Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run
OpenAI Agents API vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)
OpenAI Agents API scores 73.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)'s 57.6 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. 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 52
- Agent ergonomics, 80 against 66
- Security & auth, 87 against 52
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20
- Transparency & trust, 85 against 69
Also in its favour
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- No incidents deducted, where Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) loses 3 points for them
Watch for
Public beta since 10 September 2026 behind the agents=v1 beta header, with no GA date
Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) C
Best for Teams that want one agent across an interactive terminal session and API-started cloud runs, including Claude Code and Codex runs on Warp's infrastructure or their own workers.
Also in its favour
- Open source
Watch for
The warp CLI has no print or headless mode. Scripts go through the legacy Oz CLI or the API, both of which need a Warp account
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.
Security & auth OpenAI Agents API +35
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.
Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) 52
Framework reading (telemetry defaults, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing), five lines. The FAQ says the built-in harness runs server-side, so prompts, file contents and command output pass through Warp. The privacy page says AI interactions and console inputs may be collected unless Help improve Warp is off, and the security overview says data collection is on by default for Free and paid teams and off on Business and Enterprise. The opt-out is documented in the desktop app's settings, not for the CLI. Personal and agent keys can expire after 1, 30 or 90 days, and provider keys stay in the device's secure storage (14). Per-action permissions with always_ask, agent_decides and always_allow, edits always shown as a diff under agent_decides, a default denylist and child agents asking first. Auto-approve bypasses the user's denylist by default, and no local OS sandbox is documented. Cloud runs use a Docker sandbox as a non-root user with passwordless sudo (11). No prompt-injection guidance was found in the CLI, platform or factory pages read, and secret redaction is off by default (4). Cloud runs record transcripts, tool calls and logs, the API returns timelines and conversations, the app has a Network Log, and the Enterprise Analytics API can filter tool calls for audit (11). SECURITY.md names security@warp.dev and private GitHub advisories, SOC 2 Type II is stated with a trust centre and a subprocessor list. No security.txt and no bug bounty were found, and the GitHub advisory list was not read (12). 14 + 11 + 4 + 11 + 12 = 52. Warp's terms bar any robot, scraper or other automated means to access its Services, so this run pauses its hosts and the readings from warp.dev pages are per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November.
Transparency & trust OpenAI Agents API +16
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.
Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) 69
The client, including the warp and oz binaries, is AGPL-3.0, an OSI licence, with the UI crates under MIT. The built-in agent harness, the server and Oz orchestration are proprietary, so the part that runs the agent loop is closed. Judgement call (20). The privacy page says Business and Enterprise are covered by zero data retention, the security overview says ZDR applies across all plans and elsewhere mentions it for Enterprise teams, and the legal security page says it is available on the Enterprise plan. The privacy notice gives criteria rather than retention periods. A subprocessor list and a DPA are linked (15). The Oz CLI carries a legacy notice with a promise of guidance before any support change, and the changelog dates renames such as warp-tui to warp, but there is no written deprecation policy or notice period (8). An exhaustive telemetry event table, Rudderstack and Sentry named, and an opt-out in the app's privacy settings. The CLI pages don't describe what the CLI sends or how to switch it off (14). 20 + 15 + 8 + 14 = 57. Warp's terms bar any robot, scraper or other automated means to access its Services, so this run pauses its hosts and the readings from warp.dev pages are per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November.
Agent ergonomics OpenAI Agents API +14
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.
Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) 66
Harness reading, adapted to a harness driven by a pipeline. MCP servers are attached per run with --mcp or the mcp_servers config, and profiles gate MCP calls, but no per-tool disabling or deferred tool loading was found (12). The API lists runs with limit, cursor, sort_by, state, task_status and name, and returns a normalised conversation and a timeline per run. The warp CLI has no print mode or JSON output and the Oz CLI's run output is described only as printed tool calls (12). RFC 7807 errors with codes such as insufficient_credits and budget_exceeded, a retryable flag, and since 7 October 2026 unattended CLI runs end as blocked instead of hanging when the agent asks for input. No CLI exit codes are documented (16). Follow-ups, interrupts and cancels by run or conversation ID, conversation_id to continue a run, and warp --resume. No idempotency key on run creation (14). Python and TypeScript SDKs with retries and timeouts, but a cloud run needs an environment ID and a Warp account with usage, and the warp CLI itself can't be driven headless (12). 12 + 12 + 16 + 14 + 12 = 66. Warp's terms bar any robot, scraper or other automated means to access its Services, so this run pauses its hosts and the readings from warp.dev pages are per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November.
Payments & pricing OpenAI Agents API +10
OpenAI Agents API 30
No machine payment protocol (0). Model, tool and container prices published without a login, and no fee for the API itself (20). The Free tier reading of the openai-api listing, half (10). Sign-up in a browser (0). 0 + 20 + 10 + 0 = 30.
Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) 20
Harness reading of the published rubric, scored on the Warp plan the agent needs. No payment protocol (0). Plan prices are public, and Warp-provided inference is billed at public API rates on paid plans, but the agent-hour platform rate and compute rate for cloud runs were not on the pricing page (10). Free is $0 and includes Warp Agent CLI access, but no bundled Warp inference, so the agent runs only with purchased usage or your own provider key. Whether sign-up asks for a card was not tested (10). A person signs in through a browser or device code, and API keys are created by hand in the Oz web app or the Warp app (0). 0 + 10 + 10 + 0 = 20. Warp's terms bar any robot, scraper or other automated means to access its Services, so this run pauses its hosts and the readings from warp.dev pages are per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November.
Reliability OpenAI Agents API +8
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.
Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) 52
Local-package reading, as for the other harnesses, although the FAQ says the agent harness runs on Warp's servers. An install script for macOS and Linux and a PowerShell one for Windows, with supported systems stated (macOS, Linux x64 and Arm64, Windows x64 and Arm64), and a warp-agent-cli cask in Homebrew core that carries a SHA-256. The script itself checks no checksum (18). The repository's Warp CI workflow runs cargo nextest, doc tests, clippy and release-compilation checks on every pull request to master. The repository has 21 workflow files on 4 November. Whether CI passes on the default branch could not be read (15). Issue and pull request counts from the 18 October check came through shields.io badges, a third-party copy of GitHub data this run bars, and are struck. The clone shows 613 commits to master from 6 August. How many open issues are crashes or regressions, and how fast they get replies, could not be read. The weekly changelog records crash fixes in most releases, such as two crash fixes on 7 October 2026 (10). Weekly dated releases with versions such as v0.2026.10.14.08.27 and no breaking-change heading. The binary rename from warp-tui to warp on 23 July 2026 sat under Improvements (4). Version 0.x with date-based numbers. A stable channel is named and the CLI pages carry no beta label (5). Not scored on this reading. Per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November, status.warp.dev has components for the agent harness and cloud execution, and logged scheduled cloud agents unavailable for about 2.5 hours on 16 October and session sharing degraded for about 4.75 hours on 30 September 2026. The docs say Warp has no formal SLA. 18 + 15 + 10 + 4 + 5 = 52. Warp's terms bar any robot, scraper or other automated means to access its Services, so this run pauses its hosts and the readings from warp.dev pages are per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | OpenAI Agents API | Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 60 | 52 | OpenAI Agents API +8 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 88 | 89 | Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 80 | 66 | OpenAI Agents API +14 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 87 | 52 | OpenAI Agents API +35 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 30 | 20 | OpenAI Agents API +10 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 87 | 84 | OpenAI Agents API +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 85 | 69 | OpenAI Agents API +16 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| Total | BB 73.3/100 | C 57.6/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | OpenAI Agents API | Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | Agent harness |
| Vendor | OpenAI | Warp |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.openai.com/v1/agents/sessions | no (local only) |
| Transports | https | |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary hosted API under OpenAI's Services Agreement. The SDKs are Apache 2.0 | Mixed. The client, including the warp and oz binaries, is AGPL-3.0 with the warpui_core and warpui crates under MIT. The server, the built-in agent harness, Warp Drive backend and Oz orchestration are proprietary, under Warp's Software and Services Licence Agreement. The SDKs are Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-16 | 2026-10-15 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2025-10-07 |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-08-18 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | yes |
| 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 | 3.3/5 (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.
Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)
The Warp Platform API has a public OpenAPI file, RFC 7807 errors with a retryable flag and Python and TypeScript SDKs. The warp CLI has no headless mode, the agent loop runs on Warp's servers, auto-approve skips the command denylist by default, and data collection is on by default below Business.
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
Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)
- For unattended work, call
POST https://app.warp.dev/api/v1/agent/runswithAuthorization: Bearer $WARP_API_KEY. ThewarpCLI is interactive only - Use an agent key, scoped to one cloud agent and given an expiry, for CI rather than a personal key. Keys are created in the Oz web app or the Warp app
- Set
auto_approve_bypasses_command_denylist = falseunder[agents.warp_agent.other]before startingwarp --auto-approve - Read
codeandretryablein error bodies. A 429resource_unavailablemeans capacity is full and the platform retries the task itself - Pin a version with
WARP_TUI_VERSIONat install, or setgeneral.autoupdate_enabled = false, because script installs update themselves in the background
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, OpenAI Agents API or Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)?
OpenAI Agents API scores 73.3 (BB) on agent readiness against Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)'s 57.6 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.
Can an agent call OpenAI Agents API and Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) without installing anything?
OpenAI Agents API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.openai.com/v1/agents/sessions. No hosted endpoint is listed for Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API).
Are OpenAI Agents API and Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) open source?
No open-source release is listed for OpenAI Agents API. Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) is open source (Mixed. The client, including the `warp` and `oz` binaries, is AGPL-3.0 with the `warpui_core` and `warpui` crates under MIT. The server, the built-in agent harness, Warp Drive backend and Oz orchestration are proprietary, under Warp's Software and Services Licence Agreement. The SDKs are Apache-2.0).
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/openai-agents-api-vs-warp.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/openai-agents-api.json·/api/v1/tools/warp.json - From a terminal
anchor compare openai-agents-api warp(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "openai-agents-api", "b": "warp"}at/mcp, no key