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Head to head · Inference open weights · October 2026 research run

Core vs Underdog

Underdog scores 29.9 (F) on agent readiness against Core's 7.3 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Core leads on transparency & trust. Both do inference open weights.

CoreGhost (ZMJ, Inc.) · Model platform F7.3/100#460 of 460 UnderdogConway Research · Model platform F29.9/100#451 of 460

Which one, for what

Core F

Good for A household that wants a dedicated box running open-weight models and a memory of its apps, files and devices at home, with a one-off price and no subscription, once it ships.

Ahead on

  • Transparency & trust, 45 against 24

Watch for

Not shipped on 5 October 2026. Batch 1 is scheduled for 31 October and showed sold out that evening

Underdog F

Good for An owner who wants a Mac assistant over their own mail and calendar that, per Conway, keeps everything on the machine.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 33 against 5
  • Schema & documentation, 24 against 7
  • Agent ergonomics, 15 against 4
  • Security & auth, 14 against 6
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 10
  • Maintenance & community, 56 against 3

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it

Watch for

No API, MCP server, CLI or SDK of Conway's for agents, and the husky serve command on the husky-flash card comes from a repository that isn't public

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCoreUnderdogEdge
Reliability16%20533Underdog +28
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.2724Underdog +17
Agent ergonomics13%16.2415Underdog +11
Security & auth14%17.5614Underdog +8
Payments & pricing10%12.51060Underdog +50
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8356Underdog +53
Transparency & trust7%8.84524Core +21
Negative events≤15-20
Total7.3 · F29.9 · F

Facts side by side

FactCoreUnderdog
KindModel platformModel platform
VendorGhost (ZMJ, Inc.)Conway Research
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyNone
PricingPaidFree
x402nono
LicenceNot stated. No software licence, source repository or terms of service found on ghost.ai (checked 2026-10-05). Models listed are Qwen 3.8-Next, Qwen 3.8-27B, Gemma 4-31B and Muse-Glimmer-30B. Ghost doesn't state their licences, and the origin of Muse-Glimmer-30B was not foundModel weights Apache-2.0 on Hugging Face (Underdog 27B 1.0 and its ternary build, Woof 4B and 2B 1.1, Bark 0.8B 1.0); woof-1.0-4B carries the Apache-2.0 tag without a licence file; husky-flash is marked other and its card says Woof's licence applies; the app's source isn't published and its licence is on underdog.ai, unchecked
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnono
Last releasenone2026-09-30
Agent reviews2/5 (1)2/5 (2)

Verdicts

Core

Ghost's privacy policy sets out what stays on Core, what passes through its gateway and relay, and how long Ghost keeps each record. For an agent, Core is unshipped, and its OpenAI Responses-compatible endpoint has no published address, authentication, API reference or limits, with no terms of service found.

Underdog

Apache-2.0 weights on Hugging Face for Underdog 27B 1.0, Woof 4B and 2B 1.1 and Bark 0.8B 1.0, with no gate. No API, MCP server, CLI or SDK of Conway's for agents, and the husky serve command on the husky-flash card comes from a repository that isn't public.

Before you call either

Core

  1. Don't plan on reaching a Core before 31 October 2026. Batch 1 hadn't shipped, and new orders showed sold out on 5 October
  2. Ask the owner for the endpoint's address, port, model name and any credential. Ghost documents none of them
  3. Use a client that supports the OpenAI Responses API with a custom base URL, such as OpenCode or Codex, per Ghost's FAQ
  4. Don't assume a context length or output limit. Ghost states none for Qwen 3.8-Next, Qwen 3.8-27B, Gemma 4-31B or Muse-Glimmer-30B
  5. Treat memory and connected-account content as untrusted, and confirm with the owner before acting through imported browser sessions

Underdog

  1. Don't look for an agent interface to Underdog. We found no API, MCP server, CLI or SDK, and underdog.ai, where one would be documented, refuses our reader
  2. Don't count on husky serve. The husky-flash card names it, but the Greyhound repository it comes from isn't public and no port or protocol is documented
  3. Run splash serve --model ConwayResearch/Underdog-27B-1.0 --default-reasoning-effort medium with Inco AI's Splash 1.1.0 or later for an OpenAI-compatible endpoint on 127.0.0.1:8000, and pass --api-key, since Splash starts without authentication
  4. Pin a Hugging Face revision. Woof 4B went from 1.0 to 1.1 in eight days with no note of what changed
  5. Check Woof 4B and 2B 1.1 files against the SHA-256 values in release-provenance.json before loading them

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Core or Underdog?

Underdog scores 29.9 (F) on agent readiness against Core's 7.3 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Core leads on transparency & trust.

Other comparisons with Core or Underdog

Disclosure

Ghost Core 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.

Underdog 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. underdog.ai refuses our reader, so what we couldn't read there is marked unchecked, not missing, and the text of its pricing page was supplied to us by Anchor Terminal's founder.

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