# OpenAI Codex vs OpenMausBot

> OpenAI Codex scores 73.5 (BB) to OpenMausBot's 65.4 (B) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-30

OpenAI Codex scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against OpenMausBot's 65.4 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. OpenMausBot leads on reliability. Both do agent harnesses.

- OpenAI Codex: grade BB, 73.5/100, rank #95 of 1239. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openai-codex.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openai-codex.json
- OpenMausBot: grade B, 65.4/100, rank #368 of 1239. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openmausbot.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openmausbot.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 875 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### OpenAI Codex (BB)

Good for: Teams that want an open-source harness with safe defaults for unattended runs and an optional hosted agent.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 82 against 59
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 50
- Maintenance & community, 87 against 74
- Transparency & trust, 85 against 59

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: Pre-1.0 at 0.163.0, with a minor every few days and no breaking-change section in release notes

### OpenMausBot (B)

Good for: A person or an outside agent who wants several CLI agents (Claude Code, Codex, Grok, ACP CLIs) organised as named bots with their own computers, routines and approvals, driven by MCP or a CLI.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 60 against 55

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: New bots start at Full access, which approves provider permission requests without a card


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | OpenAI Codex | OpenMausBot | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 60 | OpenMausBot +5 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 90 | 90 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 77 | OpenAI Codex +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 82 | 59 | OpenAI Codex +23 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 50 | OpenAI Codex +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 87 | 74 | OpenAI Codex +13 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 59 | OpenAI Codex +26 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **73.5 · BB** | **65.4 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | OpenAI Codex | OpenMausBot |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | OpenAI | Supamaus Software Private Limited |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  | stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 (Codex CLI, its Rust crates and the TypeScript and Python SDKs). Codex cloud is a hosted service under OpenAI's terms | Apache-2.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | 20 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-15 | 2026-10-30 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-10-10 |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-10-18 |
| 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 | not found in the text |
| 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 |
| Popularity | 126k stars | 8.2k stars, 3.5k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**OpenAI Codex.** Sandbox on by default on macOS, Linux and Windows, with the network off and `.git` and `.codex` read-only. Pre-1.0 at 0.163.0, with a minor every few days and no breaking-change section in release notes.

**OpenMausBot.** A bounded 20-tool MCP server with typed schemas, annotations and idempotent sends, and a headless CLI with JSON output and exit codes, let another agent hand work to a bot team and wait on it. New bots start at Full access, so provider permission requests pass without a card, and usage analytics stay on until switched off.

## Before you call either

### OpenAI Codex

1. Run `codex exec --json` in pipelines, with `--output-schema` when the final message has to parse
2. Keep the default sandbox, which has the network off. `--yolo` removes both the sandbox and approvals
3. Replace `gpt-5.5` with `gpt-6.1-sol` in saved configs, custom agents and scripts under ChatGPT sign-in. GPT-5.5 retired there on 14 October 2026
4. Set `[analytics] enabled = false` and `[feedback] enabled = false` in config.toml to keep usage data local
5. Pin the npm version. A 0.x minor lands every few days

### OpenMausBot

1. Ask the owner for a pairing code from Settings > Phone, exchange it at `POST /api/auth/pair`, and set `OPENMAUSBOT_TOKEN` with an explicit `OMB_PORT`
2. Pass a `send_id` with every `send_bot_message` and `send_channel_message`, so a retry returns the first receipt
3. Use `wait_for_conversation` instead of polling, and on `needs-user` stop and tell the owner a card is waiting
4. Check a bot's access level with the owner before sending work. New bots run at Full access unless defaults were changed
5. Ask the owner to switch off Settings > General > Usage analytics if nothing beyond model calls should leave the machine

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, OpenAI Codex or OpenMausBot?

OpenAI Codex scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against OpenMausBot's 65.4 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. OpenMausBot leads on reliability.

### Are OpenAI Codex and OpenMausBot open source?

Yes. OpenAI Codex is open source (Apache-2.0 (Codex CLI, its Rust crates and the TypeScript and Python SDKs). Codex cloud is a hosted service under OpenAI's terms). OpenMausBot is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

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

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