# mini-swe-agent vs Qwen Code

> Qwen Code scores 72.4 (BB) to mini-swe-agent's 56.7 (C) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-18

Qwen Code scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against mini-swe-agent's 56.7 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent harnesses.

- mini-swe-agent: grade C, 56.7/100, rank #698 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mini-swe-agent.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mini-swe-agent.json
- Qwen Code: grade BB, 72.4/100, rank #107 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/qwen-code.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/qwen-code.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 713 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### mini-swe-agent (C)

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.

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it

Watch for: The default local environment runs commands on the host with no isolation and the full host environment

### Qwen Code (BB)

Good for: Developers and CI jobs that want an open-source harness tied to no single model vendor, with run budgets and SDKs.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 91 against 58
- Agent ergonomics, 85 against 69
- Maintenance & community, 88 against 49
- Transparency & trust, 63 against 51

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- No incidents deducted, where mini-swe-agent loses 4 points for them

Watch for: The default approval mode is Auto, where an LLM classifier approves tool calls, and sandboxing and folder trust are both off by default


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | mini-swe-agent | Qwen Code | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 70 | 69 | mini-swe-agent +1 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 58 | 91 | Qwen Code +33 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 69 | 85 | Qwen Code +16 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 56 | 53 | mini-swe-agent +3 |
| 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) | 49 | 88 | Qwen Code +39 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 51 | 63 | Qwen Code +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -4 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **56.7 · C** | **72.4 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | mini-swe-agent | Qwen Code |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | SWE-bench team (Princeton and Stanford) | Alibaba (Qwen team) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-07-23 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-10-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 8.6k stars, 4.4M PyPI/wk | 28k stars, 105k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | 2.8/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**mini-swe-agent.** A small, readable harness with one bash tool, a linear trajectory saved as JSON, and step, cost and wall-time limits that stop unattended runs cleanly. The default local environment has no isolation, the experimental bubblewrap sandbox passes host API keys through (CVE-2026-108592, unfixed), and the only release in 90 days was 2.4.6 on 23 July 2026.

**Qwen Code.** Apache-2.0 with no account of its own, any OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini-compatible endpoint, and headless runs bounded by turn, tool-call and wall-time budgets with distinct exit codes. Out of the box, Auto mode lets an LLM classifier approve tool calls, with the sandbox and folder trust both off. Usage statistics are on by default.

## Before you call either

### mini-swe-agent

1. Run with `-y --exit-immediately` for unattended use. Without `--exit-immediately` it waits for input when the agent finishes
2. Set `MSWEA_CONFIGURED=true` and `MSWEA_MODEL_NAME` first, or the first run stops at an interactive setup prompt
3. Read `info.exit_status` in the `-o` trajectory file. A run that hits its limits still exits normally
4. For untrusted repositories use `-c mini.yaml -c environment.environment_class=docker -c environment.image=<image>`. The local and bubblewrap environments both expose host variables
5. Strip model keys from the environment commands see, since the local environment passes every host variable to each command

### Qwen Code

1. Pass `--approval-mode` on every run. The settings default is `auto`, and one docs page says headless runs default to asking, so don't rely on either
2. Add `--max-session-turns`, `--max-wall-time` and `--max-tool-calls`. All three are unlimited by default. Exit 53 is the turn limit and 55 a budget
3. `--yolo` doesn't turn on a sandbox. Add `--sandbox`, or on Linux set `tools.executionSandbox` with `network` set to `closed`
4. Set `QWEN_USAGE_STATISTICS_ENABLED=false` to stop usage statistics
5. Authenticate with `OPENAI_API_KEY`, `OPENAI_BASE_URL` and `OPENAI_MODEL` in CI. The browser sign-in is discontinued

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, mini-swe-agent or Qwen Code?

Qwen Code scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against mini-swe-agent's 56.7 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories.

### Are mini-swe-agent and Qwen Code open source?

Yes. mini-swe-agent is open source (MIT). Qwen Code is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

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

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