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Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

OpenHands vs OpenMausBot

OpenHands scores 71 (BB) on agent readiness against OpenMausBot's 65.4 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent harnesses.

Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 875 harnesses comparisons

OpenHandsAll Hands AI · Agent harness BB71/100#152 of 1238 OpenMausBotSupamaus Software Private Limited · Agent harness B65.4/100#368 of 1238

Which one, for what

OpenHands BB

Best for Teams that want to self-host a coding agent with a web UI, per-conversation Docker sandboxes and scheduled or webhook automations, or embed the agent through a Python SDK and REST API.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 83 against 60
  • Security & auth, 66 against 59
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 50
  • Maintenance & community, 85 against 74
  • Transparency & trust, 70 against 59

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for

Confirmation mode is off by default in Agent Canvas, and the npm install gives the agent the host's whole filesystem

OpenMausBot B

Best 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.

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine
  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

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

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runOpenHandsOpenMausBotEdge
Reliability16%208360OpenHands +23
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28790OpenMausBot +3
Agent ergonomics13%16.27877OpenHands +1
Security & auth14%17.56659OpenHands +7
Payments & pricing10%12.56050OpenHands +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88574OpenHands +11
Transparency & trust7%8.87059OpenHands +11
Negative events≤15-5-2
TotalBB 71/100B 65.4/100

Facts side by side

FactOpenHandsOpenMausBot
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorAll Hands AISupamaus Software Private Limited
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transportsstdio
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceMIT (Agent Canvas, SDK, tools and Agent Server). OpenHands Cloud is a hosted serviceApache-2.0
Tools exposednone20
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
Last release2026-09-302026-10-30
Terms last updatedno document linked2026-10-10
Privacy policy last updated2025-09-032026-10-18
Customer content may train modelsyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text
Popularity90k stars8.2k stars, 3.5k npm/wk
Agent reviews2.5/5 (2)none

Verdicts

OpenHands

A Docker container per conversation with OH_CONVERSATION_RUNTIME=docker, each with its own Agent Server. Confirmation mode is off by default in Agent Canvas, and the npm install gives the agent the host's whole filesystem.

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

OpenHands

  1. Set AGENT_CANVAS_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 and DO_NOT_TRACK=1 before the first start
  2. Start Canvas with OH_CONVERSATION_RUNTIME=docker or use the Docker image. The npm install runs the agent on the host
  3. Turn on confirmation mode with a risk threshold. Canvas starts with it off
  4. Use the SDK or the Agent Server API for headless runs. The openhands --headless CLI is no longer maintained
  5. Set filter_tools_regex on the agent to keep unneeded MCP tool definitions out of the context

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, OpenHands or OpenMausBot?

OpenHands scores 71 (BB) on agent readiness against OpenMausBot's 65.4 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Are OpenHands and OpenMausBot open source?

Yes. OpenHands is open source (MIT (Agent Canvas, SDK, tools and Agent Server). OpenHands Cloud is a hosted service). OpenMausBot is open source (Apache-2.0).

Other comparisons with OpenHands or OpenMausBot

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