-vs-crewai.md)
- [Claude Agent SDK vs Docker Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-agent-sdk-vs-docker-agent.md)
- [Claude Agent SDK vs Agent Development Kit (ADK)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-agent-sdk-vs-google-adk.md)
- [Claude Agent SDK vs LangGraph](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-agent-sdk-vs-langgraph.md)
- [Claude Agent SDK vs Microsoft Agent Framework](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-agent-sdk-vs-microsoft-agent-framework.md)
- [Claude Agent SDK vs OpenAI Agents SDK](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-agent-sdk-vs-openai-agents-sdk.md)
- [Claude Agent SDK vs Pydantic AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-agent-sdk-vs-pydantic-ai.md)
- [CrewAI vs guilds.run](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crewai-vs-guilds-run.md)
- [Docker Agent vs guilds.run](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/docker-agent-vs-guilds-run.md)
- [Agent Development Kit (ADK) vs guilds.run](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-adk-vs-guilds-run.md)
- [guilds.run vs LangGraph](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guilds-run-vs-langgraph.md)
- [guilds.run vs Microsoft Agent Framework](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guilds-run-vs-microsoft-agent-framework.md)
- [guilds.run vs OpenAI Agents SDK](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guilds-run-vs-openai-agents-sdk.md)
- [guilds.run vs Pydantic AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guilds-run-vs-pydantic-ai.md)

## Disclosure

- Anthropic makes the models this research run and the review panel run on. This listing was graded by agents running on Claude, by the same published checklist as every other listing, and the panel doesn't review it, because every reviewer runs on Claude too.