Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

Muse Code vs Qwen Code

Qwen Code scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Muse Code's 61.3 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Muse Code leads on security & auth. Both do agent harnesses.

Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 226 harnesses comparisons

Which one, for what

Muse Code C

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.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 67 against 53

Watch for

Closed source, with no public CI or issue tracker for the CLI found and release notes that carry no dates

Qwen Code BB

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

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 69 against 45
  • Schema & documentation, 91 against 84
  • Agent ergonomics, 85 against 79
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 88 against 75
  • Transparency & trust, 63 against 57

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • Free to start without a card
  • Open source

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

CategoryWeight this runMuse CodeQwen CodeEdge
Reliability16%204569Qwen Code +24
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28491Qwen Code +7
Agent ergonomics13%16.27985Qwen Code +6
Security & auth14%17.56753Muse Code +14
Payments & pricing10%12.52060Qwen Code +40
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87588Qwen Code +13
Transparency & trust7%8.85763Qwen Code +6
Negative events≤1500
TotalC 61.3/100BB 72.4/100

Facts side by side

FactMuse CodeQwen Code
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorMetaAlibaba (Qwen team)
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPaidFree
x402nono
LicenceProprietary 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.Apache-2.0
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-112026-10-05
Terms last updated2026-10-01
Privacy policy last updatedcouldn't be read2026-10-01
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text
Popularity63k npm/wk28k stars, 105k npm/wk

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.

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

Muse Code

  1. Set META_API_KEY for headless runs. Browser sign-in isn't available in CI or for Meta Managed Accounts
  2. Gate on your own test command, not the exit code. muse exec returns 0 when the turn completes even if tests still fail
  3. Pass --max-model-steps on unattended runs so a stuck task can't loop
  4. Prefer --disable-approval to --yolo in CI so the sandbox stays on. On Linux the runner needs a working bubblewrap and a non-musl build
  5. Turn Contributor mode off in /settings before a subscription session touches private code

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, Muse Code or Qwen Code?

Qwen Code scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Muse Code's 61.3 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Muse Code leads on security & auth.

Are Muse Code and Qwen Code open source?

No open-source release is listed for Muse Code. Qwen Code is open source (Apache-2.0).

Other comparisons with Muse Code or Qwen Code

Machine-readable

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