# mini-swe-agent vs OpenAI Agents API (slim)

> OpenAI Agents scores 73.3 (BB) to mini-swe-agent's 59 (C) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-openai-agents-api.md (~6,250 tokens) · this version ~2,830 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-openai-agents-api.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mini-swe-agent-vs-openai-agents-api
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-06
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OpenAI Agents API scores 73.3 (BB) on agent readiness against mini-swe-agent's 59 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. mini-swe-agent leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do agent harnesses.

- mini-swe-agent: C 59, rank #647 of 1354 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mini-swe-agent.min.md
- OpenAI Agents API: BB 73.3, rank #99 of 1354 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-agents-api.min.md
- mini-swe-agent, good for Benchmark runs, research baselines and RL or fine-tuning pipelines that want a minimal, readable agent with a linear trajectory, and for people who want to read every line of their harness. Ahead on Reliability, 65 against 60; Payments & pricing, 60 against 30. Also No key needed to call it; Free to start without a card; Open source.
- OpenAI Agents API, good for Teams that want OpenAI to run the agent loop, with sandboxes, MCP tools and subagents, and are fine with a beta API, US-only data residency and no Zero Data Retention. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 88 against 58; Agent ergonomics, 80 against 69; Security & auth, 87 against 58; Maintenance & community, 87 against 32; Transparency & trust, 85 against 56. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install.

| Category | mini-swe-agent | OpenAI Agents API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 65 | 60 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 58 | 88 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 69 | 80 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 58 | 87 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 30 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 32 | 87 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 56 | 85 |

| Fact (where they differ) | mini-swe-agent | OpenAI Agents API |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | HTTP API |
| Vendor | SWE-bench team (Princeton and Stanford) | OpenAI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.openai.com/v1/agents/sessions` |
| Transports |  | https |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary hosted API under OpenAI's Services Agreement. The SDKs are Apache 2.0 |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-07-23 | 2026-10-16 |
| 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 | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 8.6k stars, 4.4M PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, OpenAI Agents API +55: mini-swe-agent 32 (2.4.6 on PyPI on 2026-07-23, 104 days before this check, and still the newest tag (10). No release in the 90 days to 4 November (0). Main hasn't moved since 3 September (three commits since 23 July, one from pre-commit-ci). Outside fixes were merged within days through July, but no pull request has been merged since #917 (17 August), 77 of the 85 pull requests numbered after it still carry open merge refs on the git remote, and maintainer reply times couldn't be read; the 18 October shields.io counts are struck (5). The Python library ships in the same package as the CLI and is current (10). Dependabot and pre-commit-ci run, and CI workflows exist with their current state unconfirmed (7).); OpenAI Agents API 87 (Closed API. Last dated change 16 October 2026, Ultrafast mode and document skills (30). Four dated changelog entries in the 57 days since release, 10 September, 29 September, 9 October and 16 October (20). Changelog and help centre, as the openai-api listing reads them (12 of 15). Official SDKs carry beta.agents (15). SDK CI, per the openai-api listing (10). 30 + 20 + 12 + 15 + 10 = 87.)
- Schema & documentation, OpenAI Agents API +30: mini-swe-agent 58 (Framework reading. Typed pydantic config classes, typed protocols for agents, models and environments, `py.typed`, a mkdocstrings API reference and a documented trajectory format, but no machine-readable spec for configs or output (15). No llms.txt (/latest/llms.txt and /llms.txt returned 404). The docs are Markdown in the repository, readable raw, though they rely on build-time includes (3). The FAQ and environments page say when to pick mini over SWE-agent and which environment isolates, but the FAQ still says it doesn't use tool calls while the v2 guide says tool calls are now the default (12). Modes are a typed Literal and limits are typed fields, while `model_kwargs` passes free-form to LiteLLM (10). Hello-world and cookbook examples, a model troubleshooting page and a partial list of exit statuses (11). A dated v2 migration guide and kept v1 docs, with release notes only on GitHub, which we couldn't read (7).); OpenAI Agents API 88 (The reference is linked from the overview and the SDKs carry beta.agents types; we didn't confirm /agents/sessions in OpenAI's public OpenAPI file, so 15 of 25. llms.txt with every Agents API page and Markdown twins (10). The overview, architecture page and the agents guide that compares the Agents API, Agents SDK and Responses API say when to use it (20). Typed configuration with enumerated container sizes, network modes and environment types (13 of 15). Examples in six languages and an errors page with codes per HTTP status, turn and session (15). Dated changelog entries and a versioned beta header (15). 15 + 10 + 20 + 13 + 15 + 15 = 88.)
- Payments & pricing, mini-swe-agent +30: mini-swe-agent 60 (Self-hosted rule. No payment protocol (0). Free under MIT with nothing to buy (20). No card or account for the software, and it runs against a local model (20). An agent can install it from PyPI and run a task with no sign-up, given a model endpoint (20).); OpenAI Agents API 30 (No machine payment protocol (0). Model, tool and container prices published without a login, and no fee for the API itself (20). The Free tier reading of the openai-api listing, half (10). Sign-up in a browser (0). 0 + 20 + 10 + 0 = 30.)
- Security & auth, OpenAI Agents API +29: mini-swe-agent 58 (Harness reading of the framework checklist, used for every harness in this batch. 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. No telemetry in mini's own source, and prompts go only to the configured provider. LiteLLM's own network behaviour wasn't checked (28). The CLI asks before each command by default, with regex whitelists and `-y` to skip, but the Python `DefaultAgent` never asks, the default local environment has no isolation and passes the full host environment to every command, and the experimental bubblewrap sandbox leaks host variables and shares the network (CVE-2026-108592). Docker forwards no host variables unless listed (8). No prompt-injection guidance found (2). A full trajectory of every command and output saved as JSON after each step, and a trajectory inspector (13). A security policy (docs/SECURITY.md) naming four maintainers to contact by email, with no response time, which meets the disclosure-policy reading at 7 as for cowagent and tokenrip. No bounty or advisory page, and CVE-2026-108592 (VulnCheck, 10 October) still has no fix in any release or on main. Compromised LiteLLM 1.82.7 and 1.82.8 are excluded in the dependency pins since 24 March 2026 (#794) (7).); OpenAI Agents API 87 (Project keys with restricted per-endpoint permissions, service accounts and workload identity, per the openai-api listing; we didn't confirm a key can be limited to /v1/agents (27 of 30). Automatic review for approvals, a sandbox network restricted to a host allowlist, vaults for secrets and a sandbox security guide (17 of 20). The agent reads web pages, MCP results and browser content; the sandbox security guide and approval flow are the mitigations, with no prompt-injection guide of its own found (8 of 15). Tracing, observability and usage per session and admin audit logs (15). SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001 family, Bugcrowd bounty and a disclosure policy, per the openai-api listing (20). Not ZDR-eligible and US residency only, recorded under transparency. 27 + 17 + 8 + 15 + 20 = 87.)
- Transparency & trust, OpenAI Agents API +29: mini-swe-agent 56 (MIT (30). No privacy policy, terms or data-handling statement, though the tool runs locally and collects nothing we could find (8). A v2 migration guide marks the breaking changes, says how to pin `mini-swe-agent~=1.0`, and keeps v1 docs and a v1 branch, but there's no deprecation policy or end date for v1 (10). No telemetry in the source, but the docs don't say so (14).); OpenAI Agents API 85 (Closed service with clear terms, Apache-2.0 SDKs (15). Session state retained until deleted, deletable sessions and artifacts, not ZDR-eligible, US residency only, and the data-controls guide agrees; no retention period for artifacts after a sandbox expires (25 of 30). Dated deprecation notices with minimum periods for GA models; a beta API can change faster (15 of 20). Subprocessors and processing countries listed, per the openai-api listing (20). 15 + 25 + 15 + 20 = 75.)
- Agent ergonomics, OpenAI Agents API +11: mini-swe-agent 69 (Harness reading of the framework line, scored on what an agent or pipeline driving it has to supply. One bash tool and a short system prompt, with output over 10,000 characters cut to its first and last 5,000, but no compaction of a long history (22). Step, cost and wall-time limits, global call and cost limits by environment variable, and a 30-second timeout per command (18). The trajectory JSON records Submitted, LimitsExceeded, TimeExceeded or RepeatedFormatError, but stdout is human-readable only and these aren't process exit codes (12). Model calls retry ten times with exponential backoff, and the trajectory is saved after every step, but there's no resume and no undo (8). Python bindings only. An unattended `mini` run needs `-y`, `--exit-immediately` and `MSWEA_CONFIGURED`, the last found only in the source (9). No MCP client, ACP or server mode.); OpenAI Agents API 80 (Read as an API an agent drives. Context is compacted automatically, and session budgets and streamed events keep output sized (20 of 25). Sessions can be listed, continued and steered, events streamed or sent by webhook, artifacts fetched (15 of 20). Actionable error codes with recovery steps (20). No idempotency key; a documented check-then-retry procedure (10 of 20). One session call with defaults (medium sandbox, network enabled), SDKs in five languages (15). 20 + 15 + 20 + 10 + 15 = 80.)