Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run
OpenAI Agents API vs Rovo Dev CLI
OpenAI Agents API scores 73.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Rovo Dev CLI's 44.1 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do agent harnesses.
Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 1041 harnesses comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for Teams that want OpenAI to run the agent loop, with sandboxes, MCP tools and subagents, and are fine with a beta API, US-only data residency and no Zero Data Retention.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 60 against 35
- Schema & documentation, 88 against 45
- Agent ergonomics, 80 against 53
- Security & auth, 87 against 48
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 15
- Maintenance & community, 87 against 61
- Transparency & trust, 85 against 63
Also in its favour
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
Watch for
Public beta since 10 September 2026 behind the agents=v1 beta header, with no GA date
Best for Teams already on Jira, Confluence and Bitbucket who want the agent to read and update work items and pages from the terminal or a pipeline.
No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.
Watch for
Atlassian has announced end of life for standalone Rovo Dev, with the CLI moving to the Rovo CLI and no dates set
Why the edge
Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.
Schema & documentation OpenAI Agents API +43
OpenAI Agents API 88
The reference is linked from the overview and the SDKs carry beta.agents types; we didn't confirm /agents/sessions in OpenAI's public OpenAPI file, so 15 of 25. llms.txt with every Agents API page and Markdown twins (10). The overview, architecture page and the agents guide that compares the Agents API, Agents SDK and Responses API say when to use it (20). Typed configuration with enumerated container sizes, network modes and environment types (13 of 15). Examples in six languages and an errors page with codes per HTTP status, turn and session (15). Dated changelog entries and a versioned beta header (15). 15 + 10 + 20 + 13 + 15 + 15 = 88.
Rovo Dev CLI 45
Framework reading. Server mode lists its /v3 endpoints with request bodies, and an Atlassian engineering post of 27 October 2025 says Swagger docs are served at localhost:<port>/docs. That contract is only visible on a running server, and no schema for the SSE events or the config file was published (12). No llms.txt on support.atlassian.com or developer.atlassian.com, and no Markdown twins found (0). The tools page says what allow, ask and deny do, what YOLO mode skips and that MCP tools keep their permissions, and the settings page gives each default. Little says when not to use a mode (12). Permission levels, console output formats and tool names are enumerated in the settings reference with defaults (10). Server mode has curl, Python and JavaScript examples. No exit codes or error responses are documented beyond the post's note that a failed entitlement check disables every endpoint except healthcheck and shutdown (7). The API path is versioned (/v3), but there is no public changelog for Rovo Dev builds (4). 12+0+12+10+7+4 = 45.
Security & auth OpenAI Agents API +39
OpenAI Agents API 87
Project keys with restricted per-endpoint permissions, service accounts and workload identity, per the openai-api listing; we didn't confirm a key can be limited to /v1/agents (27 of 30). Automatic review for approvals, a sandbox network restricted to a host allowlist, vaults for secrets and a sandbox security guide (17 of 20). The agent reads web pages, MCP results and browser content; the sandbox security guide and approval flow are the mitigations, with no prompt-injection guide of its own found (8 of 15). Tracing, observability and usage per session and admin audit logs (15). SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001 family, Bugcrowd bounty and a disclosure policy, per the openai-api listing (20). Not ZDR-eligible and US residency only, recorded under transparency. 27 + 17 + 8 + 15 + 20 = 87.
Rovo Dev CLI 48
Harness reading of the framework checklist, as for the other harnesses. 30 for credentials and what leaves the machine, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. The CLI processes data on the device and sends prompts to Atlassian's models, whose providers don't retain or train on them, per the Rovo privacy page and the AI Terms. The scoped token the docs create carries about 50 scopes including write, delete and admin:repository:bitbucket, the pipelines guide asks for an unscoped token, and no telemetry description for the CLI was found (12). Writes and shell commands ask by default, reads are allowed, bash rules are regex, compound commands are split and file access stays in the workspace. There is no sandbox for customers (runInSandbox is macOS only and for internal users), --yolo skips file and shell prompts, and project-level skills in a cloned repository can list pre-approved tools. We found no workspace trust step (10). MCP server instructions go into the system prompt by default, with a per-server enable_instructions switch, and the MCP page says data isn't sent to third-party tools without the user's approval (7). Administrators can turn Rovo Dev on and off per organisation and site and see credit use. Logs stay local in ~/.rovodev/logs, and no audit log of CLI actions was found (5). security.txt is valid (Expires 2027-02-04), Atlassian runs a public Bugcrowd bug bounty and publishes its fix objectives. The rollout page says Rovo Dev hasn't been externally audited for ISO 27001 or SOC 2, and we didn't check whether the bounty scope names Rovo Dev (14). 12+10+7+5+14 = 48.
Agent ergonomics OpenAI Agents API +27
OpenAI Agents API 80
Read as an API an agent drives. Context is compacted automatically, and session budgets and streamed events keep output sized (20 of 25). Sessions can be listed, continued and steered, events streamed or sent by webhook, artifacts fetched (15 of 20). Actionable error codes with recovery steps (20). No idempotency key; a documented check-then-retry procedure (10 of 20). One session call with defaults (medium sandbox, network enabled), SDKs in five languages (15). 20 + 15 + 20 + 10 + 15 = 80.
Rovo Dev CLI 53
Framework reading, adapted to a harness driven by a pipeline. Per-tool allow, ask and deny, allowedMcpServers and disabledMcpServers, tool lists on subagents and skills, and /prune to drop tool results from context (15). The console output format is markdown, simple or raw. No JSON output for acli rovodev run is documented, server mode streams JSON events, and no turn or spend cap exists beyond the credit allowance and /efficiency (10). No exit codes are documented. Server mode reports entitlement and credit failures, per the engineering post (6). Sessions persist with --restore, fork and rename. --worktree isolates a run with a lock and keeps the worktree when a non-interactive run leaves changes, and server mode has cancel and reset (15). Sensible defaults, but no SDK, and a run needs an API token, a Rovo Dev licence and an activated site (7). 15+10+6+15+7 = 53.
Maintenance & community OpenAI Agents API +26
OpenAI Agents API 87
Closed API. Last dated change 16 October 2026, Ultrafast mode and document skills (30). Four dated changelog entries in the 57 days since release, 10 September, 29 September, 9 October and 16 October (20). Changelog and help centre, as the openai-api listing reads them (12 of 15). Official SDKs carry beta.agents (15). SDK CI, per the openai-api listing (10). 30 + 20 + 12 + 15 + 10 = 87.
Rovo Dev CLI 61
Atlassian's AtlasCode extension, which downloads the same Rovo Dev binary for the IDE, pinned build 202610.16.1b1 in its pre-release of 16 October 2026, and the Atlassian CLI repository served 1.3.39-stable on 23 September 2026. We didn't run the CLI to read the version it installs. Judgement call (30). AtlasCode pinned eight Rovo Dev builds between 23 July and 16 October 2026 (20). No public changelog for the builds. Support is through Atlassian Support and the community, where the Rovo Dev board was last active on 16 January 2026 (5). No SDK and no registry entry. The server-mode API is kept current for the IDE extension (3). The Homebrew formula carries checksums and the Linux repositories are signed. There's no public CI (3). 30+20+5+3+3 = 61.
Reliability OpenAI Agents API +25
OpenAI Agents API 60
Read as a hosted API. status.openai.com has an Agents component under APIs (20). Since release on 10 September (57 days, not 90), the feed names the Agents API in a degraded-performance incident on 14 September, the elevated errors across ChatGPT, Codex and the API on 29 September (the openai-api listing reads that one as a major, 17:52 to 23:14 UTC), computer use issues and degraded workspace agents on 6 and 7 October, degraded performance across the APIs for 22 minutes on 21 October, and overbilling for hosted containers on 19 September. One major, the rest minor (10). Rate limits come from the shared guide, published per tier and model with headers, and the errors page adds a Files API allowance on session creation (15). 429 and 503 guidance with Retry-After, capped backoff and a check-then-retry procedure for turns (15). The Scale Tier SLA in the openai-api listing isn't shown to cover a beta API (0). Public beta behind the agents=v1 header (0). 20 + 10 + 15 + 15 + 0 + 0 = 60.
Rovo Dev CLI 35
Local-package reading, the same as the other closed-source harnesses. Rovo Dev ships inside the Atlassian CLI, which installs from a Homebrew tap with SHA-256 checksums, signed apt and yum repositories and curl downloads for macOS, Linux and Windows on amd64 and arm64, and Rovo Dev downloads itself on first use (20). No public CI or test suite, since the source isn't published (0). No public issue tracker. The Rovo Dev community board was last active on 16 January 2026, and bugs otherwise go to /feedback and Atlassian Support, so open crash reports can't be counted (8). Rovo Dev builds moved from 0.13.x to date-based versions such as 202604.30.2 and 202610.16.1b1, per AtlasCode's changelog and manifest, and have no public changelog, and the Atlassian CLI changelog stops at v1.3.15 while its repository serves 1.3.39 (2). Rovo Dev has been rolling out as a product since October 2025, but the version number carries no stability signal and Atlassian has announced that the standalone product will reach end of life. Judgement call (5). The CLI runs against Atlassian's hosted service, and the Rovo status page has no Rovo Dev component. 20+0+8+2+5 = 35.
Transparency & trust OpenAI Agents API +22
OpenAI Agents API 85
Closed service with clear terms, Apache-2.0 SDKs (15). Session state retained until deleted, deletable sessions and artifacts, not ZDR-eligible, US residency only, and the data-controls guide agrees; no retention period for artifacts after a sandbox expires (25 of 30). Dated deprecation notices with minimum periods for GA models; a beta API can change faster (15 of 20). Subprocessors and processing countries listed, per the openai-api listing (20). 15 + 25 + 15 + 20 = 75.
Rovo Dev CLI 63
Proprietary, with clear terms. The Atlassian Customer Agreement (effective 1 October 2026) and the AI Terms (effective 17 August 2026), which say Input and Output are Customer Data and that subcontractors may not train on them (15). The Rovo privacy page keeps Chat and agent inputs and outputs for 30 days and says Rovo has SOC 2, ISO 27001 and data residency, while the Rovo Dev rollout page (modified 27 August 2026) says Rovo Dev has none of the three. We found no retention period for Rovo Dev sessions sent to Atlassian (12). The licensing FAQ promises at least 60 days' notice before Rovo Dev's end of life and dates the Code Reviewer move to 3 December 2026, but gives no date for the CLI's move to the Rovo CLI. Each Atlassian CLI version is supported for six months (14). No telemetry description or opt-out for the CLI was found. AtlasCode's changelog documents Rovo Dev telemetry events in the IDE, which this listing doesn't cover (0). 15+12+14+0 = 41.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | OpenAI Agents API | Rovo Dev CLI | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 60 | 35 | OpenAI Agents API +25 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 88 | 45 | OpenAI Agents API +43 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 80 | 53 | OpenAI Agents API +27 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 87 | 48 | OpenAI Agents API +39 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 30 | 15 | OpenAI Agents API +15 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 87 | 61 | OpenAI Agents API +26 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 85 | 63 | OpenAI Agents API +22 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | BB 73.3/100 | E 44.1/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | OpenAI Agents API | Rovo Dev CLI |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | Agent harness |
| Vendor | OpenAI | Atlassian |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.openai.com/v1/agents/sessions | no (local only) |
| Transports | https | |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary hosted API under OpenAI's Services Agreement. The SDKs are Apache 2.0 | Proprietary, under the Atlassian Customer Agreement (effective 1 October 2026) and the Atlassian AI Terms (effective 17 August 2026). No source is published |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-16 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (4) |
How the scores have moved
OpenAI Agents API
No score change since it was listed.
Verdicts
OpenAI Agents API
OpenAI's hosted agent runtime, the Codex harness behind one session call, with MCP, functions, web search, computer use, subagents and sandboxes on OpenAI or your own infrastructure. Documentation, errors and SDKs are thorough. It's still public beta, can't use Zero Data Retention and keeps data in the United States only.
Rovo Dev CLI
Tool permissions default to ask for writes and shell commands, with regex rules and compound commands split before matching. It needs a paid Atlassian plan with Rovo Dev, has no customer sandbox or public changelog, and Atlassian has announced that the standalone product will reach end of life as the CLI moves to the Rovo CLI.
Before you call either
OpenAI Agents API
- POST https://api.openai.com/v1/agents/sessions with a project key and the header OpenAI-Beta: agents=v1, or use client.beta.agents in the SDKs
- Before retrying, retrieve the session and turn and check which actions completed, since there's no idempotency key
- Set the sandbox network to restricted with an allowlist of up to 100 hosts when the agent doesn't need the open web
- Save files from /workspace/outputs before deleting a session; no retention period is stated for artifacts
- Don't send data that needs Zero Data Retention or non-US residency; the Agents API supports neither
Rovo Dev CLI
- Pass the instruction as an argument to
acli rovodev runfor a single non-interactive run. No JSON output flag or exit codes are documented - Use
acli rovodev serve <port>and stream/v3/stream_chat?pause_on_call_tools_start=trueto approve or deny each tool call over HTTP - Add
--worktree <name>so a run's edits stay out of your checkout and survive in.rovodev/worktrees/<name> - Set
"enable_instructions": falseon MCP servers you don't trust, since server instructions go into the system prompt by default - Check
/usagebefore long runs. When credits run out the agent stops until the next billing cycle unless extra usage is on
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, OpenAI Agents API or Rovo Dev CLI?
OpenAI Agents API scores 73.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Rovo Dev CLI's 44.1 (E), and leads in every scored category.
Can an agent call OpenAI Agents API and Rovo Dev CLI without installing anything?
OpenAI Agents API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.openai.com/v1/agents/sessions. No hosted endpoint is listed for Rovo Dev CLI.
Other comparisons with OpenAI Agents API or Rovo Dev CLI
- Agent Zero vs OpenAI Agents API
- Agent Zero vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Aider vs OpenAI Agents API
- Aider vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Amp vs OpenAI Agents API
- Amp vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Antigravity CLI vs OpenAI Agents API
- Antigravity CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Auggie CLI vs OpenAI Agents API
- Auggie CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- AXLR vs OpenAI Agents API
- AXLR vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Claude Code vs OpenAI Agents API
- Claude Code vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Cline vs OpenAI Agents API
- Cline vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Crush vs OpenAI Agents API
- Crush vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Cursor CLI vs OpenAI Agents API
- Cursor CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs OpenAI Agents API
- DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs Rovo Dev CLI
- dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) vs OpenAI Agents API
- dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Devin vs OpenAI Agents API
- Devin vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Droid CLI vs OpenAI Agents API
- Droid CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Pi vs OpenAI Agents API
- Pi vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Gemini CLI vs OpenAI Agents API
- Gemini CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- GitHub Copilot CLI vs OpenAI Agents API
- GitHub Copilot CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- goose vs OpenAI Agents API
- goose vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Harness² vs OpenAI Agents API
- Harness² vs Rovo Dev CLI
- HarnessRouter vs OpenAI Agents API
- HarnessRouter vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Jules vs OpenAI Agents API
- Jules vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Junie CLI vs OpenAI Agents API
- Junie CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Kilo Code CLI vs OpenAI Agents API
- Kilo Code CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Kimi Code CLI vs OpenAI Agents API
- Kimi Code CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Kiro CLI vs OpenAI Agents API
- Kiro CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- mini-swe-agent vs OpenAI Agents API
- mini-swe-agent vs Rovo Dev CLI
- MiniMax Code vs OpenAI Agents API
- MiniMax Code vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Mistral Vibe CLI vs OpenAI Agents API
- Mistral Vibe CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Muse Code vs OpenAI Agents API
- Muse Code vs Rovo Dev CLI
- OpenAI Agents API vs OpenAI Codex
- OpenAI Agents API vs OpenCode
- OpenAI Agents API vs OpenHands
- OpenAI Agents API vs OpenMausBot
- OpenAI Agents API vs Prime Agent
- OpenAI Agents API vs Qoder CLI
- OpenAI Agents API vs Qwen Code
- OpenAI Agents API vs Mirror CLI
- OpenAI Agents API vs Unstoppable
- OpenAI Agents API vs Vibe-Trading
- OpenAI Agents API vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)
- OpenAI Codex vs Rovo Dev CLI
- OpenCode vs Rovo Dev CLI
- OpenHands vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Prime Agent vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Qoder CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Qwen Code vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Mirror CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Rovo Dev CLI vs Unstoppable
- Rovo Dev CLI vs Vibe-Trading
- Rovo Dev CLI vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)
- Clawboo vs Rovo Dev CLI
- CLI Manager vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Harness vs Rovo Dev CLI
- OpenMausBot vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Paperclip vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Parallax vs Rovo Dev CLI
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/openai-agents-api-vs-rovo-dev-cli.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/openai-agents-api.json·/api/v1/tools/rovo-dev-cli.json - From a terminal
anchor compare openai-agents-api rovo-dev-cli(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "openai-agents-api", "b": "rovo-dev-cli"}at/mcp, no key