# Emdash vs OpenMausBot (slim)

> OpenMausBot scores 65.4 (B) to Emdash's 53.9 (D) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/emdash-vs-openmausbot.md (~6,000 tokens) · this version ~2,480 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/emdash-vs-openmausbot.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/emdash-vs-openmausbot
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

OpenMausBot scores 65.4 (B) on agent readiness against Emdash's 53.9 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Emdash leads on payments & pricing. Both do agent harnesses.

- Emdash: D 53.9, rank #927 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/emdash.min.md
- OpenMausBot: B 65.4, rank #422 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openmausbot.min.md
- Emdash, good for Developers who want parallel agents in worktrees, fed from their issue tracker, locally or over SSH. Ahead on Payments & pricing, 60 against 50. Also No key needed to call it.
- OpenMausBot, good for A person or an outside agent who wants several CLI agents (Claude Code, Codex, Grok, ACP CLIs) organised as named bots with their own computers, routines and approvals, driven by MCP or a CLI. Ahead on Reliability, 60 against 55; Schema & documentation, 90 against 55; Agent ergonomics, 77 against 55; Security & auth, 59 against 38; Transparency & trust, 59 against 54. Also Runs on your own machine; Free to start without a card.

| Category | Emdash | OpenMausBot |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 55 | 60 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 55 | 90 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 55 | 77 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 38 | 59 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 50 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 70 | 74 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 54 | 59 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Emdash | OpenMausBot |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | General Action, Inc. | Supamaus Software Private Limited |
| Transports |  | stdio |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| Tools exposed | none | 20 |
| Last release | 2026-11-06 | 2026-11-01 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-10-10 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-10-18 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 8.2k stars, 3.5k npm/wk |

Why the edge:
- Schema & documentation, OpenMausBot +35: Emdash 55 (Harness reading. Docs site and a workspace server package (55).); OpenMausBot 90 (The MCP server's 20 tools each have a JSON Schema input with `additionalProperties: false` and required fields marked. No OpenAPI for the local HTTP API (25). Markdown docs in the repository, and the docs app's source serves llms.txt, llms-full.txt and Markdown routes. docs.openmausbot.com disallows every crawler, so the live llms.txt was not read (10). Descriptions state purpose and limits, such as that `update_bot_profile` cannot alter permissions, that `send_bot_message` may make the bot use external tools and that `edit_bot_message` is refused while a thread works, and the server instructions say to read before mutating. Few say when not to use a tool (15). Integer limits with minimum and maximum, an enum on `scope`, a pattern on `send_id` and `oneOf` shapes for responders (13). JSON configuration examples for each install path, the wait statuses and job states, CLI exit codes and a `{ ok, error, hint, exitCode }` failure shape (12). MCP server version 1.1.0, release notes per version and a changelog page in the docs (15).)
- Agent ergonomics, OpenMausBot +22: Emdash 55 (Harness reading. Issue intake from Linear, GitHub, Jira and others, diff review, pull requests and CI checks in one place, local or over SSH (55).); OpenMausBot 77 (20 tools, inside the 11 to 30 band, with annotations that separate reads from writes but no toolsets or read-only mode to load. Transcript reads are bounded and never return screenshot pixels (17). `limit` up to 200 messages, search capped at 100 hits, `task_id` and `scope` filters, and `since_ms` and `after_version` to keep watching a job (17). `wait_for_conversation` reports settled, needs-user, failed, stalled or timed-out with a redacted transcript tail, and the CLI's exit codes separate a pending approval from a timeout. We did not read every MCP error path (15). `send_id` makes a repeated send return the first receipt, `wait` is held by the server rather than polled, and every tool carries readOnlyHint, destructiveHint, idempotentHint and openWorldHint (20). Few required parameters and defaults for task, limit and timeout. The server answers only while the app or `openmausbot serve` runs, mutating tools need a paired token in packaged builds, and there is no client SDK beyond the CLI (8).)
- Security & auth, OpenMausBot +21: Emdash 38 (Harness reading. Telemetry is described as optional and disabled in Settings or with TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false, which reads as on by default (15 of 30). Worktree per task and remote machines over SSH (10 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance (5). No audit log (5). No security policy file found (3). 15 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 3 = 38.); OpenMausBot 59 (Harness reading of the framework checklist, as for the other harnesses. 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. The harness binds to loopback and keys stay in `~/.openmausbot`, but PostHog usage analytics are on until switched off, with a daily snapshot of what is set up, and the CLI guide says API keys are saved in plaintext with mode 0600 (18). Approval cards for provider permission requests, a narrow Always allow, isolated Local VMs and cloud computers, own-computer control off by default, and an MCP server that cannot approve, delete or touch credentials. New bots start at Full access, bot changes to skills, profiles and team setup apply without approval, and new bots keep every connected-app tool until grants are assigned (10). The docs say web page instructions never authorise credential use and that one-time codes go only to the site that sent them, and imported bots arrive with no grants, but bots read one-time codes from connected email without asking again (9). Per-thread NDJSON event logs, an Inspector, a decision log for connected-app grants and Undo lines for bot changes (12). SECURITY.md with an email, GitHub private vulnerability reporting enabled and scope notes that name one open risk. No published advisories, security.txt or bug bounty. npm releases use trusted publishing with provenance, and the Windows installer is unsigned (10).)
- Payments & pricing, Emdash +10: Emdash 60 (Free self-hosted software with nothing to buy, so 0 for a protocol and 20 each for public pricing, a free tier and onboarding with no sign-up, 60.); OpenMausBot 50 (No payment protocol (0). MausBot Cloud, the hosted option, is priced by plan on a public page ($15, $49 and $99 a month, Team $169 and Business $599, or Business self-hosted $299 a month billed yearly, re-read on 2 November), with extra computer-hours at $0.05 each, so plan pricing (10). The app is free with no card or account (20). `npx openmausbot` installs and starts it with no signup (20).)
- Reliability, OpenMausBot +5: Emdash 55 (Local software. Homebrew cask and installers for macOS, Windows and Linux (20). A code-consistency check and release workflows; no test workflow found (10). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Stable tags to v1.2.11, release notes on GitHub (10). Version 1.2.11 (15). 20 + 10 + 0 + 10 + 15 = 55.); OpenMausBot 60 (Read as local software. Official npm package `openmausbot` (Node.js 24 or newer) and signed, notarised macOS builds, a Windows installer and Ubuntu 24.04 packages, with supported platforms and a capability table in the README (20). 2,075 test files and a CI workflow on main. Of the last 23 finished CI runs on main on 30 October 2026, 10 passed, 3 failed and 10 were cancelled by newer pushes in a serialised queue (20). 365 open issues against about 3,940 issues and pull requests filed since 11 August, so most are closed, but the 25 newest open issues include several bug reports from 29 and 30 October with no reply yet (15). Release notes for every version in New, Easier and Fixed sections, but new capabilities ship in 0.1.x patch versions and no release marks breaking changes (5). Version 0.1.134, and the README calls the project early (0).)
- Transparency & trust, OpenMausBot +5: Emdash 54 (Apache 2.0 (30). A telemetry page on the docs site (not read) (18 of 30). No deprecation policy (5). Disclosed with an opt-out (15 of 20). 30 + 18 + 5 + 15 = 68.); OpenMausBot 59 (Apache 2.0 outside `enterprise/`, which is source-available and needs a licence key in production. Deleting the folder leaves the open-source edition, and a CI job builds it (27). The privacy policy of 18 October 2026 (re-read on 2 November, unchanged) names Supamaus Software Private Limited and separates the local apps from the optional hosted service, but it says the apps contain no third-party analytics SDKs while the app loads posthog-js by default, and hosted account data is kept while needed with no period stated (12). No deprecation policy. Dated release notes, and older installers kept in a legacy releases repository (4). docs/analytics.md lists every event and property and how to switch it off, but analytics are on by default and the privacy policy does not mention them for the apps (14).)