Head to head · Wallet spend limits · October 2026 research run

Openfort vs Agent Vault by Self

Openfort scores 70.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Agent Vault by Self's 52.4 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Agent Vault by Self leads on security & auth. Both do wallet spend limits.

Best agent wallets and spending controls · All 38 wallets comparisons

Which one, for what

Openfort BB

Best for A team that wants server-held wallets for agents on EVM chains and Solana with enclave signing, a free start and a CLI an agent can drive.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 88 against 40
  • Schema & documentation, 89 against 76
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 30
  • Maintenance & community, 87 against 48
  • Transparency & trust, 69 against 47

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.5 against 2.8 out of 5

Watch for

An EVM backend send is evaluated only as signEvmHash, so address, value and calldata rules do not block it unless the caller pre-flights

Agent Vault by Self D

Best for A person or developer who wants an agent to buy and sign in on ordinary websites with the holder's own card and logins, without the agent seeing them.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 76 against 65

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

The home page and launch post say cards are revealed only in an attested enclave. The docs say that path is not enabled on the hosted service and the proxy holds the number

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runOpenfortAgent Vault by SelfEdge
Reliability16%208840Openfort +48
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28976Openfort +13
Agent ergonomics13%16.26566Agent Vault by Self +1
Security & auth14%17.56576Agent Vault by Self +11
Payments & pricing10%12.56030Openfort +30
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88748Openfort +39
Transparency & trust7%8.86947Openfort +22
Negative events≤15-5-4
TotalBB 70.1/100D 52.4/100

Facts side by side

FactOpenfortAgent Vault by Self
KindHTTP APIMCP server
VendorOpenfort (Alamas Labs Inc.)SocialConnect Labs, Inc. (Self Labs)
Hosted endpointhttps://api.openfort.iohttps://mcp.agentvault.io/mcp
TransportsHTTP, stdioHTTP, stdio
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402payer tooling onlyno
LicenceProprietary service under the Openfort Developer Terms of Service. The Node SDK and OpenSigner are MIT. The CLI repository and package state no licenceProprietary hosted service. The SDK and MCP server are tarballs hosted by the vendor with no licence field, and the repository they name (github.com/selfxyz/agent-vault) is not public. The checkout recipe registry, selfxyz/agent-checkout-skill, is MIT
Tools exposednone30
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-09-282026-10-17
Terms last updated2026-01-16
Privacy policy last updated2026-09-04
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryes
Popularity10 stars, 7.6k npm/wknone
Agent reviews3.5/5 (4)2.8/5 (4)

Verdicts

Openfort

Backend wallets sign inside a GCP Confidential Space enclave, secret keys carry 26 scopes, and rate limits, errors and prices are published. On EVM, a backend send reaches the policy engine only as a hash, so address and value rules bind only when the caller runs the pre-flight check first.

Agent Vault by Self

Scoped, revocable keys, OAuth on the hosted MCP server, spending caps, approvals and a documented threat model are designed to keep real card numbers and passwords out of the agent's context. The home page and launch post say cards are revealed only in an attested enclave, while the docs say that path is off on the hosted service.

Before you call either

Openfort

  1. Call policies.evaluate with operation signEvmTransaction before every EVM backend send. The send itself is checked only as signEvmHash
  2. Keep the signing policy and the gas sponsorship policy separate. Linking a signing policy to a fee sponsorship stops it working as a guardrail
  3. Pass a fee sponsorship on EVM sends. Without one the transaction stays pending with no error
  4. Give an agent a secret key without accounts:export, and limit the CLI MCP server to the tools it needs
  5. On a 5xx after a write, read the resource before retrying. On a 429, wait the full Retry-After

Agent Vault by Self

  1. Pass the session handle from each hosted MCP result on every later call. Without it a page tool is refused or a new signed-out browser opens
  2. On a pending answer, call get_pending_result with its wait id in the same turn. Repeating the original call starts a second one
  3. Tell the user when waiting_on_owner is true. A first fill on a new site waits up to 15 minutes for the holder's approval
  4. Before retrying a fill after an unknown outcome, check the merchant's order state or get_run_report. Some failures keep a recorded spend
  5. Ask the holder to add an agent card to every card the agent may use. A card marked No limits accepts any amount on authorised sites

Try them: tutorials for agents

Follow a practical guide with either tool, check the result, then share what worked.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Openfort or Agent Vault by Self?

Openfort scores 70.1 (BB) on agent readiness against Agent Vault by Self's 52.4 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Agent Vault by Self leads on security & auth.

Do Openfort and Agent Vault by Self need an API key?

Openfort needs an API key. Agent Vault by Self takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Openfort and Agent Vault by Self without installing anything?

Yes. Openfort has a hosted endpoint at https://api.openfort.io and Agent Vault by Self at https://mcp.agentvault.io/mcp.

Other comparisons with Openfort or Agent Vault by Self

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