{ "data": { "a": { "slug": "offscreen", "name": "Offscreen", "vendor": "Mark Phelps", "vendorUrl": "https://github.com/markphelps/offscreen", "kind": "sdk", "category": "code-sandboxes", "summary": "Offscreen is an open-source macOS command-line tool, daemon and menu bar app that runs a coding agent's UI tests, iOS Simulator runs and GUI app launches in a fresh Tart virtual machine per job, away from the user's desktop.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/offscreen", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/offscreen.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/offscreen.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/offscreen.json", "repo": "https://github.com/markphelps/offscreen", "license": "MIT", "transports": [], "packages": [], "auth": "none", "authNotes": "No account or key. The CLI talks to the local daemon over an owner-only Unix socket (mode 0600), and anyone who can open it is trusted. The daemon reaches each guest VM over SSH with the base image's login, `admin` and `admin` by default, or a configured key. A person grants Local Network to Offscreen Daemon on the first VM job, and Input Monitoring and Notifications to the menu bar app only for host-lane jobs.", "pricing": "free", "pricingNotes": "Free under MIT with nothing to buy. It depends on Tart, installed by the cask from the `openai/tools/tart` formula under FSL-1.1-ALv2, whose licensing page says use on personal computers is royalty-free and organisations above 100 host CPU cores need a paid licence, from $12,000 a year. Needs an Apple silicon Mac with macOS 14 or later and full Xcode.", "priceSummary": "Free · OSS", "where": "local", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the source, the docs or the skill (checked 2026-10-17). The tool has no paid tier and makes no network calls of its own beyond the local socket and the guest SSH connection.", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": null, "pypiWeekly": null, "asOf": "2026-10-17" }, "docsUrl": "https://github.com/markphelps/offscreen#readme", "capabilities": [ "sandbox.code", "sandbox.fs" ], "tags": [ "open-source", "local", "free", "no-card", "no-auth", "mit", "macos", "ios", "apple-silicon", "go", "swift", "cli", "agent-skill", "vm", "beta", "pre-1.0", "new" ], "lastRelease": "2026-10-16", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 62.9, "grade": "B", "agentReady": false, "rank": 456, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1133, "categoryRank": 9, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 74, "maintenance": 66, "payments": 60, "reliability": 55, "schema": 67, "security": 62, "transparency": 56 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-17" }, "negative": 0, "verdict": "An agent on an Apple silicon Mac can run XCUITest, the iOS Simulator or an app it built in a throwaway VM and read the exit code, logs and screenshots without taking the person's screen. The project is six days old at v0.0.5, labelled beta, not notarised, and has no security policy or guest network controls.", "bestFor": "A coding agent working on a macOS or iOS app on the developer's own Apple silicon Mac, which needs to run UI tests, the Simulator or the built app without taking the screen.", "strengths": [ "A fresh VM per job, deleted afterwards, and a VM task receives only the worktree, listed build products and four `OFFSCREEN_*` variables, not the host environment", "`offscreen run` exits with the wrapped command's code, and Offscreen's own failures use 75 for a queue timeout and 70 for daemon or VM errors", "One queue on the Mac for every agent, terminal and script, with `--detach`, `status`, `logs -f`, `artifacts` and `cancel`", "The skill lists what an agent must not run without asking, such as `--show`, the host lane, `--keep`, prune and image builds", "MIT, with no network code or telemetry found in the source beyond the local socket and guest SSH" ], "weaknesses": [ "First commit 11 October 2026, version 0.0.5 and labelled beta, with JSON field names that may change before 1.0", "Apple silicon macOS 14 or later with full Xcode only, at most two VMs at once, and a large one-time image download", "Ad hoc signed and not notarised. The cask strips the quarantine attribute, and there is no SECURITY.md or security.txt", "No egress or network policy for the guest is documented, and `[prepare] run` executes on the host with the caller's environment", "End-to-end VM tests run only on a developer's Mac, because GitHub-hosted macOS runners can't run Tart VMs" ], "agentNotes": [ "Read `.offscreen.toml` before running anything and use its `project` key and task names. Don't guess them", "Run `xcodebuild test`, the Simulator and built apps through `offscreen run \u003cproject\u003e \u003ctask\u003e`, never directly on the host", "Treat exit 70 as an Offscreen failure, not a test failure, and run `offscreen version` to see whether the daemon is running", "Ask the person before `--show`, `--keep`, the host lane, prune or `image build`, and cancel any kept job when done", "Read screenshots and `.xcresult` bundles from the directory `offscreen artifacts \u003cjob\u003e` prints" ], "metrics": { "kind": "local", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 4, "avgRating": 3, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "B", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 62.9 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 74, "maintenance": 66, "payments": 60, "reliability": 55, "schema": 67, "security": 62, "transparency": 72 }, "provenanceScore": 40 }, "connect": { "install": "brew install --cask markphelps/tap/offscreen \u0026\u0026 open -a Offscreen \u0026\u0026 offscreen image build", "headless": { "artifacts": "offscreen artifacts \u003cjob\u003e", "check": "offscreen check", "detach": "offscreen run \u003cproject\u003e \u003ctask\u003e --detach", "init": "offscreen init", "oneOff": "offscreen run \u003cproject\u003e -- swift test", "run": "offscreen run \u003cproject\u003e \u003ctask\u003e", "skill": "npx skills add markphelps/offscreen", "status": "offscreen status -a --format json" } }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/sandbox.code", "tool": "https://letme.dev/offscreen" }, "area": "agent-runtime", "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Mark Phelps (individual)", "domain": "", "domainRegistered": "", "endpointOnVendorDomain": null, "terms": "", "privacy": "", "statusPage": "", "changelog": "", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-17", "notes": [ "The project has no website. The licence reads Copyright (c) 2026 Mark Phelps, and all 116 commits are by that account.", "The app and daemon use the bundle identifiers io.latentsignal.offscreen and io.latentsignal.offscreend. latentsignal.io belongs to Latent Signal Labs, LLC, a solo studio whose page links x.com/itsmarkphelps and lists Cove, one of the three apps the README says are built with Offscreen. The page does not name Offscreen.", "No terms, privacy policy, changelog file, SECURITY.md or security.txt. GitHub release notes could not be read.", "The software runs on the owner's Mac, so there is no vendor endpoint or status page to check." ], "score": 40 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/offscreen.json" }, "answer": "Offscreen scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against Sprites's 58.3 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Sprites leads on schema \u0026 documentation and maintenance \u0026 community.", "b": { "slug": "sprites", "name": "Sprites", "vendor": "Fly.io", "vendorUrl": "https://fly.io", "kind": "http-api", "category": "code-sandboxes", "summary": "Sprites are hosted Linux microVMs from Fly.io that keep their disk between runs, pause when idle and wake on request. They are driven through a REST API, a CLI, four SDKs or a hosted MCP server.", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sprites", "markdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sprites.md", "slimMarkdownUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sprites.min.md", "jsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/sprites.json", "repo": "https://github.com/superfly/sprites-js", "license": "Proprietary service under the Fly.io Terms of Service. The JavaScript, Go, Python and Elixir SDKs are MIT", "transports": [ "http" ], "packages": [ { "registry": "npm", "name": "@fly/sprites" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "sprites-py" } ], "auth": "api-key", "authNotes": "A bearer token created at sprites.dev/account after signing in with a Fly.io account, sent as `Authorization: Bearer \u003ctoken\u003e` to `https://api.sprites.dev`. Tokens belong to an organisation, and no scopes or expiry were found in the reviewed docs. The CLI signs in through a browser with `sprite org auth` or takes a token with `sprite auth setup --token`. The hosted MCP server uses OAuth with a token restricted by default to a name prefix and a capped number of Sprites.", "pricing": "usage", "pricingNotes": "$0.0385 a CPU-hour and $0.021875 a GB-hour of memory while a Sprite is active, hot storage at $0.000683 a GB-hour while awake and cold storage at $0.000027 a GB-hour while data is kept. Nothing is charged per Sprite or for bandwidth. New organisations get a $30 trial credit, and whether it needs a card was not established. The product page also describes monthly plans with allowances, of which Hero ($100) and Mythic ($2,000) are priced (https://fly.io/sprites/, https://fly.io/pricing/, checked 2026-10-08).", "priceSummary": "$0.0385 / vCPU-hr", "where": "local", "x402": { "level": "no", "evidence": "No x402, MPP or L402 in the Sprites docs, the OpenAPI document or the pricing page (checked 2026-10-08).", "endpoints": [] }, "toolCount": null, "popularity": { "githubStars": null, "npmWeekly": 157565, "pypiWeekly": 58695, "asOf": "2026-10-08" }, "docsUrl": "https://docs.fly.io/sprites", "llmsTxt": "https://docs.fly.io/llms.txt", "openapi": "https://docs.fly.io/sprites/api/openapi.json", "capabilities": [ "sandbox.code", "sandbox.fs", "sandbox.persist" ], "tags": [ "hosted", "usage-priced", "microvm", "persistent", "checkpoints", "openapi", "cli", "typescript", "python", "go", "elixir", "mcp", "llms-txt", "status-page" ], "lastRelease": "2026-10-06", "graded": true, "anchor": { "graded": true, "score": 58.3, "grade": "C", "agentReady": false, "rank": 646, "ranked": true, "rankOf": 1133, "categoryRank": 12, "methodology": "0.4", "run": "2026-10-01", "scores": { "ergonomics": 68, "maintenance": 80, "payments": 30, "reliability": 55, "schema": 74, "security": 59, "transparency": 59 }, "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "assessment": { "confidence": "medium", "date": "2026-10-08" }, "negative": -2, "negativeNotes": [ "2026-10-08: the Fly.io pricing page says of Sprites \"No plans and no tiers\", while the Sprites product page read the same day describes paid plans (Hero at $100 a month, Mythic at $2,000) that carry usage allowances and set concurrency and creation-rate limits. Prices for the other named plans were not found. 2 points. https://fly.io/pricing/ and https://fly.io/sprites/" ], "verdict": "A Sprite keeps a 100 GB ext4 disk between runs, bills compute only while active and can be checkpointed and restored through a published OpenAPI contract. The status page records four Sprites incidents in the last 90 days, one lasting over seven hours, and outbound network access is unrestricted until a policy is set.", "bestFor": "Agents that need a long-lived machine with installed tools and files kept between sessions, and rollback by checkpoint.", "strengths": [ "The filesystem persists across pauses, and compute billing stops about 30 seconds after activity ends, per the lifecycle docs", "A public OpenAPI 3.1 document covers 44 operations on sprites, exec, files, checkpoints, services and policies, with an AsyncAPI file for the WebSocket calls", "Connectors hold third-party credentials outside the Sprite, deny access by default and can limit which provider paths a Sprite may call", "Checkpoints are copy-on-write snapshots of the writable filesystem, and the last five are mounted read-only inside the Sprite", "Unit prices are public, $0.0385 a CPU-hour, $0.021875 a GB-hour of memory and about $0.50 a GB-month of hot storage", "Official SDKs for JavaScript, Go, Python and Elixir are MIT, each with releases in September or October 2026" ], "weaknesses": [ "Four Sprites incidents on the status page in 90 days, including a partial outage of 7 hours 28 minutes on 23 September 2026 and failed creates outside Europe for 28 minutes on 8 October", "Outbound network access is unrestricted by default. The DNS allowlist is opt-in and set from outside the Sprite", "The product page creates a Sprite with `PUT /v1/sprites/my-sprite` and a JSON `command` body, while the OpenAPI document creates with `POST /v1/sprites` and passes `cmd` as a query parameter", "No API changelog, deprecation policy or error-code reference was found in the reviewed documentation", "The pricing page says Sprites have no plans and no tiers, while the product page describes paid plans that set concurrency and creation-rate limits", "No scopes were found for API tokens created at sprites.dev/account. Only the MCP connector's OAuth token is restricted by default" ], "agentNotes": [ "Create a token at sprites.dev/account after a browser signup, and send it as `Authorization: Bearer \u003ctoken\u003e` to `https://api.sprites.dev`", "Follow the OpenAPI document, not the product page example. Create with `POST /v1/sprites` and a JSON `name`, and run commands with `POST /v1/sprites/{name}/exec` using `cmd` query parameters", "Set a network policy with `POST /v1/sprites/{name}/policy/network` before running untrusted code. Egress is open until one is set", "Processes started by exec stop on a cold wake. Define a Service for anything that must answer the request that wakes the Sprite", "Create a checkpoint before a restore. Restoring replaces the filesystem, ends active sessions and keeps no copy of the replaced state", "Sprite creation is limited to 10 a minute on pay-as-you-go. The Go SDK reads `Retry-After` and the error code `sprite_creation_rate_limited` on a 429", "Delete Sprites you no longer need. An idle Sprite still bills cold storage for the bytes it holds" ], "metrics": { "kind": "remote", "measured": false }, "reviewCount": 0, "avgRating": 0, "history": [ { "basis": "public evidence", "confidence": "medium", "grade": "C", "methodology": "0.4", "pending": [ "performance", "tasks" ], "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "score": 58.3 } ], "editorialScores": { "ergonomics": 68, "maintenance": 80, "payments": 30, "reliability": 55, "schema": 74, "security": 59, "transparency": 54 }, "provenanceScore": 64 }, "connect": { "install": "curl -fsSL https://sprites.dev/install.sh | sh # CLI. SDKs: npm install @fly/sprites, pip install sprites-py", "http": "curl -X POST https://api.sprites.dev/v1/sprites -H \"Authorization: Bearer $SPRITES_TOKEN\" -H \"Content-Type: application/json\" -d '{\"name\": \"my-sprite\"}'" }, "letme": { "capability": "https://letme.dev/sandbox.code", "tool": "https://letme.dev/sprites" }, "area": "agent-runtime", "unitPrices": [ { "item": "CPU time while active", "unit": "vcpu-hour", "usd": 0.0385, "note": "Memory extra at $0.021875 a GB-hour" }, { "item": "Hot storage while the Sprite is awake", "unit": "gb-month", "usd": 0.5, "note": "Billed at $0.000683 a GB-hour, on bytes written" }, { "item": "Cold storage while data is kept", "unit": "gb-month", "usd": 0.02, "note": "Billed at $0.000027 a GB-hour" } ], "provenance": { "legalEntity": "Fly.io, Inc.", "domain": "fly.io", "domainRegistered": "2004-07-15", "endpointOnVendorDomain": false, "terms": "https://fly.io/legal/terms-of-service/", "privacy": "https://fly.io/legal/privacy-policy/", "statusPage": "https://status.flyio.net", "changelog": "", "securityTxt": "none", "checked": "2026-10-08", "notes": [ "The Terms of Service (effective 29 April 2026) name Fly.io, Inc. and cover the website and all products and services reached through it. No separate Sprites terms were found.", "The Privacy Statement is effective 24 September 2026. The sub-processor list was last updated the same day.", "The API is at api.sprites.dev and Sprite URLs are on sprites.app, second domains of the vendor's. sprites.dev redirects to fly.io/sprites, and RDAP gives its registration date as 2025-06-03.", "RDAP for fly.io gives a registration date of 2004-07-15.", "fly.io/.well-known/security.txt returned 404. The security docs give security@fly.io for reports.", "No changelog for the Sprites API or environment was found. The Python SDK repository keeps a CHANGELOG.md." ], "score": 64 }, "pageJsonUrl": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sprites.json", "live": { "slug": "sprites", "vendorStatus": { "page": "https://status.flyio.net", "indicator": "none", "summary": "All Systems Operational", "checkedAt": "2026-10-18T00:09:08.352593255Z" }, "versions": [ { "registry": "npm", "name": "@fly/sprites", "version": "0.2.3", "seenAt": "2026-10-17T02:19:28.323434414Z" }, { "registry": "pypi", "name": "sprites-py", "version": "0.7.2", "released": "2026-10-06", "seenAt": "2026-10-17T02:19:28.739143254Z" } ], "githubStars": 36, "npmWeekly": 72301, "pypiWeekly": 58927, "securityTxt": { "url": "https://fly.io/.well-known/security.txt", "state": "none", "checkedAt": "2026-10-17T15:52:35.816356259Z" }, "llmsTxt": { "url": "https://docs.fly.io/llms.txt", "ok": true, "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-17T14:23:17.362277362Z" }, "domain": { "domain": "fly.io", "checkedAt": "2026-10-11T13:23:01.639888338Z" }, "pages": [ { "url": "https://fly.io/pricing/", "kind": "pricing", "status": 200, "checkedAt": "2026-10-17T23:03:26.698130931Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "7fd4c596309b" }, { "url": "https://fly.io/legal/privacy-policy/", "kind": "privacy", "status": 304, "checkedAt": "2026-10-17T23:03:22.608118891Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "3ab86222caa2" }, { "url": "https://fly.io/legal/terms-of-service/", "kind": "terms", "status": 304, "checkedAt": "2026-10-17T23:03:24.799720496Z", "changedAt": "0001-01-01T00:00:00Z", "fingerprint": "40d31cf91000" } ], "updatedAt": "2026-10-18T00:09:08.352593255Z" } }, "facts": [ { "a": "SDK + MCP", "b": "HTTP API", "name": "Kind" }, { "a": "Mark Phelps", "b": "Fly.io", "name": "Vendor" }, { "a": "no (local only)", "b": "no (local only)", "name": "Hosted endpoint" }, { "a": "", "b": "HTTP", "name": "Transports" }, { "a": "None", "b": "API key", "name": "Auth" }, { "a": "Free", "b": "Pay per use", "name": "Pricing" }, { "a": "no", "b": "no", "name": "x402" }, { "a": "MIT", "b": "Proprietary service under the Fly.io Terms of Service. The JavaScript, Go, Python and Elixir SDKs are MIT", "name": "Licence" }, { "a": "no", "b": "yes", "name": "Read-only variant documented" }, { "a": "no", "b": "yes", "name": "llms.txt" }, { "a": "2026-10-16", "b": "2026-10-06", "name": "Last release" }, { "a": "no document linked", "b": "2026-04-29", "name": "Terms last updated" }, { "a": "no document linked", "b": "2026-09-24", "name": "Privacy policy last updated" }, { "a": "", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Customer content may train models" }, { "a": "", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict automated access" }, { "a": "", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms restrict benchmarking" }, { "a": "", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Terms or service can change without notice" }, { "a": "", "b": "not found in the text", "name": "Arbitration or class-action waiver" }, { "a": "none", "b": "158k npm/wk, 59k PyPI/wk", "name": "Popularity" }, { "a": "3/5 (4)", "b": "none", "name": "Agent reviews" } ], "faq": [ { "answer": "Offscreen scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against Sprites's 58.3 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Sprites leads on schema \u0026 documentation and maintenance \u0026 community.", "question": "Which is better for AI agents, Offscreen or Sprites?" }, { "answer": "No hosted endpoint is listed for Offscreen. No hosted endpoint is listed for Sprites.", "question": "Can an agent call Offscreen and Sprites without installing anything?" }, { "answer": "Offscreen is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Sprites.", "question": "Are Offscreen and Sprites open source?" } ], "goodFor": [ { "aheadOn": [ "Agent ergonomics, 74 against 68", "Payments \u0026 pricing, 60 against 30" ], "also": [ "No key needed to call it", "Free to start without a card", "Open source" ], "goodFor": "A coding agent working on a macOS or iOS app on the developer's own Apple silicon Mac, which needs to run UI tests, the Simulator or the built app without taking the screen.", "slug": "offscreen", "watchFor": "First commit 11 October 2026, version 0.0.5 and labelled beta, with JSON field names that may change before 1.0" }, { "aheadOn": [ "Schema \u0026 documentation, 74 against 67", "Maintenance \u0026 community, 80 against 66" ], "also": null, "goodFor": "Agents that need a long-lived machine with installed tools and files kept between sessions, and rollback by checkpoint.", "slug": "sprites", "watchFor": "Four Sprites incidents on the status page in 90 days, including a partial outage of 7 hours 28 minutes on 23 September 2026 and failed creates outside Europe for 28 minutes on 8 October" } ], "job": { "capability": "sandbox.code", "name": "Code sandboxes" }, "others": [ { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent37-vs-offscreen.json", "title": "Agent 37 Cloud vs Offscreen", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent37-vs-offscreen" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-code-interpreter-vs-offscreen.json", "title": "Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Code Interpreter vs Offscreen", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-code-interpreter-vs-offscreen" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-code-interpreter-vs-sprites.json", "title": "Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Code Interpreter vs Sprites", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-code-interpreter-vs-sprites" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blaxel-sandboxes-vs-offscreen.json", "title": "Blaxel Sandboxes vs Offscreen", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blaxel-sandboxes-vs-offscreen" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blaxel-sandboxes-vs-sprites.json", "title": "Blaxel Sandboxes vs Sprites", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blaxel-sandboxes-vs-sprites" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-sandbox-sdk-vs-offscreen.json", "title": "Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs Offscreen", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-sandbox-sdk-vs-offscreen" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-sandbox-sdk-vs-sprites.json", "title": "Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs Sprites", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-sandbox-sdk-vs-sprites" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-offscreen.json", "title": "Daytona vs Offscreen", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-offscreen" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-sprites.json", "title": "Daytona vs Sprites", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-sprites" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-offscreen.json", "title": "Deno Sandbox vs Offscreen", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-offscreen" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-sprites.json", "title": "Deno Sandbox vs Sprites", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-sprites" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/e2b-vs-offscreen.json", "title": "E2B vs Offscreen", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/e2b-vs-offscreen" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/e2b-vs-sprites.json", "title": "E2B vs Sprites", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/e2b-vs-sprites" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freestyle-vs-offscreen.json", "title": "Freestyle vs Offscreen", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freestyle-vs-offscreen" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freestyle-vs-sprites.json", "title": "Freestyle vs Sprites", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freestyle-vs-sprites" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-execution-containers-vs-offscreen.json", "title": "Microsoft Execution Containers vs Offscreen", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-execution-containers-vs-offscreen" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-execution-containers-vs-sprites.json", "title": "Microsoft Execution Containers vs Sprites", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-execution-containers-vs-sprites" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-sandboxes-vs-offscreen.json", "title": "Modal Sandboxes vs Offscreen", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-sandboxes-vs-offscreen" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-sandboxes-vs-sprites.json", "title": "Modal Sandboxes vs Sprites", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-sandboxes-vs-sprites" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/morph-cloud-vs-offscreen.json", "title": "Morph Cloud vs Offscreen", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/morph-cloud-vs-offscreen" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/morph-cloud-vs-sprites.json", "title": "Morph Cloud vs Sprites", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/morph-cloud-vs-sprites" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-perplexity-space.json", "title": "Offscreen vs SPACE", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-perplexity-space" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-runloop.json", "title": "Offscreen vs Runloop Devboxes", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-runloop" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-together-code-sandbox.json", "title": "Offscreen vs Together Code Sandbox", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-together-code-sandbox" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-vercel-sandbox.json", "title": "Offscreen vs Vercel Sandbox", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-vercel-sandbox" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/perplexity-space-vs-sprites.json", "title": "SPACE vs Sprites", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/perplexity-space-vs-sprites" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/runloop-vs-sprites.json", "title": "Runloop Devboxes vs Sprites", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/runloop-vs-sprites" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sprites-vs-together-code-sandbox.json", "title": "Sprites vs Together Code Sandbox", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sprites-vs-together-code-sandbox" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sprites-vs-vercel-sandbox.json", "title": "Sprites vs Vercel Sandbox", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sprites-vs-vercel-sandbox" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent37-vs-sprites.json", "title": "Agent 37 Cloud vs Sprites", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent37-vs-sprites" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-offscreen.json", "title": "DeltaBox Lite vs Offscreen", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-offscreen" }, { "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-sprites.json", "title": "DeltaBox Lite vs Sprites", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-sprites" } ], "scores": [ { "by": 0, "edge": "", "key": "reliability", "name": "Reliability", "offscreen": 55, "sprites": 55, "weight": 16 }, { "key": "performance", "name": "Performance", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 7, "edge": "sprites", "key": "schema", "name": "Schema \u0026 documentation", "offscreen": 67, "sprites": 74, "weight": 13 }, { "by": 6, "edge": "offscreen", "key": "ergonomics", "name": "Agent ergonomics", "offscreen": 74, "sprites": 68, "weight": 13 }, { "by": 3, "edge": "offscreen", "key": "security", "name": "Security \u0026 auth", "offscreen": 62, "sprites": 59, "weight": 14 }, { "by": 30, "edge": "offscreen", "key": "payments", "name": "Payments \u0026 pricing", "offscreen": 60, "sprites": 30, "weight": 10 }, { "key": "tasks", "name": "Task success", "pending": true, "weight": 10 }, { "by": 14, "edge": "sprites", "key": "maintenance", "name": "Maintenance \u0026 community", "offscreen": 66, "sprites": 80, "weight": 7 }, { "by": 3, "edge": "sprites", "key": "transparency", "name": "Transparency \u0026 trust", "offscreen": 56, "sprites": 59, "weight": 7 } ], "summary": "Offscreen scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against Sprites's 58.3 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Sprites leads on schema \u0026 documentation and maintenance \u0026 community. Both do code sandboxes.", "tutorials": [], "verdicts": { "offscreen": "An agent on an Apple silicon Mac can run XCUITest, the iOS Simulator or an app it built in a throwaway VM and read the exit code, logs and screenshots without taking the person's screen. The project is six days old at v0.0.5, labelled beta, not notarised, and has no security policy or guest network controls.", "sprites": "A Sprite keeps a 100 GB ext4 disk between runs, bills compute only while active and can be checkpointed and restored through a published OpenAPI contract. The status page records four Sprites incidents in the last 90 days, one lasting over seven hours, and outbound network access is unrestricted until a policy is set." } }, "kind": "anchor.page", "links": { "api": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json", "html": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-sprites", "json": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-sprites.json", "llms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt", "markdown": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-sprites.md", "mcp": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp", "slim": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-sprites.min.md" }, "markdown": "Offscreen scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against Sprites's 58.3 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Sprites leads on schema \u0026 documentation and maintenance \u0026 community. Both do code sandboxes.\n\n- Offscreen: grade B, 62.9/100, rank #456 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/offscreen.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/offscreen.json\n- Sprites: grade C, 58.3/100, rank #646 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sprites.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/sprites.json\n- Best code execution sandboxes for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/code-sandboxes/index.md\n- All 153 sandboxes comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/code-sandboxes/index.md\n\n## Which one, for what\n\n### Offscreen (B)\n\nGood for: A coding agent working on a macOS or iOS app on the developer's own Apple silicon Mac, which needs to run UI tests, the Simulator or the built app without taking the screen.\n\nAhead on:\n- Agent ergonomics, 74 against 68\n- Payments \u0026 pricing, 60 against 30\n\nAlso in its favour:\n- No key needed to call it\n- Free to start without a card\n- Open source\n\nWatch for: First commit 11 October 2026, version 0.0.5 and labelled beta, with JSON field names that may change before 1.0\n\n### Sprites (C)\n\nGood for: Agents that need a long-lived machine with installed tools and files kept between sessions, and rollback by checkpoint.\n\nAhead on:\n- Schema \u0026 documentation, 74 against 67\n- Maintenance \u0026 community, 80 against 66\n\nWatch for: Four Sprites incidents on the status page in 90 days, including a partial outage of 7 hours 28 minutes on 23 September 2026 and failed creates outside Europe for 28 minutes on 8 October\n\n\n## Score by category\n\n| Category | Weight | Offscreen | Sprites | Edge |\n| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |\n| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 55 | even |\n| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Schema \u0026 documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 74 | Sprites +7 |\n| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 74 | 68 | Offscreen +6 |\n| Security \u0026 auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 62 | 59 | Offscreen +3 |\n| Payments \u0026 pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 30 | Offscreen +30 |\n| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |\n| Maintenance \u0026 community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 66 | 80 | Sprites +14 |\n| Transparency \u0026 trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 59 | Sprites +3 |\n| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |\n| **Total** | | **62.9 · B** | **58.3 · C** | |\n\n## Facts side by side\n\n| Fact | Offscreen | Sprites |\n| --- | --- | --- |\n| Kind | SDK + MCP | HTTP API |\n| Vendor | Mark Phelps | Fly.io |\n| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |\n| Transports | | HTTP |\n| Auth | None | API key |\n| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |\n| x402 | no | no |\n| Licence | MIT | Proprietary service under the Fly.io Terms of Service. The JavaScript, Go, Python and Elixir SDKs are MIT |\n| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |\n| llms.txt | no | yes |\n| Last release | 2026-10-16 | 2026-10-06 |\n| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-04-29 |\n| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-09-24 |\n| Customer content may train models | | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict automated access | | not found in the text |\n| Terms restrict benchmarking | | not found in the text |\n| Terms or service can change without notice | | not found in the text |\n| Arbitration or class-action waiver | | not found in the text |\n| Popularity | none | 158k npm/wk, 59k PyPI/wk |\n| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | none |\n\n## Verdicts\n\n**Offscreen.** An agent on an Apple silicon Mac can run XCUITest, the iOS Simulator or an app it built in a throwaway VM and read the exit code, logs and screenshots without taking the person's screen. The project is six days old at v0.0.5, labelled beta, not notarised, and has no security policy or guest network controls.\n\n**Sprites.** A Sprite keeps a 100 GB ext4 disk between runs, bills compute only while active and can be checkpointed and restored through a published OpenAPI contract. The status page records four Sprites incidents in the last 90 days, one lasting over seven hours, and outbound network access is unrestricted until a policy is set.\n\n## Before you call either\n\n### Offscreen\n\n1. Read `.offscreen.toml` before running anything and use its `project` key and task names. Don't guess them\n2. Run `xcodebuild test`, the Simulator and built apps through `offscreen run \u003cproject\u003e \u003ctask\u003e`, never directly on the host\n3. Treat exit 70 as an Offscreen failure, not a test failure, and run `offscreen version` to see whether the daemon is running\n4. Ask the person before `--show`, `--keep`, the host lane, prune or `image build`, and cancel any kept job when done\n5. Read screenshots and `.xcresult` bundles from the directory `offscreen artifacts \u003cjob\u003e` prints\n\n### Sprites\n\n1. Create a token at sprites.dev/account after a browser signup, and send it as `Authorization: Bearer \u003ctoken\u003e` to `https://api.sprites.dev`\n2. Follow the OpenAPI document, not the product page example. Create with `POST /v1/sprites` and a JSON `name`, and run commands with `POST /v1/sprites/{name}/exec` using `cmd` query parameters\n3. Set a network policy with `POST /v1/sprites/{name}/policy/network` before running untrusted code. Egress is open until one is set\n4. Processes started by exec stop on a cold wake. Define a Service for anything that must answer the request that wakes the Sprite\n5. Create a checkpoint before a restore. Restoring replaces the filesystem, ends active sessions and keeps no copy of the replaced state\n6. Sprite creation is limited to 10 a minute on pay-as-you-go. The Go SDK reads `Retry-After` and the error code `sprite_creation_rate_limited` on a 429\n7. Delete Sprites you no longer need. An idle Sprite still bills cold storage for the bytes it holds\n\n## Questions\n\n### Which is better for AI agents, Offscreen or Sprites?\n\nOffscreen scores 62.9 (B) on agent readiness against Sprites's 58.3 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Sprites leads on schema \u0026 documentation and maintenance \u0026 community.\n\n### Can an agent call Offscreen and Sprites without installing anything?\n\nNo hosted endpoint is listed for Offscreen. No hosted endpoint is listed for Sprites.\n\n### Are Offscreen and Sprites open source?\n\nOffscreen is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for Sprites.\n\n\n## For agents\n\n- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-sprites.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-sprites.min.md\n- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {\"a\": \"offscreen\", \"b\": \"sprites\"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare offscreen sprites`\n- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/offscreen.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/sprites.json\n\n## Other comparisons with Offscreen or Sprites\n\n- [Agent 37 Cloud vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent37-vs-offscreen.md)\n- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Code Interpreter vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-code-interpreter-vs-offscreen.md)\n- [Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Code Interpreter vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-code-interpreter-vs-sprites.md)\n- [Blaxel Sandboxes vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blaxel-sandboxes-vs-offscreen.md)\n- [Blaxel Sandboxes vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/blaxel-sandboxes-vs-sprites.md)\n- [Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-sandbox-sdk-vs-offscreen.md)\n- [Cloudflare Sandbox SDK vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-sandbox-sdk-vs-sprites.md)\n- [Daytona vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-offscreen.md)\n- [Daytona vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/daytona-vs-sprites.md)\n- [Deno Sandbox vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-offscreen.md)\n- [Deno Sandbox vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deno-sandbox-vs-sprites.md)\n- [E2B vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/e2b-vs-offscreen.md)\n- [E2B vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/e2b-vs-sprites.md)\n- [Freestyle vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freestyle-vs-offscreen.md)\n- [Freestyle vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freestyle-vs-sprites.md)\n- [Microsoft Execution Containers vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-execution-containers-vs-offscreen.md)\n- [Microsoft Execution Containers vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/microsoft-execution-containers-vs-sprites.md)\n- [Modal Sandboxes vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-sandboxes-vs-offscreen.md)\n- [Modal Sandboxes vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/modal-sandboxes-vs-sprites.md)\n- [Morph Cloud vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/morph-cloud-vs-offscreen.md)\n- [Morph Cloud vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/morph-cloud-vs-sprites.md)\n- [Offscreen vs SPACE](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-perplexity-space.md)\n- [Offscreen vs Runloop Devboxes](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-runloop.md)\n- [Offscreen vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)\n- [Offscreen vs Vercel Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-vercel-sandbox.md)\n- [SPACE vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/perplexity-space-vs-sprites.md)\n- [Runloop Devboxes vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/runloop-vs-sprites.md)\n- [Sprites vs Together Code Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sprites-vs-together-code-sandbox.md)\n- [Sprites vs Vercel Sandbox](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/sprites-vs-vercel-sandbox.md)\n- [Agent 37 Cloud vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent37-vs-sprites.md)\n- [DeltaBox Lite vs Offscreen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-offscreen.md)\n- [DeltaBox Lite vs Sprites](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deltabox-lite-vs-sprites.md)\n", "meta": { "attribution": "Anchor Terminal (https://www.anchorterminal.com)", "attributionRequired": true, "credit": "CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.", "docs": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/docs/", "generatedAt": "2026-10-18", "license": "CC-BY-4.0", "method": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/benchmark/", "methodology": "0.4", "openapi": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/openapi.json", "preview": false, "run": "2026-10-01", "runLabel": "October 2026 research run", "terms": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data" }, "page": { "breadcrumbs": [ { "name": "Home", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/" }, { "name": "Compare", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/" }, { "name": "Offscreen vs Sprites", "url": "" } ], "description": "Offscreen scores 62.9 (B) to Sprites's 58.3 (C) for code sandboxes. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.", "facts": [ "Offscreen B 62.9", "Sprites C 58.3", "scores" ], "h1": "Offscreen vs Sprites", "image": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/assets/og/compare-offscreen-vs-sprites.png", "path": "/compare/offscreen-vs-sprites", "published": "2026-10-01", "section": "tools", "title": "Offscreen vs Sprites for AI agents in 2026: scores and prices", "toc": null, "updated": "2026-10-17", "url": "https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/offscreen-vs-sprites" }, "tokens": { "markdown": 2750, "slim": 680 }, "version": 1 }