# guilds.run vs OpenAI Agents SDK

> OpenAI Agents SDK scores 86.2 (AA) to guilds.run's 56.5 (C) for agent frameworks. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guilds-run-vs-openai-agents-sdk
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guilds-run-vs-openai-agents-sdk.md (~2,200 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guilds-run-vs-openai-agents-sdk.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guilds-run-vs-openai-agents-sdk.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
- 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: 2026-10-14

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.

- guilds.run: grade C, 56.5/100, rank #674 of 1084. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/guilds-run.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/guilds-run.json
- OpenAI Agents SDK: grade AA, 86.2/100, rank #1 of 1084. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-agents-sdk.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-agents-sdk.json
- Best agent frameworks and SDKs: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/frameworks/index.md
- All 55 frameworks comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/frameworks/index.md

## Which one, for what

### guilds.run (C)

Good 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

### OpenAI Agents SDK (AA)

Good 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 | guilds.run | OpenAI Agents SDK | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 53 | 85 | OpenAI Agents SDK +32 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 58 | 95 | OpenAI Agents SDK +37 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 97 | OpenAI Agents SDK +30 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 68 | 80 | OpenAI Agents SDK +12 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 41 | 100 | OpenAI Agents SDK +59 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 52 | 89 | OpenAI Agents SDK +37 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **56.5 · C** | **86.2 · AA** | |

## 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

1. Keep the box on loopback or behind an authenticating proxy with AUTH_MODE=trusted-header. The default mode does not authenticate
2. Put agents that hold different secrets or GitHub tokens on different machines. Agents on one machine can read each other's homes and tokens
3. Back up the .env file written by ./setup.sh. It holds the only copy of the key that encrypts stored credentials
4. Set a spend limit at your model provider. guilds.run sets no spend cap, and max_tool_calls defaults to 50 per run
5. Pin a commit of main when you deploy. There are no tagged releases or versioned images yet

### OpenAI Agents SDK

1. 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
2. Pin to a minor version. Each 0.Y can break
3. Set require_approval on MCP servers that write
4. Name the model explicitly. The default changed in 0.20.0
5. 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).


## For agents

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

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