Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run
Muse Code vs OpenHands
OpenHands scores 70.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Muse Code's 61.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent harnesses.
Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 226 harnesses comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for Developers who want Meta's Muse models, Muse Wonder Full included, in a terminal or CI agent with the sandbox and approvals on from the first run.
Also in its favour
- No incidents deducted, where OpenHands loses 5 points for them
Watch for
Closed source, with no public CI or issue tracker for the CLI found and release notes that carry no dates
OpenHands BB
Best for Teams that want to self-host a coding agent with a web UI, per-conversation Docker sandboxes and scheduled or webhook automations, or embed the agent through a Python SDK and REST API.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 83 against 45
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 85 against 75
- Transparency & trust, 67 against 57
Also in its favour
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Open source
Watch for
Confirmation mode is off by default in Agent Canvas, and the npm install gives the agent the host's whole filesystem
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Muse Code | OpenHands | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 45 | 83 | OpenHands +38 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 84 | 87 | OpenHands +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 79 | 78 | Muse Code +1 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 67 | 66 | Muse Code +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 20 | 60 | OpenHands +40 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 75 | 85 | OpenHands +10 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 57 | 67 | OpenHands +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -5 | |
| Total | C 61.3/100 | BB 70.8/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Muse Code | OpenHands |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Meta | All Hands AI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary binary, used under the Meta Model API Terms of Service, which cover Meta's coding harness. Subscriptions are also under the Meta Subscription Terms of Service. The TypeScript and Python SDKs in the linked repository are MIT. | MIT (Agent Canvas, SDK, tools and Agent Server). OpenHands Cloud is a hosted service |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-11 | 2026-09-30 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2025-09-03 |
| Customer content may train models | yes | |
| Terms restrict automated access | ||
| Terms restrict benchmarking | ||
| Terms or service can change without notice | ||
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | ||
| Popularity | 63k npm/wk | 90k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.5/5 (2) |
Verdicts
Muse Code
Muse Code runs with approvals and an OS sandbox on by default, per-host network approval, an append-only event log and a headless mode with documented exit codes. It is the only route to Muse Wonder Full. It is closed source with undated release notes and no free route, and subscriptions allow training on code unless Contributor mode is turned off.
OpenHands
A Docker container per conversation with OH_CONVERSATION_RUNTIME=docker, each with its own Agent Server. Confirmation mode is off by default in Agent Canvas, and the npm install gives the agent the host's whole filesystem.
Before you call either
Muse Code
- Set
META_API_KEYfor headless runs. Browser sign-in isn't available in CI or for Meta Managed Accounts - Gate on your own test command, not the exit code.
muse execreturns 0 when the turn completes even if tests still fail - Pass
--max-model-stepson unattended runs so a stuck task can't loop - Prefer
--disable-approvalto--yoloin CI so the sandbox stays on. On Linux the runner needs a working bubblewrap and a non-musl build - Turn Contributor mode off in
/settingsbefore a subscription session touches private code
OpenHands
- Set
AGENT_CANVAS_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1andDO_NOT_TRACK=1before the first start - Start Canvas with
OH_CONVERSATION_RUNTIME=dockeror use the Docker image. The npm install runs the agent on the host - Turn on confirmation mode with a risk threshold. Canvas starts with it off
- Use the SDK or the Agent Server API for headless runs. The
openhands --headlessCLI is no longer maintained - Set
filter_tools_regexon the agent to keep unneeded MCP tool definitions out of the context
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Muse Code or OpenHands?
OpenHands scores 70.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Muse Code's 61.3 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.
Are Muse Code and OpenHands open source?
No open-source release is listed for Muse Code. OpenHands is open source (MIT (Agent Canvas, SDK, tools and Agent Server). OpenHands Cloud is a hosted service).
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/muse-code-vs-openhands.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/muse-code.json·/api/v1/tools/openhands.json - From a terminal
anchor compare muse-code openhands(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "muse-code", "b": "openhands"}at/mcp, no key