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

CowAgent vs szn

CowAgent scores 58.5 (C) on agent readiness against szn's 7.3 (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 sznNomadic Futures · Platform F7.3/100#1010 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 5
  • Schema & documentation, 67 against 10
  • Agent ergonomics, 59 against 0
  • Security & auth, 43 against 0
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 83 against 2
  • Transparency & trust, 45 against 23

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

szn F

Best for A person who wants calls, emails and bookings done for them and has an access code.

Also in its favour

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

Watch for

Early access by access code only.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCowAgentsznEdge
Reliability16%20845CowAgent +79
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%8.8832CowAgent +81
Transparency & trust7%8.84523CowAgent +22
Negative events≤15-50
TotalC 58.5/100F 7.3/100

Facts side by side

FactCowAgentszn
KindAgent harnessPlatform
VendorzhayujieNomadic Futures
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceMITClosed service. No terms of service were found on theszn.ai. A privacy policy and an acceptable use policy (both last updated March 2026) apply.
Read-only variant documentedyesyes
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-09-30none
Terms last updatedno document linkedno 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.

szn

szn is an errand assistant in early access that makes calls, sends emails and books for its owner, free during the preview for people with an access code. No outside agent can call it, no terms of service or legal entity appear in its policies, and its privacy policy says nothing on training.

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

szn

  1. Don't plan to call szn from another agent. It answers only its web app, iMessage, SMS and email for the owner.
  2. Tell the owner they need an access code to start, and that the acceptable use policy makes them responsible for confirming actions.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, CowAgent or szn?

CowAgent scores 58.5 (C) on agent readiness against szn's 7.3 (F), and leads in every scored category.

Are CowAgent and szn open source?

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

Other comparisons with CowAgent or szn

Disclosure

szn 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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