# Letta vs Paperclip

> Letta scores 59.7 (C) to Paperclip's 52.6 (D) for multi-agent orchestration. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letta-vs-paperclip
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/letta-vs-paperclip.md (~5,650 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

Letta scores 59.7 (C) on agent readiness against Paperclip's 52.6 (D), and leads in 1 of 7 scored categories. Paperclip leads on schema & documentation, security & auth and transparency & trust. Both do multi-agent orchestration.

- Letta: grade C, 59.7/100, rank #687 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/letta.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/letta.json
- Paperclip: grade D, 52.6/100, rank #982 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/paperclip.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/paperclip.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 1500 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md
- Best memory layers for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-memory/index.md
- All 353 memory comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-memory/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Letta (C)

Good for: Long-lived coding agents and assistants that keep memory and identity across sessions and machines.

Ahead on:
- Maintenance & community, 85 against 78

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- No incidents deducted, where Paperclip loses 15 points for them

Watch for: The default permission mode is `unrestricted`, the renamed `bypassPermissions`, so tool calls aren't confirmed unless the user picks another mode

### Paperclip (D)

Good for: Someone running several coding or operations agents who wants one place for tasks, budgets, approvals and history across harnesses.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 81 against 70
- Security & auth, 64 against 35
- Transparency & trust, 66 against 55

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: `claude_local` defaults `dangerouslySkipPermissions` to true and `codex_local` defaults to bypassing approvals and the sandbox, with agents running on the host


## Why the edge

### Security & auth: Paperclip +29

- Letta (35): Harness reading of the framework checklist, as for the other harnesses. 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. Letta Cloud is the default backend, so agent state and conversations go to Letta's servers, and telemetry is on by default (10 of 30). The default permission mode is `unrestricted`; `standard`, `acceptEdits` and `strict` are opt-in, and cloud sandboxes exist for remote work (4 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance found for fetched pages or channel messages (5 of 15). Conversation search and git history of memory give an operator a record of what the agent saw and changed (10 of 15). SECURITY.md routes reports to support@letta.com and scopes out the retired server; no security.txt, bounty or certification found (6 of 20). Total 35.
- Paperclip (64): Harness reading of the framework checklist, as used for the other harnesses. 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. Anonymous usage telemetry is on by default and goes to telemetry.paperclip.ing. The README lists what is excluded and four opt-outs, and Sentry and OpenTelemetry stay off until configured. We found no first-run notice in the CLI source (18). Board approvals for hires and strategy, execution policies and per-action connection permissions, but `claude_local` defaults `dangerouslySkipPermissions` to true, `codex_local` defaults to bypassing approvals and the sandbox, local agents run on the host, sandbox providers are optional plugins and the default `local_trusted` mode has no login (10). A documented `low_trust_review` preset contains agents that read untrusted pull requests or tickets. It is opt-in (10). An activity log of mutating actions, run logs, cost events and audited board API keys (14). SECURITY.md with GitHub private reporting and twelve advisories published per the 8 October check, three now with CVEs in OSV. No security.txt, bug bounty or SOC 2 report found (12).

### Schema & documentation: Paperclip +11

- Letta (70): Harness reading. docs.letta.com serves llms.txt and a Markdown version of every page, with an `applies_to` block saying which backend and interface each page covers (10). TypeScript types for the Agent SDK and a documented App Server WebSocket protocol, but no JSON Schema or OpenAPI for the harness (15 of 25). Pages say when to use local or cloud backends, subagents and channels (14 of 20). Permission modes and options are typed in the SDK (12 of 15). Example applications and a remote client reference (11 of 15). Releases most days but no changelog file (8 of 15). Total 70.
- Paperclip (81): The running server publishes OpenAPI at `/api/openapi.json` and validates requests with Zod, and the MCP server's tools take Zod schemas. No copy of the spec is published on the docs site, and paperclip.ing/openapi.json describes only the website (22). llms.txt at paperclip.ing, and docs pages answer as Markdown at `.md` (10). An API reference page per resource and task guides, but the MCP tool descriptions are one line each, such as List agents in a company (13). Typed inputs throughout, apart from the `paperclipApiRequest` tool, which takes any path under `/api` and a JSON body (12). cURL, JavaScript and Python examples and a status-code table, with one `{error}` shape and an occasional `details` field (12). A changelog page for every stable release and release notes in the repository, but the API path carries no version (12).

### Transparency & trust: Paperclip +11

- Letta (55): Apache-2.0 (30). The privacy policy has no date, no legal entity and no retention periods, and says hosted message data may train future models (8 of 30). The README and docs mark AgentFile, the Electron app and the V1 server as deprecated or retired, without dated notice periods (12 of 20). Telemetry is described in the privacy policy only as basic and opt-out when supported; the LETTA_CODE_TELEM=0 switch appears only in the source (5 of 20). Total 55.
- Paperclip (66): MIT (30). The privacy policy of 23 July 2026 separates self-hosted use from the hosted services and names Paperclip Labs, Inc., but keeps data as long as reasonably necessary, lists no subprocessors, and the 90-day telemetry retention appears only in source. The terms grant a broad licence over content sent to the services and allow model training on opt-in detailed telemetry (16). Release notes carry dated Breaking Changes sections and upgrade guides, with no written deprecation policy or notice period (10). The README discloses telemetry, what it excludes and four opt-outs, and the event contract is public in the repository, but it is on by default (17).

### Maintenance & community: Letta +7

- Letta (85): v0.34.42 on 6 November 2026 (30). Dozens of releases in 90 days (20). Pull requests are merged daily; recent issues from users have few replies (15 of 25). npm and PyPI packages and the Agent SDK track the releases (12 of 15). Lock files, CI and nightly smoke tests (8 of 10). Total 85.
- Paperclip (78): Version 2026.1023.0, released on 23 October 2026 per its notes and the site banner (30). Ten stable releases from 2026.817.0 (17 August) to 2026.1023.0 in the 90 days to 4 November (20). Per the 8 October check, not re-read on 4 November, 650 pull requests merged in the last 30 days, but 2,849 issues and 3,338 pull requests were open, 1,396 open issues had no comment, and 309 of the 472 still-open issues from the two weeks before had none (8). `paperclipai` and `@paperclipai/mcp-server` publish from the same release workflow. We did not check the MCP registry (12). CI on master, a lockfile refresh workflow and signed image attestations (8). 30 + 20 + 8 + 12 + 8 = 78.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Letta | Paperclip | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 58 | 59 | Paperclip +1 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 81 | Paperclip +11 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 70 | Paperclip +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 35 | 64 | Paperclip +29 |
| 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) | 85 | 78 | Letta +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 55 | 66 | Paperclip +11 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -15 | |
| **Total** | | **59.7 · C** | **52.6 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Letta | Paperclip |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Letta | Paperclip Labs, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | stdio |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-11-06 | 2026-10-23 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-07-23 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-07-23 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 3.8k stars, 86k npm/wk, 2.2k PyPI/wk | 99k stars, 60k npm/wk |

## How the scores have moved

### Letta

No score change since it was listed.

### Paperclip

- -6.4 on 4 November 2026 (C to D): correction
- no change on 27 October 2026: checklist

## Verdicts

**Letta.** Letta's open-source harness gives agents git-tracked memory blocks, skills, subagents and headless JSON runs, with a $0 plan and public per-agent API prices. It starts in the unrestricted permission mode, defaults to Letta Cloud, sends usage telemetry unless LETTA_CODE_TELEM=0 is set, and the V1 API server the comparisons describe is retired.

**Paperclip.** Board approvals, budgets with a hard stop and an activity log sit above whichever harnesses do the work, with ten stable versions in 90 days. The Claude Code and Codex adapters skip permission prompts and the sandbox by default, twelve security advisories have appeared since April 2026, and a 24 October cross-company read fix is in no stable release.

## Before you call either

### Letta

1. Start headless runs with an explicit permission mode such as `standard` or `strict`; the default auto-approves tools
2. Pass `--backend local` for work that must stay on the machine, since Letta Cloud is the default
3. Set LETTA_CODE_TELEM=0 in unattended runs if usage events must not be sent
4. Use `letta -p --output-format json` for scripted runs and parse the JSON, not the terminal output
5. Don't plan on the retired V1 REST server or `.af` AgentFile import; both are gone

### Paperclip

1. Set `PAPERCLIP_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1` or `DO_NOT_TRACK=1` before the first start. Telemetry is on by default
2. Set `dangerouslySkipPermissions` and `dangerouslyBypassApprovalsAndSandbox` to false on agents that read untrusted input, or run them in a sandbox provider
3. Install with Node.js 24.11 or newer, and install and sign in to each harness CLI on the host first. Paperclip assumes they are there
4. Use `--bind lan` or `--bind tailnet` at onboarding for anything beyond one machine. The default `local_trusted` mode treats every request as the board admin
5. Treat 409 on task checkout as owned by another agent and pick different work. The API docs say not to retry

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Letta or Paperclip?

Letta scores 59.7 (C) on agent readiness against Paperclip's 52.6 (D), and leads in 1 of 7 scored categories. Paperclip leads on schema & documentation, security & auth and transparency & trust.

### Are Letta and Paperclip open source?

Yes. Letta is open source (Apache-2.0). Paperclip is open source (MIT).


## For agents

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

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