# LlamaIndex Framework vs smolagents

> LlamaIndex Framework scores 70 (BB) to smolagents's 58.7 (C) for agent frameworks. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-11-07

LlamaIndex Framework scores 70 (BB) on agent readiness against smolagents's 58.7 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent frameworks.

- LlamaIndex Framework: grade BB, 70/100, rank #217 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/llamaindex.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/llamaindex.json
- smolagents: grade C, 58.7/100, rank #739 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/smolagents.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/smolagents.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

### LlamaIndex Framework (BB)

Good for: Python teams building retrieval-heavy agents over their own data, with many connectors.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 70 against 64
- Agent ergonomics, 73 against 68
- Security & auth, 74 against 66
- Maintenance & community, 69 against 34

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: Core is 0.14.x, and minor versions such as 0.13 and 0.14 carried breaking changes

### smolagents (C)

Good for: Small Python projects and research that want code-writing agents with minimal abstraction.

Watch for: No release since 1.26.0 on 29 May 2026, and few commits to main since August


## Why the edge

### Maintenance & community: LlamaIndex Framework +35

- LlamaIndex Framework (69): llama-index-core 0.14.25 on 21 September 2026, 46 days before this check (20). Two core changelog entries in the 90 days (19 August and 21 September), with integration packages and Workflows (2.24.1 to 2.26.1) publishing in between, so partial (12). 379 open issues and 1,291 open issues and pull requests on 6 November, with 241 issues opened in the 90 days to 3 November. Of the 50 newest, 28 had a comment and 3 were closed; a stale bot and an issue classifier run on the repository (12). Core, Workflows and integrations are current (15). CI and CodeQL passing on main and a stale-package policy that moves unmaintained integrations out of main (10). 20+12+12+15+10 = 69.
- smolagents (34): v1.26.0 on 29 May 2026, 161 days before this check (10). No release in the 90 days to 6 November (0). 416 open issues and 1,045 open issues and pull requests on 6 November, with 144 issues opened in the 90 days to 3 November. Of the 50 newest, 26 had a comment and 1 was closed. Two 2026 CVE records say the vendor didn't respond to the reporter, and seven commits reached main from 8 August to 6 November (6). Python only, and the package is the current one (10). CI with actions pinned to commit SHAs and Dependabot for actions (8). 10+0+6+10+8 = 34.

### Security & auth: LlamaIndex Framework +8

- LlamaIndex Framework (74): Framework reading (telemetry defaults, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing). No telemetry found in llama-index-core (25). Human-in-the-loop events in Workflows and agents can wait for a person, but there's no per-tool approval primitive and CodeActAgent's executor is the developer's to supply (12). The threat model puts input validation on the application, with no prompt-injection guidance in the agent pages (5). Instrumentation events and callback handlers for tracing (14). A huntr bug bounty, GitHub private reporting and public advisories with fixed versions (18). 25+12+5+14+18 = 74.
- smolagents (66): Framework reading (telemetry defaults, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing). No telemetry found in the source (25). No human approval hook beyond step callbacks; the local executor restricts imports but the guide says it isn't a security tool, and isolation needs a remote executor (10). The secure execution guide covers LLM-generated code risks, without prompt-injection guidance for tool output (7). OpenTelemetry tracing through OpenInference and run inspection (12). SECURITY.md with private reporting and CVE credit, and the remote-executor RCE was fixed in public, but two 2026 CVE records say the vendor didn't respond (12). 25+10+7+12+12 = 66.

### Reliability: LlamaIndex Framework +6

- LlamaIndex Framework (70): Local-package reading. Official PyPI packages with Python 3.10 to below 4.0 (20). Public unit-test, type-check, lint, coverage and CodeQL workflows, with the type-check, lint and CodeQL runs on main passing on 3 November (25). 379 open issues and 1,291 open issues and pull requests on 6 November, with 241 issues opened in the 90 days to 3 November. Of the 50 newest, 28 had a comment and 3 were closed; a stale bot and an issue classifier run on the repository (12). A dated, generated changelog per package, but core is 0.x and minors such as 0.13 and 0.14 carried breaking changes (8). Core isn't 1.0; Workflows is at 2.x, so partial (5). 20+25+12+8+5 = 70.
- smolagents (64): Local-package reading. Official PyPI package with Python 3.10 or newer (20). A public tests workflow runs pytest on Python 3.10 and 3.12 for pushes and pull requests; whether main passes wasn't read (15). 416 open issues and 1,045 open issues and pull requests on 6 November, with 144 issues opened in the 90 days to 3 November. Of the 50 newest, 26 had a comment and 1 was closed. Two 2026 CVE records say the vendor didn't respond to the reporter, and seven commits reached main from 8 August to 6 November (6). Release notes on GitHub tags but no changelog file, and the remote WasmExecutor was removed in a minor release (8). 1.0 since 31 December 2024 (15). 20+15+6+8+15 = 64.

### Agent ergonomics: LlamaIndex Framework +5

- LlamaIndex Framework (73): Framework reading. MCP tools through a separate llama-index-tools-mcp package, with allowed tools selectable (18). Memory token limits, iteration caps and streaming events (16). Tool errors returned to the agent, with few typed errors (12). Workflow context serialises and resumes, and the DBOS package makes runs durable (16). Few required parameters, but OpenAI is the silent default for LLM and embeddings, Python here with a separate TypeScript edition (11). 18+16+12+16+11 = 73.
- smolagents (68): Framework reading. MCPClient loads an MCP server's tools in a few lines (20). max_steps, planning intervals and final_answer_checks bound a run (16). Errors from tools and code go back to the model as observations (14). No built-in retry, idempotency or resume beyond replaying memory (8). Few required parameters and many providers, Python only, and the default model needs a Hugging Face token (10). 20+16+14+8+10 = 68.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | LlamaIndex Framework | smolagents | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 70 | 64 | LlamaIndex Framework +6 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 85 | 81 | LlamaIndex Framework +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 73 | 68 | LlamaIndex Framework +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 74 | 66 | LlamaIndex Framework +8 |
| 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) | 69 | 34 | LlamaIndex Framework +35 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 65 | LlamaIndex Framework +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | -6 | |
| **Total** | | **70 · BB** | **58.7 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | LlamaIndex Framework | smolagents |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent framework | Agent framework |
| Vendor | LlamaIndex | Hugging Face |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-21 | 2026-05-29 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2022-09-15 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-24 | 2023-03-28 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 53k stars, 1.3M PyPI/wk | 30k stars, 171k PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**LlamaIndex Framework.** An MIT Python framework for retrieval and agents, with three agent types, multi-agent AgentWorkflow, resumable event-driven Workflows, MCP tools and a huntr bug bounty, and no telemetry found. Core is still 0.14 with breaking minors, OpenAI is the silent default, and approval and injection handling are left to the application.

**smolagents.** A compact Python library for code-writing and tool-calling agents, with MCP tools, any model provider and remote sandboxes through E2B, Docker, Modal or Blaxel. The newest release is 1.26.0 of 29 May 2026, a critical remote-executor RCE took about eight weeks to fix, and the local executor isn't a security boundary.

## Before you call either

### LlamaIndex Framework

1. Set Settings.llm and Settings.embed_model explicitly so calls don't go to OpenAI by default
2. Install llama-index-tools-mcp for MCP tools and pass only the allowed tools the task needs
3. Use Workflow human-in-the-loop events before tools that write or send
4. Pin llama-index-core to a minor version, since minors have broken APIs
5. Upgrade llama-index-core to 0.13.0 or later to clear the 2025 advisories

### smolagents

1. Run CodeAgent with `executor_type` set to e2b, docker, modal or blaxel whenever the model or its inputs aren't trusted
2. Use smolagents 1.24.0 or later to get the remote-executor deserialisation fix
3. Set max_steps and final_answer_checks so a run stops on its own
4. Pass structured_output explicitly to MCPClient to avoid the default-change warning
5. Pin the version, since minor releases have removed APIs

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, LlamaIndex Framework or smolagents?

LlamaIndex Framework scores 70 (BB) on agent readiness against smolagents's 58.7 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Are LlamaIndex Framework and smolagents open source?

Yes. LlamaIndex Framework is open source (MIT). smolagents is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with LlamaIndex Framework or smolagents

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

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