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Head to head · Assistants reached by message · October 2026 research run

CowAgent vs Orbits

CowAgent scores 58.5 (C) on agent readiness against Orbits's 15.6 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do assistants reached by message.

Best AI personal assistants that act for one person · All 834 assistants comparisons

CowAgentzhayujie · Agent harness C58.5/100#592 of 1010 OrbitsNemus AI, Inc. · Platform F15.6/100#997 of 1010

Which one, for what

CowAgent C

Best for One technical owner who wants an assistant on WeChat, Feishu, DingTalk, Telegram, Slack or Discord with memory in local files and a choice of Chinese and Western model providers.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 84 against 15
  • Schema & documentation, 67 against 10
  • Agent ergonomics, 59 against 0
  • Security & auth, 43 against 0
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 83 against 54

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card
  • Open source

Watch for

Source and Docker installs default to full-access, and no mode asks the owner before a shell command, a file send or an MCP call

Orbits F

Best for Families who want one shared assistant for calendars, lists, meals, chores and household email.

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where CowAgent loses 5 points for them

Watch for

No public agent API, as llms.txt states.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCowAgentOrbitsEdge
Reliability16%208415CowAgent +69
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26710CowAgent +57
Agent ergonomics13%16.2590CowAgent +59
Security & auth14%17.5430CowAgent +43
Payments & pricing10%12.56020CowAgent +40
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88354CowAgent +29
Transparency & trust7%8.84543CowAgent +2
Negative events≤15-50
TotalC 58.5/100F 15.6/100

Facts side by side

FactCowAgentOrbits
KindAgent harnessPlatform
VendorzhayujieNemus AI, Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreePaid
x402nono
LicenceMITClosed service under the Orbits Terms of Service (Nemus AI, Inc.).
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-09-302026-10-13
Terms last updatedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked
Customer content may train models
Terms restrict automated access
Terms restrict benchmarking
Terms or service can change without notice
Arbitration or class-action waiver
Popularity47k starsnone

Verdicts

CowAgent

MIT software with seven releases in 90 days, memory kept as plain files in the owner's workspace and three per-session permission modes. Source and Docker installs default to full-access, no action asks for approval, and an open report of 31 July 2026 says group members could reach the owner's files through the bot.

Orbits

Orbits is a family household app whose assistant, Bit, runs shared calendars, lists and meals, reads household email and places restaurant calls after approval, with iOS releases every week or two. No outside agent can call it, prices appear only as App Store in-app purchases, and no status page, security contact or named subprocessors were found.

Before you call either

CowAgent

  1. Set agent_permission_mode to workspace-write or read-only before connecting any channel. Source and Docker installs default to full-access
  2. Keep the bot out of group chats that include other people. Any member who mentions it reaches the same tools as the owner
  3. Set web_password before changing web_host to 0.0.0.0. The password is empty by default
  4. Set external_api_token to enable POST /v1/chat/completions, and send conversation_id to keep one session. The model field does not select a model
  5. Run it in a container for a hard boundary. The docs and the source both say the permission modes are not isolation

Orbits

  1. Don't plan to call Orbits from another agent. llms.txt says no public agent API is offered.
  2. Tell the owner the assistant needs an Orbits subscription bought in the app, and that any trial appears only at purchase.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, CowAgent or Orbits?

CowAgent scores 58.5 (C) on agent readiness against Orbits's 15.6 (F), and leads in every scored category.

Are CowAgent and Orbits open source?

CowAgent is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Orbits.

Other comparisons with CowAgent or Orbits

Disclosure

Orbits competes with LocalGhost, which Anchor Terminal's founder builds. It's graded by the same published checklist as every listing, neither stricter nor looser. Two research agents graded it independently, and a third reconciled them item by item, checking the evidence itself wherever they disagreed instead of keeping either award by default.

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