Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run
OpenAI Codex vs Paseo
OpenAI Codex scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Paseo's 62.1 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent harnesses.
Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 1500 harnesses comparisons
Which one, for what
OpenAI Codex BB
Best for Teams that want an open-source harness with safe defaults for unattended runs and an optional hosted agent.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 55 against 50
- Schema & documentation, 90 against 65
- Agent ergonomics, 80 against 70
- Security & auth, 82 against 58
- Maintenance & community, 87 against 75
- Transparency & trust, 85 against 68
Also in its favour
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Free to start without a card
Watch for
Pre-1.0 at 0.166.0, with a minor every few days and no breaking-change section in release notes
Paseo B
Best for Developers who want parallel coding agents on their own machines with no telemetry, reachable from anywhere.
Also in its favour
- No key needed to call it
Watch for
Pre-1.0, at 0.15.3
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 Codex +25
OpenAI Codex 90
Framework reading. A JSON Schema for config.toml in the repository (codex-rs/core/config.schema.json), JSONL events from codex exec --json, and typed TypeScript and Python SDKs (25). llms.txt at learn.chatgpt.com with a Markdown twin for every page, re-read on 1 November (10). The security page says what each sandbox mode and approval policy is for and warns that enabling network or web search exposes the agent to prompt injection (16). Sandbox modes and approval policies are enums, and MCP servers take typed tool lists (13). Examples throughout, and --output-schema validates the final message. The non-interactive page names the event types, turn.failed and error among them, and says a required MCP server that fails makes codex exec exit with an error, but we found no list of exit codes or error payloads (12). Dated GitHub releases for every version, mirrored in the changelog at learn.chatgpt.com, which runs to 0.166.0 on 29 October (14). 25 + 10 + 16 + 13 + 12 + 14 = 90.
Paseo 65
Harness reading. Public docs, a CLI and plugin examples in the repository (65).
Security & auth OpenAI Codex +24
OpenAI Codex 82
Framework reading (telemetry defaults, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing), five lines. Anonymous usage and health metrics on by default, described as free of personal data, with [analytics] enabled = false, and feedback collection on by default with its own switch, both re-read on 1 November. Credentials are a ChatGPT login or an API key (20). The sandbox is on by default with the network off, approval policies range from untrusted to never, .git, .agents and .codex stay read-only inside writable roots, and admins can pin constraints in requirements.toml (19). Network off by default locally. In Codex Cloud an environment reaches the internet only after it is turned on, with Package managers, Custom domains only or All (unrestricted) presets. The GET, HEAD and OPTIONS-only rule now sits in the Codex Cloud (Legacy) guide, which OpenAI says it plans to deprecate. The docs keep a worked example of prompt-injection exfiltration (14). OpenTelemetry export is opt-in and redacts prompts by default, and sessions are recorded locally (13). Bugcrowd programme, SECURITY.md and a signed security.txt on openai.com, per the 1 October check, not re-read on 1 November. As on the openai-api and openai-agents-sdk listings, that security.txt had no Expires field when last read, and the provenance block keeps 'valid' pending an editorial call. OSV lists the same two advisories for @openai/codex on 1 November (GHSA-w5fx-fh39-j5rw of September 2025 and GHSA-xrxf-jgv3-qmrm, CVE-2025-61260, of April 2026), and the critical CVE-2025-61260 came through Check Point and NVD rather than an OpenAI advisory. 0.165.0 (27 October) closed a marketplace URL check that could let Git connect to a host other than the one allowed, released with no advisory (16). SOC 2 isn't scored on the framework reading. 20 + 19 + 14 + 13 + 16 = 82.
Paseo 58
Harness reading. The README says no telemetry, tracking or forced log-ins (30 of 30). Worktree per agent, on your own machine (10 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance (5). No audit log (5). SECURITY.md (8). 30 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 8 = 58.
Transparency & trust OpenAI Codex +17
OpenAI Codex 85
Apache-2.0 for the CLI and SDKs (30). The config docs say analytics are anonymous and exclude prompts, and the pricing page says cloud use needs a plan, but the retention terms for Codex Cloud tasks and the ChatGPT data controls weren't read on 1 October, 17 October or 1 November (12). The changelog at learn.chatgpt.com dates model retirements ahead of time with replacements (GPT-5.4 and GPT-5.4 mini announced on 31 July for 31 August, GPT-5.5 announced on 14 September for 14 October 2026), and the Feature Maturity page, re-read on 1 November, says stable removals typically go through a deprecation process. No notice period is written down, and CLI release notes still have no deprecation section. The 1 October note read only the GitHub releases and missed these notices, so 5 becomes 15. Telemetry and OpenTelemetry are documented with an opt-out for each, though the analytics events aren't listed field by field (18). 30 + 12 + 15 + 18 = 75.
Paseo 68
Apache 2.0 for everything but third-party components (30). No telemetry and agents run on your machine (22 of 30). CHANGELOG.md, no deprecation policy (10). States no telemetry (20). 30 + 22 + 10 + 20 = 82.
Maintenance & community OpenAI Codex +12
OpenAI Codex 87
0.166.0 on 29 October 2026 (30). 36 stable release tags between 5 August and 29 October, from 0.146.1 to 0.166.0 (20). Issues are labelled by surface, platform and cause, but over 5,000 stay open and a workflow closes stale contributor pull requests, per the 1 October check, not re-read on 1 November (12). TypeScript and Python SDKs are in the same repository and built in CI (15). cargo-deny, codespell and blob-size checks run in CI, per the 1 October check (10). 30 + 20 + 12 + 15 + 10 = 87.
Paseo 75
v0.15.3 and commits on 7 November 2026 (30). More than three releases in 90 days (20). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Current builds (15). CI on push (10). 30 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 10 = 75.
Agent ergonomics OpenAI Codex +10
OpenAI Codex 80
Framework reading, adapted to a harness driven by a pipeline. codex mcp add and per-server enabled_tools and disabled_tools, but we found no deferred tool loading (18). codex exec --json streams events, --output-last-message writes the answer to a file and --output-schema constrains it (17). Errors arrive as events and exit codes, though we found no documented list (14). codex exec resume and codex resume --last continue a session, 0.163.0 restores a resumed thread's permissions and network approvals, and 0.166.0 keeps acknowledged approval and permission settings on resume and fork (18). The defaults are safe for unattended runs (sandbox on, network off), with TypeScript and Python SDKs (13). 18 + 17 + 14 + 18 + 13 = 80.
Paseo 70
Harness reading. A self-hosted daemon that agents can use to create worktrees, launch other agents and talk to them, scriptable from the CLI (70).
Reliability OpenAI Codex +5
OpenAI Codex 55
Local-package reading. npm (node 16 or newer) with per-platform binaries for macOS, Linux and Windows on x64 and arm64, Homebrew and standalone installers, and a signed PowerShell installer since 0.162.0, per the 17 October check, with 0.166.0 on 29 October the newest tag (20). Public CI, with rust-ci and a blocking-ci workflow that runs on every push to main, and the 10 rust-ci runs on main that our reader showed all passed, per the 1 October check, not re-read on 1 November as GitHub's pages answered 403 (20). Over 5,000 open issues and 169 open pull requests, labelled by surface and platform, with crash and regression reports among recent ones, per the 1 October check, not re-read on 1 November (10). 0.x minors every few days, and release notes for 0.164.0 to 0.166.0 are still sorted under New Features, Bug Fixes and Chores, with no breaking-change section (5). 0.166.0, pre-1.0 (0). 20 + 20 + 10 + 5 + 0 = 55. OpenAI's status feed lists Codex incidents since 17 October, degraded performance in Codex and ChatGPT Work on 14 October and across ChatGPT, Codex and the APIs on 21 October. The local-package reading doesn't score them.
Paseo 50
Local software. Desktop builds, an Android APK, a Docker image and a Nix package (20). ci.yml on the repository; pass state not read (15). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). CHANGELOG.md (15). Version 0.15.3 (0). 20 + 15 + 0 + 15 + 0 = 50.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | OpenAI Codex | Paseo | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 55 | 50 | OpenAI Codex +5 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 90 | 65 | OpenAI Codex +25 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 80 | 70 | OpenAI Codex +10 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 82 | 58 | OpenAI Codex +24 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 87 | 75 | OpenAI Codex +12 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 85 | 68 | OpenAI Codex +17 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| Total | BB 73.5/100 | B 62.1/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | OpenAI Codex | Paseo |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | OpenAI | Mohamed Boudra |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| 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 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-29 | 2026-11-07 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not read yet |
| Popularity | 126k stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |
How the scores have moved
Paseo
No score change since it was listed.
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 0.166.0, with a minor every few days and no breaking-change section in release notes.
Paseo
A self-hosted, open-source workspace for running many coding agents on your own machines, scriptable from the CLI and reachable from phone, web or desktop, with no telemetry or forced log-in. It's pre-1.0 and run largely by one maintainer.
Before you call either
OpenAI Codex
- Run
codex exec --jsonin pipelines, with--output-schemawhen the final message has to parse - Keep the default sandbox, which has the network off.
--yoloremoves both the sandbox and approvals - Replace
gpt-5.5withgpt-6.1-solin saved configs, custom agents and scripts under ChatGPT sign-in. GPT-5.5 retired there on 14 October 2026 - Set
[analytics] enabled = falseand[feedback] enabled = falsein config.toml to keep usage data local - Pin the npm version. A 0.x minor lands every few days
Paseo
- Run the daemon on the machine that has your tools and credentials, and connect from the clients
- Script runs from the CLI for repeatable agent jobs
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, OpenAI Codex or Paseo?
OpenAI Codex scores 73.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Paseo's 62.1 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.
Are OpenAI Codex and Paseo 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). Paseo is open source (Apache-2.0).
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/openai-codex-vs-paseo.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/openai-codex.json·/api/v1/tools/paseo.json - From a terminal
anchor compare openai-codex paseo(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "openai-codex", "b": "paseo"}at/mcp, no key