Head to head · Multi-agent orchestration · October 2026 research run
OpenMausBot vs Orca
OpenMausBot scores 65.4 (B) on agent readiness against Orca's 57.4 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do multi-agent orchestration.
Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 1500 harnesses comparisons
Which one, for what
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.
Ahead on
- Schema & documentation, 90 against 65
- Agent ergonomics, 77 against 70
- Security & auth, 59 against 43
- Payments & pricing, 50 against 40
- Transparency & trust, 59 against 54
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
Orca C
Best for Developers who want an orchestrator agent to split work across parallel coding agents, on desktop or mobile.
Also in its favour
- No key needed to call it
Watch for
Anonymous usage data collected by default, with an opt-out
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 OpenMausBot +25
OpenMausBot 90
The MCP server's 20 tools each have a JSON Schema input with additionalProperties: false and required fields marked. No OpenAPI for the local HTTP API (25). Markdown docs in the repository, and the docs app's source serves llms.txt, llms-full.txt and Markdown routes. docs.openmausbot.com disallows every crawler, so the live llms.txt was not read (10). Descriptions state purpose and limits, such as that update_bot_profile cannot alter permissions, that send_bot_message may make the bot use external tools and that edit_bot_message is refused while a thread works, and the server instructions say to read before mutating. Few say when not to use a tool (15). Integer limits with minimum and maximum, an enum on scope, a pattern on send_id and oneOf shapes for responders (13). JSON configuration examples for each install path, the wait statuses and job states, CLI exit codes and a { ok, error, hint, exitCode } failure shape (12). MCP server version 1.1.0, release notes per version and a changelog page in the docs (15).
Orca 65
Harness reading. A docs site with CLI orchestration and native chat pages (65).
Security & auth OpenMausBot +16
OpenMausBot 59
Harness reading of the framework checklist, as for the other harnesses. 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. The harness binds to loopback and keys stay in ~/.openmausbot, but PostHog usage analytics are on until switched off, with a daily snapshot of what is set up, and the CLI guide says API keys are saved in plaintext with mode 0600 (18). Approval cards for provider permission requests, a narrow Always allow, isolated Local VMs and cloud computers, own-computer control off by default, and an MCP server that cannot approve, delete or touch credentials. New bots start at Full access, bot changes to skills, profiles and team setup apply without approval, and new bots keep every connected-app tool until grants are assigned (10). The docs say web page instructions never authorise credential use and that one-time codes go only to the site that sent them, and imported bots arrive with no grants, but bots read one-time codes from connected email without asking again (9). Per-thread NDJSON event logs, an Inspector, a decision log for connected-app grants and Undo lines for bot changes (12). SECURITY.md with an email, GitHub private vulnerability reporting enabled and scope notes that name one open risk. No published advisories, security.txt or bug bounty. npm releases use trusted publishing with provenance, and the Windows installer is unsigned (10).
Orca 43
Harness reading. Anonymous usage data with an opt-out, per the README's link to its telemetry docs (15 of 30). Worktrees per agent and a sandboxed Linux build (12 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance (5). No audit log (5). A dependency-security workflow (6 of 20). 15 + 12 + 5 + 5 + 6 = 43.
Payments & pricing OpenMausBot +10
OpenMausBot 50
No payment protocol (0). MausBot Cloud, the hosted option, is priced by plan on a public page ($15, $49 and $99 a month, Team $169 and Business $599, or Business self-hosted $299 a month billed yearly, re-read on 2 November), with extra computer-hours at $0.05 each, so plan pricing (10). The app is free with no card or account (20). npx openmausbot installs and starts it with no signup (20).
Orca 40
Scored on the cloud option. No protocol (0). The cloud price wasn't found on the pages read (0). The desktop app is free and MIT with no card (20). The local app needs no sign-up that we found (20). 0 + 0 + 20 + 20 = 40.
Agent ergonomics OpenMausBot +7
OpenMausBot 77
20 tools, inside the 11 to 30 band, with annotations that separate reads from writes but no toolsets or read-only mode to load. Transcript reads are bounded and never return screenshot pixels (17). limit up to 200 messages, search capped at 100 hits, task_id and scope filters, and since_ms and after_version to keep watching a job (17). wait_for_conversation reports settled, needs-user, failed, stalled or timed-out with a redacted transcript tail, and the CLI's exit codes separate a pending approval from a timeout. We did not read every MCP error path (15). send_id makes a repeated send return the first receipt, wait is held by the server rather than polled, and every tool carries readOnlyHint, destructiveHint, idempotentHint and openWorldHint (20). Few required parameters and defaults for task, limit and timeout. The server answers only while the app or openmausbot serve runs, mutating tools need a paired token in packaged builds, and there is no client SDK beyond the CLI (8).
Orca 70
Harness reading. An orchestrator agent that splits work across workers in their own workspaces, chat or raw CLI, a browser and a CLI in one app (70).
Transparency & trust OpenMausBot +5
OpenMausBot 59
Apache 2.0 outside enterprise/, which is source-available and needs a licence key in production. Deleting the folder leaves the open-source edition, and a CI job builds it (27). The privacy policy of 18 October 2026 (re-read on 2 November, unchanged) names Supamaus Software Private Limited and separates the local apps from the optional hosted service, but it says the apps contain no third-party analytics SDKs while the app loads posthog-js by default, and hosted account data is kept while needed with no period stated (12). No deprecation policy. Dated release notes, and older installers kept in a legacy releases repository (4). docs/analytics.md lists every event and property and how to switch it off, but analytics are on by default and the privacy policy does not mention them for the apps (14).
Orca 54
MIT (30). Privacy and telemetry docs on the site (not read) (18 of 30). No deprecation policy (5). Disclosed with an opt-out (15 of 20). 30 + 18 + 5 + 15 = 68.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | OpenMausBot | Orca | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 60 | 58 | OpenMausBot +2 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 90 | 65 | OpenMausBot +25 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 77 | 70 | OpenMausBot +7 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 59 | 43 | OpenMausBot +16 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 50 | 40 | OpenMausBot +10 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 74 | 75 | Orca +1 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 59 | 54 | OpenMausBot +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -2 | 0 | |
| Total | B 65.4/100 | C 57.4/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | OpenMausBot | Orca |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Supamaus Software Private Limited | Lovecast Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | stdio | |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 20 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-11-01 | 2026-11-06 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-10 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-18 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Popularity | 8.2k stars, 3.5k npm/wk | none |
Verdicts
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.
Orca
An open-source orchestrator for coding agents with worker agents in their own worktrees, chat and terminal views, a browser and a CLI, on desktop and mobile, with heavy test automation. It collects anonymous usage data by default, and the cloud option's pricing wasn't found.
Before you call either
OpenMausBot
- Ask the owner for a pairing code from Settings > Phone, exchange it at
POST /api/auth/pair, and setOPENMAUSBOT_TOKENwith an explicitOMB_PORT - Pass a
send_idwith everysend_bot_messageandsend_channel_message, so a retry returns the first receipt - Use
wait_for_conversationinstead of polling, and onneeds-userstop and tell the owner a card is waiting - Check a bot's access level with the owner before sending work. New bots run at Full access unless defaults were changed
- Ask the owner to switch off Settings > General > Usage analytics if nothing beyond model calls should leave the machine
Orca
- See the telemetry docs on onorca.dev to opt out of anonymous usage data
- Use the orchestration CLI to hand a large task to one agent that starts workers
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, OpenMausBot or Orca?
OpenMausBot scores 65.4 (B) on agent readiness against Orca's 57.4 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.
Are OpenMausBot and Orca open source?
Yes. OpenMausBot is open source (Apache-2.0). Orca is open source (MIT).
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/openmausbot-vs-orca.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/openmausbot.json·/api/v1/tools/orca.json - From a terminal
anchor compare openmausbot orca(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "openmausbot", "b": "orca"}at/mcp, no key