Head to head · Agent frameworks · October 2026 research run
guilds.run vs OpenAI Agents SDK
OpenAI Agents SDK scores 86.2 (AA) on agent readiness against guilds.run's 56.5 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent frameworks.
Best agent frameworks and SDKs · All 55 frameworks comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for A person or small team that wants a standing, inspectable team of agents with schedules, shared tables and a web app, run on one machine, and is comfortable tracking main.
Also in its favour
- Free to start without a card
Watch for
No tagged release, version number, changelog or published image. Users install whatever is on main
Best for Teams that want hand-offs, guardrails and approvals with little code, and are happy with OpenAI's tracing or will turn it off.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 85 against 53
- Schema & documentation, 95 against 58
- Agent ergonomics, 97 against 67
- Security & auth, 80 against 68
- Maintenance & community, 100 against 41
- Transparency & trust, 89 against 52
Also in its favour
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
Watch for
Tracing on by default, with model and tool content, sent to OpenAI
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | guilds.run | OpenAI Agents SDK | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 53 | 85 | OpenAI Agents SDK +32 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 58 | 95 | OpenAI Agents SDK +37 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 67 | 97 | OpenAI Agents SDK +30 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 68 | 80 | OpenAI Agents SDK +12 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 41 | 100 | OpenAI Agents SDK +59 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 52 | 89 | OpenAI Agents SDK +37 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| Total | C 56.5/100 | AA 86.2/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | guilds.run | OpenAI Agents SDK |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent framework | Agent framework |
| Vendor | Cigale AI | OpenAI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0-only | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | none | 2026-10-02 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | |
| Popularity | 57 stars | 30k stars, 1.3M npm/wk, 3M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.9/5 (8) |
Verdicts
guilds.run
A self-hosted multi-agent system that records each run's prompt, tool calls and memory changes, with per-agent models and tools and no telemetry by default. Public since 9 October 2026, it has no tagged release or published package, its own security register lists 13 open issues, and the site's terms and privacy links return 404.
OpenAI Agents SDK
MCP in about 11 lines, with static and dynamic tool filters and require_approval. Tracing on by default, with model and tool content, sent to OpenAI.
Before you call either
guilds.run
- Keep the box on loopback or behind an authenticating proxy with AUTH_MODE=trusted-header. The default mode does not authenticate
- Put agents that hold different secrets or GitHub tokens on different machines. Agents on one machine can read each other's homes and tokens
- Back up the .env file written by ./setup.sh. It holds the only copy of the key that encrypts stored credentials
- Set a spend limit at your model provider. guilds.run sets no spend cap, and max_tool_calls defaults to 50 per run
- Pin a commit of main when you deploy. There are no tagged releases or versioned images yet
OpenAI Agents SDK
- Set OPENAI_AGENTS_DISABLE_TRACING=1 or OPENAI_AGENTS_TRACE_INCLUDE_SENSITIVE_DATA=0. Through 0.23.1, RunConfig(tracing_disabled=True) doesn't stop spans inside your own trace() block
- Pin to a minor version. Each 0.Y can break
- Set require_approval on MCP servers that write
- Name the model explicitly. The default changed in 0.20.0
- Use an error handler for max_turns instead of catching MaxTurnsExceeded
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, guilds.run or OpenAI Agents SDK?
OpenAI Agents SDK scores 86.2 (AA) on agent readiness against guilds.run's 56.5 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.
Are guilds.run and OpenAI Agents SDK open source?
Yes. guilds.run is open source (AGPL-3.0-only). OpenAI Agents SDK is open source (MIT).
Other comparisons with guilds.run or OpenAI Agents SDK
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- Agno vs OpenAI Agents SDK
- Claude Agent SDK vs guilds.run
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- Docker Agent vs guilds.run
- Docker Agent vs OpenAI Agents SDK
- Agent Development Kit (ADK) vs guilds.run
- Agent Development Kit (ADK) vs OpenAI Agents SDK
- guilds.run vs LangGraph
- guilds.run vs Microsoft Agent Framework
- guilds.run vs Pydantic AI
- LangGraph vs OpenAI Agents SDK
- Microsoft Agent Framework vs OpenAI Agents SDK
- OpenAI Agents SDK vs Pydantic AI
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/guilds-run-vs-openai-agents-sdk.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/guilds-run.json·/api/v1/tools/openai-agents-sdk.json - From a terminal
anchor compare guilds-run openai-agents-sdk(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "guilds-run", "b": "openai-agents-sdk"}at/mcp, no key