# Crush vs Muse Code

> Muse Code scores 61.3 (C) to Crush's 56.5 (C) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-muse-code
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-muse-code.md (~3,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-muse-code.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-muse-code.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
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-18

Muse Code scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against Crush's 56.5 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Crush leads on reliability, payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do agent harnesses.

- Crush: grade C, 56.5/100, rank #705 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/crush.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/crush.json
- Muse Code: grade C, 61.3/100, rank #521 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/muse-code.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/muse-code.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 713 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Crush (C)

Good for: Developers who want a Go terminal agent with a wide provider list, local models and Claude Code-compatible hooks.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 54 against 45
- Payments & pricing, 55 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 82 against 75

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: `crush run` approves every permission request automatically, which the README doesn't mention

### Muse Code (C)

Good for: Developers who want Meta's Muse models, Muse Wonder Full included, in a terminal or CI agent with the sandbox and approvals on from the first run.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 84 against 65
- Agent ergonomics, 79 against 52
- Security & auth, 67 against 44

Also in its favour:
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.3 against 2.3 out of 5

Watch for: Closed source, with no public CI or issue tracker for the CLI found and release notes that carry no dates


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Crush | Muse Code | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 54 | 45 | Crush +9 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 84 | Muse Code +19 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 52 | 79 | Muse Code +27 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 44 | 67 | Muse Code +23 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 55 | 20 | Crush +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 75 | Crush +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 57 | Muse Code +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **56.5 · C** | **61.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Crush | Muse Code |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Charm | Meta |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | FSL-1.1-MIT (source-available, each release converts to MIT two years after it is made available) | Proprietary binary, used under the Meta Model API Terms of Service, which cover Meta's coding harness. Subscriptions are also under the Meta Subscription Terms of Service. The TypeScript and Python SDKs in the linked repository are MIT. |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-09 | 2026-10-11 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| 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 | 29k stars, 5.6k npm/wk | 63k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.3/5 (4) | 3.3/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Muse Code.** Muse Code runs with approvals and an OS sandbox on by default, per-host network approval, an append-only event log and a headless mode with documented exit codes. It is the only route to Muse Wonder Full. It is closed source with undated release notes and no free route, and subscriptions allow training on code unless Contributor mode is turned off.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Muse Code

1. Set `META_API_KEY` for headless runs. Browser sign-in isn't available in CI or for Meta Managed Accounts
2. Gate on your own test command, not the exit code. `muse exec` returns 0 when the turn completes even if tests still fail
3. Pass `--max-model-steps` on unattended runs so a stuck task can't loop
4. Prefer `--disable-approval` to `--yolo` in CI so the sandbox stays on. On Linux the runner needs a working bubblewrap and a non-musl build
5. Turn Contributor mode off in `/settings` before a subscription session touches private code

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Crush or Muse Code?

Muse Code scores 61.3 (C) on agent readiness against Crush's 56.5 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Crush leads on reliability, payments & pricing and maintenance & community.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-muse-code.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-muse-code.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "crush", "b": "muse-code"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare crush muse-code`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/crush.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/muse-code.json

## Other comparisons with Crush or Muse Code

- [Agent Zero vs Crush](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-crush.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Aider vs Crush](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-crush.md)
- [Aider vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Amp vs Crush](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-crush.md)
- [Amp vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs Crush](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-crush.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Auggie CLI vs Crush](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/auggie-vs-crush.md)
- [Auggie CLI vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/auggie-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Claude Code vs Crush](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-crush.md)
- [Claude Code vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Cline vs Crush](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-crush.md)
- [Cline vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Crush vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-cursor-cli.md)
- [Crush vs DeepSeek Harness (dsh)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-deepseek-harness.md)
- [Crush vs Devin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-devin.md)
- [Crush vs Droid CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-droid-cli.md)
- [Crush vs Pi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-earendil-pi.md)
- [Crush vs Gemini CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-gemini-cli.md)
- [Crush vs GitHub Copilot CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-github-copilot-cli.md)
- [Crush vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-goose.md)
- [Crush vs Harness²](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-harness2.md)
- [Crush vs HarnessRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-harnessrouter.md)
- [Crush vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-jules.md)
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- [Crush vs Kilo Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-kilo-code-cli.md)
- [Crush vs Kimi Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-kimi-code-cli.md)
- [Crush vs Kiro CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-kiro-cli.md)
- [Crush vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Crush vs Mistral Vibe CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-mistral-vibe-cli.md)
- [Crush vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-openai-codex.md)
- [Crush vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-opencode.md)
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- [Crush vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Crush vs Qoder CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-qoder-cli.md)
- [Crush vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-qwen-code.md)
- [Crush vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Crush vs Rovo Dev CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-rovo-dev-cli.md)
- [Crush vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-warp.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-muse-code.md)
- [DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-harness-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Devin vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/devin-vs-muse-code.md)
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