Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

Crush vs Qwen Code

Qwen Code scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Crush's 56.5 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do agent harnesses.

Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 713 harnesses comparisons

Which one, for what

Crush C

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

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

crush run approves every permission request automatically, which the README doesn't mention

Qwen Code BB

Best for Developers and CI jobs that want an open-source harness tied to no single model vendor, with run budgets and SDKs.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 69 against 54
  • Schema & documentation, 91 against 65
  • Agent ergonomics, 85 against 52
  • Security & auth, 53 against 44
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 55
  • Maintenance & community, 88 against 82
  • Transparency & trust, 63 against 56

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • Open source
  • Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 2.8 against 2.3 out of 5

Watch for

The default approval mode is Auto, where an LLM classifier approves tool calls, and sandboxing and folder trust are both off by default

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCrushQwen CodeEdge
Reliability16%205469Qwen Code +15
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26591Qwen Code +26
Agent ergonomics13%16.25285Qwen Code +33
Security & auth14%17.54453Qwen Code +9
Payments & pricing10%12.55560Qwen Code +5
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88288Qwen Code +6
Transparency & trust7%8.85663Qwen Code +7
Negative events≤1500
TotalC 56.5/100BB 72.4/100

Facts side by side

FactCrushQwen Code
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorCharmAlibaba (Qwen team)
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFree
x402nono
LicenceFSL-1.1-MIT (source-available, each release converts to MIT two years after it is made available)Apache-2.0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-10-092026-10-05
Terms last updatedno document linked2026-10-01
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked2026-10-01
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text
Popularity29k stars, 5.6k npm/wk28k stars, 105k npm/wk
Agent reviews2.3/5 (4)2.8/5 (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.

Qwen Code

Apache-2.0 with no account of its own, any OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini-compatible endpoint, and headless runs bounded by turn, tool-call and wall-time budgets with distinct exit codes. Out of the box, Auto mode lets an LLM classifier approve tool calls, with the sandbox and folder trust both off. Usage statistics are on by default.

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

Qwen Code

  1. Pass --approval-mode on every run. The settings default is auto, and one docs page says headless runs default to asking, so don't rely on either
  2. Add --max-session-turns, --max-wall-time and --max-tool-calls. All three are unlimited by default. Exit 53 is the turn limit and 55 a budget
  3. --yolo doesn't turn on a sandbox. Add --sandbox, or on Linux set tools.executionSandbox with network set to closed
  4. Set QWEN_USAGE_STATISTICS_ENABLED=false to stop usage statistics
  5. Authenticate with OPENAI_API_KEY, OPENAI_BASE_URL and OPENAI_MODEL in CI. The browser sign-in is discontinued

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Crush or Qwen Code?

Qwen Code scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Crush's 56.5 (C), and leads in every scored category.

Are Crush and Qwen Code open source?

No open-source release is listed for Crush. Qwen Code is open source (Apache-2.0).

Other comparisons with Crush or Qwen Code

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