# CowAgent vs Tomo > CowAgent scores 58.5 (C) to Tomo's 13.1 (F) for assistants that act in your accounts. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side. - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-tomo - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-tomo.md (~2,650 tokens) - Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-tomo.min.md (~580 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts) - JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-tomo.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 - Updated: 2026-10-12 CowAgent scores 58.5 (C) on agent readiness against Tomo's 13.1 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do assistants that act in your accounts. - CowAgent: grade C, 58.5/100, rank #592 of 993. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cowagent.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cowagent.json - Tomo: grade F, 13.1/100, rank #989 of 993. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tomo.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tomo.json - Best AI personal assistants that act for one person: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/personal-assistants/index.md - All 314 assistants comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/personal-assistants/index.md ## Which one, for what ### CowAgent (C) Good 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 0 - Agent ergonomics, 59 against 0 - Security & auth, 43 against 0 - Payments & pricing, 60 against 10 - 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 ### Tomo (F) Good for: People who want accountability, check-ins and reminders by text, including in group chats. Also in its favour: - No incidents deducted, where CowAgent loses 5 points for them Watch for: No API, MCP server or A2A endpoint for an outside agent. ## Score by category | Category | Weight | CowAgent | Tomo | Edge | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 84 | 15 | CowAgent +69 | | Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 0 | CowAgent +67 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 59 | 0 | CowAgent +59 | | Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 43 | 0 | CowAgent +43 | | Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 10 | CowAgent +50 | | Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 83 | 54 | CowAgent +29 | | Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 45 | 47 | Tomo +2 | | Negative events | ≤15 | -5 | 0 | | | **Total** | | **58.5 · C** | **13.1 · F** | | ## Facts side by side | Fact | CowAgent | Tomo | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | Agent harness | Platform | | Vendor | zhayujie | Mapo Labs, Inc. | | Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) | | Transports | HTTP | | | Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key | | Pricing | Free | Paid | | x402 | no | no | | Licence | MIT | Closed service under Tomo's Terms of Service (Mapo Labs, Inc., last updated 24 September 2026). | | Read-only variant documented | yes | no | | llms.txt | yes | no | | Last release | 2026-09-30 | 2026-09-29 | | Terms last updated | no document linked | | | Privacy policy last updated | no 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 | | | | Popularity | 47k stars | none | ## 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. **Tomo.** Tomo is a hosted personal AI over iMessage and an iOS app, centred on goals, check-ins and reminders, with regular iOS releases since April 2026. No outside agent can call it, there's no free plan, and no status page, security contact or subprocessor list was 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 ### Tomo 1. Don't plan to call Tomo from another agent. It answers only the owner's iMessage, group chats it's added to and the iOS app. 2. Tell the owner that adding Tomo to a group chat applies its terms to every participant. ## Questions ### Which is better for AI agents, CowAgent or Tomo? CowAgent scores 58.5 (C) on agent readiness against Tomo's 13.1 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. ### Are CowAgent and Tomo open source? CowAgent is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Tomo. ## For agents - This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-tomo.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-tomo.min.md - Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "cowagent", "b": "tomo"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare cowagent tomo` - Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cowagent.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tomo.json ## Other comparisons with CowAgent or Tomo - [AstrBot vs CowAgent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-cowagent.md) - [CowAgent vs GAIA](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-gaia.md) - [CowAgent vs Gemini Spark](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-gemini-spark.md) - [CowAgent vs Grok Bot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-grok-bot.md) - [CowAgent vs Haven](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-haven.md) - [CowAgent vs Hermes Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-hermes-agent.md) - [CowAgent vs Instinct](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-instinct.md) - [CowAgent vs IronClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-ironclaw.md) - [CowAgent vs Leon](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-leon.md) - [CowAgent vs Lindy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-lindy.md) - [CowAgent vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-nanobot.md) - [CowAgent vs NanoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-nanoclaw.md) - [CowAgent vs Dots](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-openai-dots.md) - [CowAgent vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-openclaw.md) - [CowAgent vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-picoclaw.md) - [CowAgent vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-poke.md) - [CowAgent vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-qwenpaw.md) - [CowAgent vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-zeroclaw.md) - [CowAgent vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-zo-computer.md) - [CowAgent vs Natura tinyNature](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-natura.md) - [CowAgent vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-pally.md) - [CowAgent vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-wajo.md) - [GAIA vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-tomo.md) - [Gemini Spark vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-tomo.md) - [Grok Bot vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-tomo.md) - [Haven vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-tomo.md) - [Hermes Agent vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-tomo.md) - [Instinct vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-tomo.md) - [IronClaw vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-tomo.md) - [Leon vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-tomo.md) - [Lindy vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-tomo.md) - [nanobot vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-tomo.md) - [NanoClaw vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanoclaw-vs-tomo.md) - [Natura tinyNature vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/natura-vs-tomo.md) - [Dots vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-dots-vs-tomo.md) - [OpenClaw vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-tomo.md) - [Pally vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pally-vs-tomo.md) - [Poke vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-tomo.md) - [QwenPaw vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/qwenpaw-vs-tomo.md) - [Tomo vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tomo-vs-wajo.md) - [Tomo vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tomo-vs-zeroclaw.md) - [Tomo vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tomo-vs-zo-computer.md) - [CowAgent vs Talorys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-talorys.md) - [Talorys vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/talorys-vs-tomo.md) - [AstrBot vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-tomo.md) - [PicoClaw vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/picoclaw-vs-tomo.md) ## Disclosure - Tomo 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.