# guilds.run vs Strands Agents

> Strands Agents scores 80 (A) to guilds.run's 53.4 (D) for agent frameworks. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guilds-run-vs-strands-agents
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guilds-run-vs-strands-agents.md (~5,150 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

Strands Agents scores 80 (A) on agent readiness against guilds.run's 53.4 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent frameworks.

- guilds.run: grade D, 53.4/100, rank #945 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/guilds-run.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/guilds-run.json
- Strands Agents: grade A, 80/100, rank #15 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/strands-agents.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/strands-agents.json
- Best agent frameworks and SDKs: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/frameworks/index.md
- All 171 frameworks comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/frameworks/index.md

## Which one, for what

### guilds.run (D)

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 or published image on 4 November 2026. Users install whatever is on main, including breaking changes

### Strands Agents (A)

Good for: Python or TypeScript teams, especially on AWS, who want a model-driven loop with MCP, multi-agent patterns and approval gates.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 87 against 43
- Schema & documentation, 95 against 58
- Agent ergonomics, 87 against 67
- Security & auth, 89 against 68
- Maintenance & community, 87 against 21
- Transparency & trust, 72 against 60

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- No key needed to call it

Watch for: Three advisories in October 2026 on A2A session sharing and world-readable default session files, fixed in 1.43.0 and 1.48.0


## Why the edge

### Maintenance & community: Strands Agents +66

- guilds.run (21): No tagged release, version or dated changelog entry. Main, which the install clones and SECURITY.md names as the supported version, last changed on 3 November 2026 (1,072 of the commits since 14 October by one author), but commits with no version or tag aren't releases in this run (hyperqwen, brave-search-mcp), and CONTRIBUTING.md itself defines a release as a vMAJOR.MINOR.PATCH tag, so nothing has been released (0, from 20). No releases or dated changelog entries in the 90 days from 6 August (0). Issues and pull requests per the 14 October check (eight, all closed, the three issues within an hour), not re-read on 4 November (15 of 25). No published package (0). CI on every push with a frozen pnpm lockfile, and still no Dependabot configuration in the repository (6 of 10). 0 + 0 + 15 + 0 + 6 = 21.
- Strands Agents (87): Python 1.64.0 and TypeScript 1.24.0 tagged on 4 November 2026 (30). Python 1.55.0 on 8 September, 1.61.0 on 14 October, 1.62.0 on 21 October and 1.63.0 on 30 October among many releases in 90 days (20). 664 open issues and 1,151 open issues and pull requests on 6 November, with 545 issues opened in the 90 days to 3 November. Of the 50 newest, 12 had a comment and 15 were closed, and 9 of the 40 newest open items carry a bug label. An issue-responder workflow runs on new issues (12). Both official SDKs are current (15). Dependency floors, security-audit workflows and CI passing on main (10). 30+20+12+15+10 = 87.

### Reliability: Strands Agents +44

- guilds.run (43): Read with the local-software lines, because the owner runs it. Docker with Compose is the stated requirement, and the install is a git clone of main plus ./setup.sh, which builds the images. No package, tagged release or published image exists, since the image workflow runs only on a v* tag and the remote still has none on 4 November 2026 (10 of 20, the earlier partial kept). The verify workflow runs scripts/check.sh on every push, with typecheck, lint, orchestrator, UI and web tests and a smoke test of the Compose stack, and the clone has 356 test files. GitHub's Actions pages and API answered 403 on 4 November, so the pass state on main is unread (15 of 25, down from 25 on the 14 October reading of 13 passing runs). Open issues per the 14 October check, not re-read on 4 November (18 of 25). CHANGELOG.md, added on 15 October, marks each change no impact, rebuild or breaking and CONTRIBUTING.md defines a semver tag policy, but no version has been cut (0, the earlier value kept). Not versioned or declared stable (0). 10 + 15 + 18 + 0 + 0 = 43.
- Strands Agents (87): Local-package reading. Official PyPI and npm packages with Python 3.10 and Node 22 stated (20). A public CI workflow runs lint, type checks, unit and integration tests for each package on pull requests to main, plus security-audit workflows, and the latest Python, TypeScript, harness and MCP runs on main passed on 6 November (25). 664 open issues and 1,151 open issues and pull requests on 6 November, with 545 issues opened in the 90 days to 3 November. Of the 50 newest, 12 had a comment and 15 were closed, and 9 of the 40 newest open items carry a bug label. An issue-responder workflow runs on new issues (12). A written semantic versioning policy, experimental APIs kept apart, and deprecations removed only at a major (15). 1.0 since 15 July 2025 (15). 20+25+12+15+15 = 87.

### Schema & documentation: Strands Agents +37

- guilds.run (58): Framework reading. No OpenAPI document for the HTTP API. The recipe format guilds.recipe v2 rejects unknown keys, and connector manifests are validated with TypeBox at load (12 of 25). No llms.txt on docs.guilds.run (404 on 4 November). The docs are Markdown in the repository with an AGENTS.md (5 of 10). Pages state what the code does today, which page to read for which job, and the trust boundary in numbered rules (15 of 20). Tool input schemas, recipe caps and typed manifest fields (11 of 15). The getting-started walk says what you should see at each step, and the Operate page explains each startup error message (11 of 15). CHANGELOG.md (since 15 October) holds only an Unreleased section with no version or date, and the security register keeps dated history (4 of 15, the earlier partial kept). 12 + 5 + 15 + 11 + 11 + 4 = 58.
- Strands Agents (95): Framework reading. Typed Python and TypeScript APIs with a reference for each (25). llms.txt with a Markdown twin of every page (10). The llms.txt and docs say when to use Strands over a hand-written loop and when to take the harness rather than the SDK (18). Tools are typed from decorated functions or Zod schemas (15). Python and TypeScript examples on every page, stop reasons and hook events documented, with no catalogue of exceptions (12). Versioning page and tagged releases per package (15). 25+10+18+15+12+15 = 95.

### Security & auth: Strands Agents +21

- guilds.run (68): Framework reading. 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt injection, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. Model keys go only to their provider and Sentry starts only when SENTRY_DSN is set, with user info, bodies and model inputs and outputs excluded. Graft left the runtime image on 13 October (SEC-9), so its version lookup is gone, but the box fetches the models.dev catalogue on first read and hourly (switch MODELS_DEV_URL, documented) and the OAuth pages load Google Fonts (27). Each machine is an OpenSandbox container with dropped capabilities and no_new_privileges, writing MCP tools start Off and Studio changes wait for the operator. Agents on one machine share it and run commands as root with open egress (SEC-6, SEC-24), no per-call approval gate for tool calls was found, and the default AUTH_MODE compat-cookie has no login (10). The coding prompt says repository content is data, Studio wraps evidence as untrusted, and known secret values are redacted from transcripts. SEC-8, injection into coding agents, and SEC-47, GitHub content steering writes, are open (8). Every run keeps the prompt, each tool call and result, and versioned memory with who changed it (14). SECURITY.md with GitHub private reporting and no acknowledgement time, and a public register of 58 issues on 4 November with exposure and residual risk, 28 still open (18 open, 10 open and accepted). No security.txt (404), bounty or published advisory (9). 27 + 10 + 8 + 14 + 9 = 68. Sixteen register fixes dated 17 October to 3 November are on main with no release and no advisory; no term, because `packages` is empty and there is no hosted product, as ayrshare's plugin fix was read.
- Strands Agents (89): Framework reading (telemetry defaults, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing). No usage analytics found in either SDK, and OpenTelemetry is opt-in (25). Interrupts and the harness's interventions gate tool calls behind human approval or Cedar policies, but the default sandbox is the local host (16). Guardrails, PII redaction and trusted message history pages, with Bedrock Guardrails integration (13). OpenTelemetry traces for every model and tool call (15). The AWS Vulnerability Disclosure Program on HackerOne and three advisories in October 2026 published with fixed versions (20). 25+16+13+15+20 = 89.

### Agent ergonomics: Strands Agents +20

- guilds.run (67): Framework reading, scored on what it takes to run a tool-calling team with MCP. No code is needed. Three commands and a model key start a guild, and each agent is offered only the tools turned on for it (18 of 25). max_tool_calls defaults to 50 per run, max_input_tokens trims old tool results and hands off to a new run, and remaining_tool_calls is appended to each result after the platform cap (15 of 20). Runs end with named codes such as generation.max_tool_calls and workspace.full, and interrupted tool calls get an error result so the next model request is valid (13 of 20). readOnlyHint and destructiveHint are stored for each MCP tool and writing tools start Off. Startup does not replay a model call (14 of 20). Sensible defaults and a guided first-run dialog, but it is an application with an HTTP API and no SDK in any language (7 of 15). Confirmed on 4 November in the clone (max_tool_calls default 50, 200 for a new coding agent).
- Strands Agents (87): Framework reading. An MCPClient is passed straight to the agent in a few lines and its lifecycle is managed, with tool filtering per client (22). Conversation managers, turn limits, token budgets and cancellation bound each run (20). Stop reasons and typed events, and hooks that can retry a model or tool call (16). Retry strategies, session managers that persist and resume a conversation, and interrupts that resume where they paused (17). Two official languages, but the default provider is Bedrock, which needs AWS credentials and model access (12). 22+20+16+17+12 = 87.

### Transparency & trust: Strands Agents +12

- guilds.run (60): AGPL-3.0-only, OSI approved (30). No privacy policy or terms. The footer still links to both and they returned 404 on 4 November 2026. The docs say where data lives (PostgreSQL and STATE_ROOT on your host), that model keys go only to their provider, and that stored credentials are encrypted under one master key in .env (12 of 30). No deprecation policy or dated notices. CHANGELOG.md marks breaking changes with steps, undated, and the security register is dated (3 of 20, the earlier partial kept). Sentry is opt-in and documented on the Configure page, and the models.dev catalogue fetch and the connector registry address are documented with their switches (18 of 20). 30 + 12 + 3 + 18 = 63.
- Strands Agents (72): Apache-2.0 (30). A library that stores session state where the developer configures it. The default FileSessionManager kept sessions world-readable in /tmp until 1.48.0, which the October advisories record and fix (20). A written deprecation policy with warnings and removal at majors, without a dated support window (16). Telemetry is opt-in and documented (20). 30+20+16+20 = 86.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | guilds.run | Strands Agents | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 43 | 87 | Strands Agents +44 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 58 | 95 | Strands Agents +37 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 87 | Strands Agents +20 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 68 | 89 | Strands Agents +21 |
| 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) | 21 | 87 | Strands Agents +66 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 60 | 72 | Strands Agents +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **53.4 · D** | **80 · A** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | guilds.run | Strands Agents |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent framework | Agent framework |
| Vendor | Cigale AI | Amazon Web Services |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | AGPL-3.0-only | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | none | 2026-11-04 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no document linked |
| Popularity | 57 stars | 9.1k stars, 698k npm/wk, 8.9M PyPI/wk |

## How the scores have moved

### guilds.run

- -3.2 on 4 November 2026 (C to D): product, new evidence, correction
- +0.1 on 27 October 2026: checklist

### Strands Agents

No score change since it was listed.

## 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. It has no tagged release, version or package, so users track main, its own security register lists 28 open issues of 58, and the site's terms and privacy links return 404.

**Strands Agents.** An Apache-2.0 agent SDK for Python and TypeScript with a managed MCP client, multi-agent patterns, interrupts and Cedar policies for approval, opt-in OpenTelemetry and no usage analytics. Bedrock is the default model, the default sandbox is the local host, and three session-isolation advisories were fixed in October 2026.

## 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. Pin a commit of main when you deploy and read CHANGELOG.md's Unreleased section before pulling. Breaking changes land on main
5. Set MODELS_DEV_URL empty for an offline box. The model catalogue is otherwise fetched from models.dev hourly

### Strands Agents

1. Upgrade to strands-agents 1.48.0 or later, and set a private session directory rather than the /tmp default
2. Pass a model explicitly when AWS credentials aren't configured, since Bedrock is the default
3. Use interrupts or the harness's `interventions` for tools that write, send or pay
4. Run shell and file tools in the Docker or SSH sandbox when the agent runs untrusted code
5. Pin a minor version when using A2A, MCP or experimental modules

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, guilds.run or Strands Agents?

Strands Agents scores 80 (A) on agent readiness against guilds.run's 53.4 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Are guilds.run and Strands Agents open source?

Yes. guilds.run is open source (AGPL-3.0-only). Strands Agents is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with guilds.run or Strands Agents

- [AgentOS vs guilds.run](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-guilds-run.md)
- [AgentOS vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentos-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [Agno vs guilds.run](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agno-vs-guilds-run.md)
- [Agno vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agno-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [BoxLang AI vs guilds.run](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boxlang-ai-vs-guilds-run.md)
- [BoxLang AI vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/boxlang-ai-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [Claude Agent SDK vs guilds.run](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-agent-sdk-vs-guilds-run.md)
- [Claude Agent SDK vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-agent-sdk-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [CrewAI vs guilds.run](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crewai-vs-guilds-run.md)
- [CrewAI vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crewai-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [Cursor Agent SDK vs guilds.run](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-agent-sdk-vs-guilds-run.md)
- [Cursor Agent SDK vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-agent-sdk-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [Docker Agent vs guilds.run](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/docker-agent-vs-guilds-run.md)
- [Docker Agent vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/docker-agent-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [Agent Development Kit (ADK) vs guilds.run](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-adk-vs-guilds-run.md)
- [Agent Development Kit (ADK) vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/google-adk-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [guilds.run vs LangGraph](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guilds-run-vs-langgraph.md)
- [guilds.run vs LlamaIndex Framework](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guilds-run-vs-llamaindex.md)
- [guilds.run vs Mastra](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guilds-run-vs-mastra.md)
- [guilds.run vs Microsoft Agent Framework](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guilds-run-vs-microsoft-agent-framework.md)
- [guilds.run vs OpenAI Agents SDK](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guilds-run-vs-openai-agents-sdk.md)
- [guilds.run vs Pydantic AI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guilds-run-vs-pydantic-ai.md)
- [guilds.run vs smolagents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guilds-run-vs-smolagents.md)
- [guilds.run vs TradingAgents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guilds-run-vs-tradingagents.md)
- [guilds.run vs AI SDK](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/guilds-run-vs-vercel-ai-sdk.md)
- [LangGraph vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/langgraph-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [LlamaIndex Framework vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/llamaindex-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [Mastra vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mastra-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [Microsoft Agent Framework vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-agent-framework-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [OpenAI Agents SDK vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-agents-sdk-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [Pydantic AI vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pydantic-ai-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [smolagents vs Strands Agents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/smolagents-vs-strands-agents.md)
- [Strands Agents vs TradingAgents](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-agents-vs-tradingagents.md)
- [Strands Agents vs AI SDK](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/strands-agents-vs-vercel-ai-sdk.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp