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Head to head · Agent multi agent · October 2026 research run

Claude Code vs Paperclip

Claude Code scores 61.9 (C) on agent readiness against Paperclip's 59 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Paperclip leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do agent multi agent.

Claude CodeAnthropic · Agent harness C61.9/100#284 of 578 PaperclipPaperclip Labs, Inc. · Agent harness C59/100#354 of 578

Which one, for what

Claude Code C

Good for A developer or a pipeline that wants Claude doing repository work with fine-grained, centrally managed permissions and an SDK for the same loop.

Ahead on

  • Agent ergonomics, 87 against 70
  • Security & auth, 80 against 64
  • Transparency & trust, 81 against 65

Watch for

The sandbox is off by default and native Windows has none

Paperclip C

Good for Someone running several coding or operations agents who wants one place for tasks, budgets, approvals and history across harnesses.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 66 against 50
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 20

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card
  • Open source

Watch for

claude_local defaults dangerouslySkipPermissions to true and codex_local defaults to bypassing approvals and the sandbox, with agents running on the host

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runClaude CodePaperclipEdge
Reliability16%205066Paperclip +16
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28081Paperclip +1
Agent ergonomics13%16.28770Claude Code +17
Security & auth14%17.58064Claude Code +16
Payments & pricing10%12.52060Paperclip +40
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88278Claude Code +4
Transparency & trust7%8.88165Claude Code +16
Negative events≤15-6-10
Total61.9 · C59 · C

Facts side by side

FactClaude CodePaperclip
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorAnthropicPaperclip Labs, Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingPaidFree
x402nono
LicenceProprietary. LICENSE.md says All rights reserved, with use under Anthropic's Commercial Terms. The GitHub repository holds the changelog, plugins and examples, not the sourceMIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-012026-10-05
Terms last updatedno date given2026-07-23
Privacy policy last updatedno date given2026-07-23
Customer content may train modelsyes, with an opt-outyes, with an opt-out
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesyes
Popularity141k stars99k stars, 60k npm/wk

Verdicts

Claude Code

Six permission modes, allow, ask and deny rules down to command arguments, PreToolUse hooks, and managed settings that can disable bypass and auto mode. The sandbox is off by default and native Windows has none.

Paperclip

Board approvals, budgets with a hard stop and an activity log sit above whichever harnesses do the work, and eleven stable versions shipped in 90 days. The Claude Code and Codex adapters skip permission prompts and the sandbox by default, and twelve security advisories, five of them critical, have been published since April 2026.

Before you call either

Claude Code

  1. Pass --permission-mode on every claude -p run. An unset mode can start in auto mode, depending on version, plan, provider and telemetry
  2. Turn on the sandbox with sandbox.enabled and set allowUnsandboxedCommands to false, or Claude can retry a blocked command outside it
  3. Set CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC=1 on a Claude login to stop metrics and error reports in one go
  4. Set autoUpdatesChannel to stable or DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER=1 in CI. Native installs update themselves about once a day
  5. Cap pipeline runs with --max-turns and --max-budget-usd

Paperclip

  1. Set PAPERCLIP_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1 or DO_NOT_TRACK=1 before the first start. Telemetry is on by default
  2. Set dangerouslySkipPermissions and dangerouslyBypassApprovalsAndSandbox to false on agents that read untrusted input, or run them in a sandbox provider
  3. Install with Node.js 24.11 or newer, and install and sign in to each harness CLI on the host first. Paperclip assumes they are there
  4. Use --bind lan or --bind tailnet at onboarding for anything beyond one machine. The default local_trusted mode treats every request as the board admin
  5. Treat 409 on task checkout as owned by another agent and pick different work. The API docs say not to retry

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Claude Code or Paperclip?

Claude Code scores 61.9 (C) on agent readiness against Paperclip's 59 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Paperclip leads on reliability and payments & pricing.

Are Claude Code and Paperclip open source?

No open-source release is listed for Claude Code. Paperclip is open source (MIT).

Other comparisons with Claude Code or Paperclip

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.

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