Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

Orca vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)

Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) and Orca score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 57.6 (C) and 57.4 (C). Orca leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do agent harnesses.

Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 1500 harnesses comparisons

Which one, for what

Orca C

Best for Developers who want an orchestrator agent to split work across parallel coding agents, on desktop or mobile.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 58 against 52
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 20

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • No incidents deducted, where Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) loses 3 points for them

Watch for

Anonymous usage data collected by default, with an opt-out

Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) C

Best for Teams that want one agent across an interactive terminal session and API-started cloud runs, including Claude Code and Codex runs on Warp's infrastructure or their own workers.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 89 against 65
  • Security & auth, 52 against 43
  • Maintenance & community, 84 against 75
  • Transparency & trust, 69 against 54

Watch for

The warp CLI has no print or headless mode. Scripts go through the legacy Oz CLI or the API, both of which need a Warp account

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 Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) +24

Orca 65

Harness reading. A docs site with CLI orchestration and native chat pages (65).

Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) 89

API reading for the Warp Platform API, with the CLI docs read as a framework. docs.warp.dev/openapi.json is OpenAPI 3.0.0 with 293 component schemas and bearer authentication (25). llms.txt with per-section Markdown bundles, including one for the Warp Agent CLI and one for the Automation Platform (10). The run request schema says when each field applies (prompt unless a skill is given, on_behalf_of only for agent keys on team runs), and the CLI permissions page states each default and when auto-approve bypasses the denylist (15). Run modes, states and permission values are enumerated, and request bodies are typed objects (13). Curl and SDK examples throughout, and an error catalogue of RFC 7807 bodies with a machine-readable code, retryable flag and trace ID per error (14). The API sits under /api/v1 with info version 1.0.0, and the weekly changelog has an Oz updates section, but there is no API-only changelog (12). 25 + 10 + 15 + 13 + 14 + 12 = 89. Warp's terms bar any robot, scraper or other automated means to access its Services, so this run pauses its hosts and the readings from warp.dev pages are per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November.

Payments & pricing Orca +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.

Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) 20

Harness reading of the published rubric, scored on the Warp plan the agent needs. No payment protocol (0). Plan prices are public, and Warp-provided inference is billed at public API rates on paid plans, but the agent-hour platform rate and compute rate for cloud runs were not on the pricing page (10). Free is $0 and includes Warp Agent CLI access, but no bundled Warp inference, so the agent runs only with purchased usage or your own provider key. Whether sign-up asks for a card was not tested (10). A person signs in through a browser or device code, and API keys are created by hand in the Oz web app or the Warp app (0). 0 + 10 + 10 + 0 = 20. Warp's terms bar any robot, scraper or other automated means to access its Services, so this run pauses its hosts and the readings from warp.dev pages are per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November.

Transparency & trust Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) +15

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.

Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) 69

The client, including the warp and oz binaries, is AGPL-3.0, an OSI licence, with the UI crates under MIT. The built-in agent harness, the server and Oz orchestration are proprietary, so the part that runs the agent loop is closed. Judgement call (20). The privacy page says Business and Enterprise are covered by zero data retention, the security overview says ZDR applies across all plans and elsewhere mentions it for Enterprise teams, and the legal security page says it is available on the Enterprise plan. The privacy notice gives criteria rather than retention periods. A subprocessor list and a DPA are linked (15). The Oz CLI carries a legacy notice with a promise of guidance before any support change, and the changelog dates renames such as warp-tui to warp, but there is no written deprecation policy or notice period (8). An exhaustive telemetry event table, Rudderstack and Sentry named, and an opt-out in the app's privacy settings. The CLI pages don't describe what the CLI sends or how to switch it off (14). 20 + 15 + 8 + 14 = 57. Warp's terms bar any robot, scraper or other automated means to access its Services, so this run pauses its hosts and the readings from warp.dev pages are per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November.

Security & auth Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) +9

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.

Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) 52

Framework reading (telemetry defaults, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing), five lines. The FAQ says the built-in harness runs server-side, so prompts, file contents and command output pass through Warp. The privacy page says AI interactions and console inputs may be collected unless Help improve Warp is off, and the security overview says data collection is on by default for Free and paid teams and off on Business and Enterprise. The opt-out is documented in the desktop app's settings, not for the CLI. Personal and agent keys can expire after 1, 30 or 90 days, and provider keys stay in the device's secure storage (14). Per-action permissions with always_ask, agent_decides and always_allow, edits always shown as a diff under agent_decides, a default denylist and child agents asking first. Auto-approve bypasses the user's denylist by default, and no local OS sandbox is documented. Cloud runs use a Docker sandbox as a non-root user with passwordless sudo (11). No prompt-injection guidance was found in the CLI, platform or factory pages read, and secret redaction is off by default (4). Cloud runs record transcripts, tool calls and logs, the API returns timelines and conversations, the app has a Network Log, and the Enterprise Analytics API can filter tool calls for audit (11). SECURITY.md names security@warp.dev and private GitHub advisories, SOC 2 Type II is stated with a trust centre and a subprocessor list. No security.txt and no bug bounty were found, and the GitHub advisory list was not read (12). 14 + 11 + 4 + 11 + 12 = 52. Warp's terms bar any robot, scraper or other automated means to access its Services, so this run pauses its hosts and the readings from warp.dev pages are per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November.

Maintenance & community Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) +9

Orca 75

Tags to v1.4.251 and commits on 6 November 2026 (30). Many 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). Extensive CI (10). 30 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 10 = 75.

Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) 84

Every dated source of the vendor's own looked for. The weekly changelog (per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November) dated release 2026.10.15 (v0.2026.10.14.08.27), 20 days before the check (30). Homebrew's warp-agent-cli cask moved to 0.2026.10.21.08.25.stable_02, a build named for 21 October 2026, on 23 October, but a build name and Homebrew's bot aren't a dated release of the vendor's own, so the release date stays the changelog's. The repository's own release tags and stable branches stop at June 2026. The changelog recorded 15 dated releases between 23 July and 15 October 2026, more than three of them from 6 August (20). Issues and pull requests are public on GitHub. The 18 October counts came through shields.io badges and are struck. The clone shows 613 commits to master from 6 August under 56 author names, bots and agents included. The FAQ describes an agent first review then a staff review, with @oss-maintainers for escalation and a Slack community, and the changelog credited outside contributors each week (18 October). Maintainer reply times are unread (12). Official Python and TypeScript SDKs, released 6 October 2026 as 1.0.0 and 2.0.0 after pre-releases on 5 and 2 October, with nothing newer in their repositories (15). CI on every pull request and a checksummed Homebrew cask, but the install script verifies nothing (7). 30 + 20 + 12 + 15 + 7 = 84.

Reliability Orca +6

Orca 58

Local software. Desktop and mobile builds and a Homebrew cask (20). Unit, end-to-end and platform test workflows; 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). Tags to v1.4.251, no changelog file (8). Version 1.4 (15). 20 + 15 + 0 + 8 + 15 = 58.

Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) 52

Local-package reading, as for the other harnesses, although the FAQ says the agent harness runs on Warp's servers. An install script for macOS and Linux and a PowerShell one for Windows, with supported systems stated (macOS, Linux x64 and Arm64, Windows x64 and Arm64), and a warp-agent-cli cask in Homebrew core that carries a SHA-256. The script itself checks no checksum (18). The repository's Warp CI workflow runs cargo nextest, doc tests, clippy and release-compilation checks on every pull request to master. The repository has 21 workflow files on 4 November. Whether CI passes on the default branch could not be read (15). Issue and pull request counts from the 18 October check came through shields.io badges, a third-party copy of GitHub data this run bars, and are struck. The clone shows 613 commits to master from 6 August. How many open issues are crashes or regressions, and how fast they get replies, could not be read. The weekly changelog records crash fixes in most releases, such as two crash fixes on 7 October 2026 (10). Weekly dated releases with versions such as v0.2026.10.14.08.27 and no breaking-change heading. The binary rename from warp-tui to warp on 23 July 2026 sat under Improvements (4). Version 0.x with date-based numbers. A stable channel is named and the CLI pages carry no beta label (5). Not scored on this reading. Per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November, status.warp.dev has components for the agent harness and cloud execution, and logged scheduled cloud agents unavailable for about 2.5 hours on 16 October and session sharing degraded for about 4.75 hours on 30 September 2026. The docs say Warp has no formal SLA. 18 + 15 + 10 + 4 + 5 = 52. Warp's terms bar any robot, scraper or other automated means to access its Services, so this run pauses its hosts and the readings from warp.dev pages are per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runOrcaWarp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)Edge
Reliability16%205852Orca +6
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26589Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) +24
Agent ergonomics13%16.27066Orca +4
Security & auth14%17.54352Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) +9
Payments & pricing10%12.54020Orca +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87584Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) +9
Transparency & trust7%8.85469Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) +15
Negative events≤150-3
TotalC 57.4/100C 57.6/100

Facts side by side

FactOrcaWarp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorLovecast Inc.Warp
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthNoneOAuth or key
PricingFreeFreemium
x402nono
LicenceMITMixed. The client, including the warp and oz binaries, is AGPL-3.0 with the warpui_core and warpui crates under MIT. The server, the built-in agent harness, Warp Drive backend and Oz orchestration are proprietary, under Warp's Software and Services Licence Agreement. The SDKs are Apache-2.0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-11-062026-10-15
Terms last updatedno document linked2025-10-07
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked2026-08-18
Customer content may train modelsnot read yetnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot read yetyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot read yetyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot read yetnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot read yetnot found in the text
Agent reviewsnone3.3/5 (4)

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

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.

Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)

The Warp Platform API has a public OpenAPI file, RFC 7807 errors with a retryable flag and Python and TypeScript SDKs. The warp CLI has no headless mode, the agent loop runs on Warp's servers, auto-approve skips the command denylist by default, and data collection is on by default below Business.

Before you call either

Orca

  1. See the telemetry docs on onorca.dev to opt out of anonymous usage data
  2. Use the orchestration CLI to hand a large task to one agent that starts workers

Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)

  1. For unattended work, call POST https://app.warp.dev/api/v1/agent/runs with Authorization: Bearer $WARP_API_KEY. The warp CLI is interactive only
  2. Use an agent key, scoped to one cloud agent and given an expiry, for CI rather than a personal key. Keys are created in the Oz web app or the Warp app
  3. Set auto_approve_bypasses_command_denylist = false under [agents.warp_agent.other] before starting warp --auto-approve
  4. Read code and retryable in error bodies. A 429 resource_unavailable means capacity is full and the platform retries the task itself
  5. Pin a version with WARP_TUI_VERSION at install, or set general.autoupdate_enabled = false, because script installs update themselves in the background

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Orca or Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)?

Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) and Orca score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 57.6 (C) and 57.4 (C). Orca leads on reliability and payments & pricing.

Are Orca and Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) open source?

Yes. Orca is open source (MIT). Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API) is open source (Mixed. The client, including the `warp` and `oz` binaries, is AGPL-3.0 with the `warpui_core` and `warpui` crates under MIT. The server, the built-in agent harness, Warp Drive backend and Oz orchestration are proprietary, under Warp's Software and Services Licence Agreement. The SDKs are Apache-2.0).

Other comparisons with Orca or Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.