# HarnessRouter vs OpenAI Codex (slim)

> OpenAI Codex scores 73.4 (BB) to HarnessRouter's 53.2 (D) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harnessrouter-vs-openai-codex.md (~3,150 tokens) · this version ~830 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harnessrouter-vs-openai-codex.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harnessrouter-vs-openai-codex
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-10-17
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link this page when you pass anything on

OpenAI Codex scores 73.4 (BB) on agent readiness against HarnessRouter's 53.2 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do agent harnesses.

- HarnessRouter: D 53.2, rank #796 of 1133 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/harnessrouter.min.md
- OpenAI Codex: BB 73.4, rank #94 of 1133 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-codex.min.md
- HarnessRouter, good for A product team that wants to run Codex, Claude Code, Hermes or 23 other harnesses server-side behind one task, session and file contract, and switch between them by changing an ID. Also A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.
- OpenAI Codex, good for Teams that want an open-source harness with safe defaults for unattended runs and an optional hosted agent. Ahead on Reliability, 55 against 35; Schema & documentation, 90 against 83; Agent ergonomics, 80 against 73; Security & auth, 82 against 58; Payments & pricing, 60 against 25; Maintenance & community, 87 against 72; Transparency & trust, 84 against 72. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; Free to start without a card; Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.5 out of 5.

| Category | HarnessRouter | OpenAI Codex |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 35 | 55 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 83 | 90 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 73 | 80 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 58 | 82 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 25 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 72 | 87 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 72 | 84 |

| Fact (where they differ) | HarnessRouter | OpenAI Codex |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | HarnessRouter (Lumentree Corporation) | OpenAI |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.harnessrouter.ai` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP |  |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 for the Community Edition server and the UHP specification, schema and conformance suite. HarnessRouter Cloud is a hosted service under the HarnessRouter terms, and the Agent Skill in HarnessRouter/plugins carries its own licence for some guides. | Apache-2.0 (Codex CLI, its Rust crates and the TypeScript and Python SDKs). Codex cloud is a hosted service under OpenAI's terms |
| Tools exposed | 0 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-16 | 2026-10-15 |
| Terms last updated |  | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated |  | 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 | 3.1k stars | 126k stars |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (4) | 3/5 (2) |