# nanobot vs Tomo

> nanobot scores 62.4 (B) to Tomo's 13.1 (F) for assistants that act in your accounts. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-tomo
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-tomo.md (~2,600 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-tomo.min.md (~580 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-tomo.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-12

nanobot scores 62.4 (B) on agent readiness against Tomo's 13.1 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do assistants that act in your accounts.

- nanobot: grade B, 62.4/100, rank #446 of 993. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/nanobot.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/nanobot.json
- Tomo: grade F, 13.1/100, rank #989 of 993. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/tomo.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/tomo.json
- Best AI personal assistants that act for one person: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/personal-assistants/index.md
- All 314 assistants comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/personal-assistants/index.md

## Which one, for what

### nanobot (B)

Good for: A technical owner who wants an assistant on their own machine across many chat apps, with file-based memory and a free choice of model.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 70 against 15
- Schema & documentation, 77 against 0
- Agent ergonomics, 74 against 0
- Security & auth, 63 against 0
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 10
- Maintenance & community, 82 against 54

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

Watch for: No per-action approval was found in the docs or source. The agent sends messages, runs shell commands and edits files without asking

### Tomo (F)

Good for: People who want accountability, check-ins and reminders by text, including in group chats.

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where nanobot loses 6 points for them

Watch for: No API, MCP server or A2A endpoint for an outside agent.


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | nanobot | Tomo | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 70 | 15 | nanobot +55 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 0 | nanobot +77 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 0 | nanobot +74 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 0 | nanobot +63 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 10 | nanobot +50 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 54 | nanobot +28 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 48 | 47 | nanobot +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -6 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **62.4 · B** | **13.1 · F** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | nanobot | Tomo |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Platform |
| Vendor | HKUDS | Mapo Labs, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Closed service under Tomo's Terms of Service (Mapo Labs, Inc., last updated 24 September 2026). |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-09-15 | 2026-09-29 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked |  |
| Customer content may train models |  |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Popularity | 49k stars | none |

## Verdicts

**nanobot.** nanobot runs on the owner's machine under the MIT licence, with no telemetry found in its source and memory kept as files the owner can read and restore. No per-action approval step was found, and the shell sandbox and workspace restriction are off by default. Five security advisories were published between March and September 2026, all with fixes.

**Tomo.** Tomo is a hosted personal AI over iMessage and an iOS app, centred on goals, check-ins and reminders, with regular iOS releases since April 2026. No outside agent can call it, there's no free plan, and no status page, security contact or subprocessor list was found.

## Before you call either

### nanobot

1. Set `tools.restrictToWorkspace` to true and `tools.exec.sandbox` to `bwrap` or `seatbelt` before giving it real accounts. Both are off by default
2. Run 0.3.0 or later. Earlier versions carry the published SSRF flaw in web fetch (GHSA-vc5v-6vwm-wf9m)
3. Keep `allowFrom` narrow on every channel and never set `["*"]` on Email, which has no pairing
4. Write secrets as `${VAR}` references in `~/.nanobot/config.json`. Plain values are stored in clear text
5. Use `nanobot -m "..."` for a one-shot run, and keep `nanobot gateway` running for channels, schedules and heartbeat

### Tomo

1. Don't plan to call Tomo from another agent. It answers only the owner's iMessage, group chats it's added to and the iOS app.
2. Tell the owner that adding Tomo to a group chat applies its terms to every participant.

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, nanobot or Tomo?

nanobot scores 62.4 (B) on agent readiness against Tomo's 13.1 (F), and leads in every scored category.

### Are nanobot and Tomo open source?

nanobot is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Tomo.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with nanobot or Tomo

- [AstrBot vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-nanobot.md)
- [CowAgent vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-nanobot.md)
- [GAIA vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-nanobot.md)
- [Gemini Spark vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-nanobot.md)
- [Grok Bot vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-nanobot.md)
- [Haven vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-nanobot.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-nanobot.md)
- [Instinct vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-nanobot.md)
- [IronClaw vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-nanobot.md)
- [Leon vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-nanobot.md)
- [Lindy vs nanobot](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-nanobot.md)
- [nanobot vs NanoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-nanoclaw.md)
- [nanobot vs Dots](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-openai-dots.md)
- [nanobot vs OpenClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-openclaw.md)
- [nanobot vs PicoClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-picoclaw.md)
- [nanobot vs Poke](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-poke.md)
- [nanobot vs QwenPaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-qwenpaw.md)
- [nanobot vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [nanobot vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [CowAgent vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cowagent-vs-tomo.md)
- [GAIA vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gaia-vs-tomo.md)
- [Gemini Spark vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-spark-vs-tomo.md)
- [Grok Bot vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grok-bot-vs-tomo.md)
- [Haven vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/haven-vs-tomo.md)
- [Hermes Agent vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-tomo.md)
- [Instinct vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/instinct-vs-tomo.md)
- [IronClaw vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/ironclaw-vs-tomo.md)
- [Leon vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/leon-vs-tomo.md)
- [Lindy vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lindy-vs-tomo.md)
- [nanobot vs Natura tinyNature](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-natura.md)
- [nanobot vs Pally](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-pally.md)
- [nanobot vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-wajo.md)
- [NanoClaw vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanoclaw-vs-tomo.md)
- [Natura tinyNature vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/natura-vs-tomo.md)
- [Dots vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-dots-vs-tomo.md)
- [OpenClaw vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openclaw-vs-tomo.md)
- [Pally vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/pally-vs-tomo.md)
- [Poke vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/poke-vs-tomo.md)
- [QwenPaw vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/qwenpaw-vs-tomo.md)
- [Tomo vs Wajo (Fo)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tomo-vs-wajo.md)
- [Tomo vs ZeroClaw](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tomo-vs-zeroclaw.md)
- [Tomo vs Zo Computer](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/tomo-vs-zo-computer.md)
- [nanobot vs Talorys](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/nanobot-vs-talorys.md)
- [Talorys vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/talorys-vs-tomo.md)
- [AstrBot vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/astrbot-vs-tomo.md)
- [PicoClaw vs Tomo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/picoclaw-vs-tomo.md)

## Disclosure

- Tomo competes with LocalGhost, which Anchor Terminal's founder builds. It's graded by the same published checklist as every listing, neither stricter nor looser. Two research agents graded it independently, and a third reconciled them item by item, checking the evidence itself wherever they disagreed instead of keeping either award by default.