Crush vs mini-swe-agent

Crush

Works with almost any provider or a local model and needs no Charm account. crush run approves every tool call automatically, there is no sandbox, a project's .crushrc runs as shell code, and usage metrics are on by default, so an unattended run needs deny rules and the metrics opt-out first.

mini-swe-agent

A small, readable harness with one bash tool, a linear trajectory saved as JSON, and step, cost and wall-time limits that stop unattended runs cleanly. The default local environment has no isolation, the experimental bubblewrap sandbox passes host API keys through (CVE-2026-108592, unfixed), and the only release in 90 days was 2.4.6 on 23 July 2026.

Crush

1. Add permissions deny rules or a PreToolUse hook before crush run. It approves every permission request in its session
2. Read .crushrc, crushrc and crush.json in a cloned repository before running Crush there. They execute as shell code at startup
3. Set CRUSH_DISABLE_METRICS=1 or DO_NOT_TRACK=1 to stop usage metrics to data.charm.land
4. Wrap crush run in your own timeout. It has no turn, time or cost limit flag
5. Configure a provider by environment variable or crushrc first. With none, crush run exits with an error asking for interactive setup

mini-swe-agent

1. Run with -y --exit-immediately for unattended use. Without --exit-immediately it waits for input when the agent finishes
2. Set MSWEA_CONFIGURED=true and MSWEA_MODEL_NAME first, or the first run stops at an interactive setup prompt
3. Read info.exit_status in the -o trajectory file. A run that hits its limits still exits normally
4. For untrusted repositories use -c mini.yaml -c environment.environment_class=docker -c environment.image=<image>. The local and bubblewrap environments both expose host variables
5. Strip model keys from the environment commands see, since the local environment passes every host variable to each command