Head to head · Multi-agent orchestration · October 2026 research run
Clawboo vs Qwen Code
Qwen Code scores 72.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Clawboo's 61.4 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Clawboo leads on security & auth. Both do multi-agent orchestration.
Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 955 harnesses comparisons
Which one, for what
Clawboo C
Best for One person on one computer who wants several coding and general agents on one board, with shared memory and a lead agent that routes work.
Ahead on
- Security & auth, 70 against 53
Also in its favour
- No key needed to call it
Watch for
Claude Code runs in bypassPermissions, Codex with danger-full-access and Hermes with --yolo, with no setting to change it and no sandbox
Qwen Code BB
Best for Developers and CI jobs that want an open-source harness tied to no single model vendor, with run budgets and SDKs.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 69 against 52
- Schema & documentation, 91 against 83
- Agent ergonomics, 85 against 75
- Maintenance & community, 88 against 51
- Transparency & trust, 65 against 58
Also in its favour
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- No incidents deducted, where Clawboo loses 4 points for them
Watch for
The default approval mode is Auto, where an LLM classifier approves tool calls, and sandboxing and folder trust are both off by default
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 Qwen Code +37
Clawboo 51
0.5.0 was published to npm on 21 October 2026 (30). Two releases in the 90 days to 1 November 2026, 0.4.0 on 28 September and 0.5.0, below the three the line asks for (0). github.com was unreachable, so replies to issues, pull requests and Discussions are unchecked. The CI file cites issue #140 as fixed (3). One public npm package, current, with no entry in the official MCP registry for its four servers (10). CI, CodeQL, weekly Dependabot and SLSA provenance on 0.4.0 and 0.5.0, with @composio/client pinned to an alpha (8).
Qwen Code 88
0.25.0 on 5 October 2026 (30). 39 stable releases since 10 July, plus previews and nightlies (20). Issues are labelled and commented on within a day, largely by automation, against 1,402 open issues and 334 open pull requests (17). A TypeScript SDK released on 5 October, with the Python SDK last published to PyPI as a release candidate on 9 May 2026 and the Java SDK an alpha (11). CI, CodeQL, a monthly scorecard and Dependabot (10).
Reliability Qwen Code +17
Clawboo 52
Read as local software. The official npm package clawboo states Node.js 22.12 or newer, and the README says macOS, Linux and Windows are supported (20). ci.yml runs lint, typecheck, Vitest and a real-concurrency suite on Linux and platform suites on Windows and macOS, and publish.yml reruns build, lint, typecheck, tests and a clean-install boot before it publishes. 0.5.0 carries provenance from that workflow on main, so its checks passed at that commit, but run results on main couldn't be read (15). github.com was unreachable, so open crash and regression issues are unchecked. A known-issues page lists 25 entries with a status each, three of them fixed on main (5). Changesets write a changelog entry per release, and removals and the 0.2.0 database reset are called out, though breaking changes arrive in minor versions before 1.0 (12). Version 0.5.0, and SECURITY.md says pre-1.0 (0).
Qwen Code 69
Local-package reading. npm with engines node 22 or newer, Homebrew at 0.25.0 and a standalone installer, with stable, preview and nightly channels (20). Public CI, and of the 15 most recent completed CI runs on main on 8 October, 12 passed, 3 were cancelled and none failed, though two issues opened by automation the same day report a failed end-to-end test and a failed Java SDK job on main (22). 1,402 open issues and 334 open pull requests. The ten newest issues each had labels and one to five comments within the day, much of it from the project's own triage automation (15). The changelog states Keep a Changelog and semver and every release has a Breaking Changes heading, but breaking changes shipped in patch releases 0.23.4 and 0.24.1 (12). 0.25.0, pre-1.0 (0).
Security & auth Clawboo +17
Clawboo 70
Harness reading of the framework checklist, as for the other harnesses. 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. The docs say Clawboo sends no telemetry and list the GitHub catalogue fetch, the npm version check, OpenRouter's public model list, Google Fonts and the GitHub star count, of which only the catalogue address can be changed (27). Clawboo Native shell commands are off by default and asked one at a time, and connector grants are per agent with approval on writes. Claude Code, Codex and Hermes run with their prompts and sandboxes off and no setting to change it, they can read Clawboo's database and key vault, and with no access token by default any local program can answer approval cards (8). Images in agent text don't load on their own, peer posts are marked as evidence, and a run that has read private data and untrusted content asks before any outbound connector call (11). An audit log of budget, breaker, approval, verification, tool-call and install events, with secrets masked (13). SECURITY.md with private reporting, CodeQL, Dependabot and npm provenance. No security.txt or bug bounty, OSV lists no advisory for clawboo, and the proxy advisory is on the docs with a workaround while its fix is unreleased (11).
Qwen Code 53
Framework reading (telemetry defaults, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing), five lines. Usage statistics are on by default, documented as tool names, model names, timings and configuration without prompts, responses, file contents or personal information, with a setting and an environment variable to turn them off. Credentials are API keys in environment variables or settings.json (15). Five approval modes with a read-only plan mode and allow, ask and deny rules, but the settings default is Auto, where an LLM classifier approves tool calls, folder trust is disabled by default and sandboxing is opt-in (10). A Linux tool sandbox with network: closed, --safe-mode and a stderr warning for yolo without a sandbox, but the default macOS Seatbelt profile allows network and we found no guidance on prompt injection in the pages read (7). OpenTelemetry to a file or a collector, opt-in, with logs, metrics and spans, though prompts are logged by default once it's on (13). SECURITY.md gives only an Alibaba Cloud console portal with no response time, the repository has no published advisories, no security.txt was found, and CodeQL and scorecard workflows run in CI (8).
Agent ergonomics Qwen Code +10
Clawboo 75
Harness reading, scored on what an agent or pipeline driving it has to supply. Four MCP servers keep tool lists small (12 Tasks tools, 4 Memory tools, 2 or 3 TeamChat tools, and Tools with four demonstration builtins plus granted connectors), Clawboo Native gets a read-only Tasks subset, and Tools results over 16 KiB are trimmed with a handle to read the rest (22). Circuit breakers stop task-runner runs after more than 30 tool calls or 200,000 tokens a minute, and team chat caps hand-offs at 8 a turn and three levels. Budgets warn only unless set to a hard cap, and a hard cap stops most runs only between runs (14). REST errors use one {error} shape, refused MCP calls return denied: with a reason prefix, and 429s carry Retry-After (16). claim_task and assign_task are atomic, illegal status changes are refused by name, the board survives restarts and routines resume after failure. No MCP tool annotations are documented (14). One npx command and a provider key or a local Ollama, but Claude Code teammates need a global install with the Agent SDK, and there is no client SDK (9).
Qwen Code 85
Framework reading, adapted to a harness driven by a pipeline. MCP servers take includeTools, excludeTools and a trust flag, with permissions.allow, ask and deny rules and --exclude-tools (20). Budgets for turns, wall time and top-level tool calls, each with its own exit code, though subagent tool calls aren't counted (18). Documented exit codes (18). --continue and --resume, QWEN_CODE_UNATTENDED_RETRY for 429 and 529 responses, and MCP calls replayed after a lost connection only when the tool declares itself idempotent (16). A TypeScript SDK on npm at 0.1.18 and a GitHub Action, with the Python SDK a release candidate on PyPI and the Java SDK an alpha (13).
Schema & documentation Qwen Code +8
Clawboo 83
Harness reading of the framework line, as for Paperclip. The REST API's 199 routes are documented per resource with parameters, bodies and responses, and the MCP tools reference gives typed arguments for every tool on the four servers, but no OpenAPI file was found (17). llms.txt, llms-full.txt and a Markdown copy of every page at .md on docs.claw.boo (10). The docs say what each part does and does not cover, with known issues, production defaults and a limits page that names the code line behind each number (17). Tool arguments are typed with required and optional fields and documented caps, such as 24 live subtasks per parent and limits lowered to 1,000, with free-text task bodies (12). curl examples on each API page, an events and errors reference, and the exact error strings each MCP tool returns (14). A dated changelog for every release with an Unreleased section, though API paths carry no version and every MCP server reports 0.1.0 (13).
Qwen Code 91
Framework reading. A settings.schema.json in the repository, a settings reference with the type and default of each key, and an OpenAPI file for the daemon's REST API (25). llms.txt on the docs site lists the pages with a line each, though it links to HTML and the Markdown path we tried returned 404 (8). The approval-mode page says when to use each mode and the sandbox page what each method and Seatbelt profile allows (15). Approval modes, sandbox backends, filesystem and network policies are enums (13). The headless page documents json and stream-json output, and exit codes 41, 42, 44, 52, 53, 55 and 130 are documented (15). A dated changelog generated from releases (15).
Transparency & trust Qwen Code +7
Clawboo 58
MIT, Copyright 2026 Sanreds, with a third-party notices file (30). The docs list every file Clawboo writes, which copies of keys are encrypted and which are plain text, retention for stored tool results (7 days) and pending approvals (24 hours), and that prompts go only to connected providers. There is no privacy statement, and the website wasn't read (22). The 0.1.x line is deprecated on npm with a note in the changelog, and removals are dated in release notes, with no written deprecation policy or notice period (10). No telemetry, with the server's own outbound requests disclosed, though the npm update check has no setting (18).
Qwen Code 65
Apache-2.0 (30). One terms and privacy page maps each sign-in method to the model provider's terms, says the project doesn't train on prompts or code, and lists what usage statistics hold, but gives no retention period, doesn't name the Alibaba Cloud endpoint the statistics go to, and names no legal entity (18). The end of the Qwen OAuth free tier is dated 15 April 2026 and tools.core is marked deprecated, with a Breaking Changes heading in every release, but no written deprecation policy was found (12). Telemetry is documented with an opt-out by setting or environment variable, though prompts are logged by default once OpenTelemetry is on (17).
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Clawboo | Qwen Code | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 52 | 69 | Qwen Code +17 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 83 | 91 | Qwen Code +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 75 | 85 | Qwen Code +10 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 70 | 53 | Clawboo +17 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 51 | 88 | Qwen Code +37 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 58 | 65 | Qwen Code +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -4 | 0 | |
| Total | C 61.4/100 | BB 72.6/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Clawboo | Qwen Code |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Sanreds | Alibaba (Qwen team) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-21 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-10-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-10-01 |
| 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 | 100 npm/wk | 28k stars, 105k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.8/5 (4) |
How the scores have moved
Clawboo
No score change since it was listed.
Verdicts
Clawboo
Tasks, memory, team chat and connectors are shared across five runtimes through four MCP servers, with documentation that states each default and limit. Claude Code, Codex and Hermes run with their sandboxes and approval prompts off and no setting to change it, and a reverse-proxy exposure of the MCP servers is fixed only on the unreleased main branch.
Qwen Code
Apache-2.0 with no account of its own, any OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini-compatible endpoint, and headless runs bounded by turn, tool-call and wall-time budgets with distinct exit codes. Out of the box, Auto mode lets an LLM classifier approve tool calls, with the sandbox and folder trust both off. Usage statistics are on by default.
Before you call either
Clawboo
- Run
npx clawboo@latest, not a barenpx clawboo, which can reuse an older cached build. Node.js 22.12 or newer is required - On 0.5.0 behind nginx, Caddy or a Cloudflare Tunnel, deny
/api/mcp/at the proxy and setSTUDIO_ACCESS_TOKENfromopenssl rand -hex 24 - Give Claude Code, Codex and Hermes teammates only work you would let run unattended, or run Clawboo under a separate user account or VM
- Create a hard-cap budget in Settings > Insights > Governance before long runs. A fresh install has no budget and new budgets only warn
- Install
@anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdkglobally beside Clawboo for Claude Code teammates. A one-offnpxrun cannot load it
Qwen Code
- Pass
--approval-modeon every run. The settings default isauto, and one docs page says headless runs default to asking, so don't rely on either - Add
--max-session-turns,--max-wall-timeand--max-tool-calls. All three are unlimited by default. Exit 53 is the turn limit and 55 a budget --yolodoesn't turn on a sandbox. Add--sandbox, or on Linux settools.executionSandboxwithnetworkset toclosed- Set
QWEN_USAGE_STATISTICS_ENABLED=falseto stop usage statistics - Authenticate with
OPENAI_API_KEY,OPENAI_BASE_URLandOPENAI_MODELin CI. The browser sign-in is discontinued
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Clawboo or Qwen Code?
Qwen Code scores 72.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Clawboo's 61.4 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Clawboo leads on security & auth.
Are Clawboo and Qwen Code open source?
Yes. Clawboo is open source (MIT). Qwen Code is open source (Apache-2.0).
Other comparisons with Clawboo or Qwen Code
- Agent Zero vs Qwen Code
- Aider vs Qwen Code
- Amp vs Qwen Code
- Antigravity CLI vs Qwen Code
- Auggie CLI vs Qwen Code
- Claude Code vs Qwen Code
- Cline vs Qwen Code
- Crush vs Qwen Code
- Cursor CLI vs Qwen Code
- DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs Qwen Code
- dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) vs Qwen Code
- Devin vs Qwen Code
- Droid CLI vs Qwen Code
- Pi vs Qwen Code
- Gemini CLI vs Qwen Code
- GitHub Copilot CLI vs Qwen Code
- goose vs Qwen Code
- Harness² vs Qwen Code
- HarnessRouter vs Qwen Code
- Jules vs Qwen Code
- Junie CLI vs Qwen Code
- Kilo Code CLI vs Qwen Code
- Kimi Code CLI vs Qwen Code
- Kiro CLI vs Qwen Code
- mini-swe-agent vs Qwen Code
- MiniMax Code vs Qwen Code
- Mistral Vibe CLI vs Qwen Code
- Muse Code vs Qwen Code
- OpenAI Codex vs Qwen Code
- OpenCode vs Qwen Code
- OpenHands vs Qwen Code
- Prime Agent vs Qwen Code
- Qoder CLI vs Qwen Code
- Qwen Code vs Mirror CLI
- Qwen Code vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Qwen Code vs Unstoppable
- Qwen Code vs Vibe-Trading
- Qwen Code vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)
- Amp vs Clawboo
- Antigravity CLI vs Clawboo
- Auggie CLI vs Clawboo
- Claude Code vs Clawboo
- Clawboo vs CLI Manager
- Clawboo vs Cline
- Clawboo vs Crush
- Clawboo vs DeepSeek Harness (dsh)
- Clawboo vs dsh-superagent (DeepSeek)
- Clawboo vs Devin
- Clawboo vs Droid CLI
- Clawboo vs Gemini CLI
- Clawboo vs GitHub Copilot CLI
- Clawboo vs goose
- Clawboo vs Harness
- Clawboo vs HarnessRouter
- Clawboo vs Jules
- Clawboo vs Junie CLI
- Clawboo vs Kilo Code CLI
- Clawboo vs Kimi Code CLI
- Clawboo vs Kiro CLI
- Clawboo vs MiniMax Code
- Clawboo vs Mistral Vibe CLI
- Clawboo vs Muse Code
- Clawboo vs OpenCode
- Clawboo vs OpenHands
- Clawboo vs OpenMausBot
- Clawboo vs Paperclip
- Clawboo vs Parallax
- Clawboo vs Prime Agent
- Clawboo vs Qoder CLI
- Clawboo vs Mirror CLI
- Clawboo vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Clawboo vs Unstoppable
- Clawboo vs Vibe-Trading
- Clawboo vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)
- CLI Manager vs Qwen Code
- Harness vs Qwen Code
- OpenMausBot vs Qwen Code
- Paperclip vs Qwen Code
- Parallax vs Qwen Code
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/clawboo-vs-qwen-code.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/clawboo.json·/api/v1/tools/qwen-code.json - From a terminal
anchor compare clawboo qwen-code(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "clawboo", "b": "qwen-code"}at/mcp, no key