Head to head · Multi-agent orchestration · October 2026 research run
Paperclip vs Paseo
Paseo scores 62.1 (B) on agent readiness against Paperclip's 52.6 (D), and leads in 1 of 7 scored categories. Paperclip leads on reliability, schema & documentation and security & auth. Both do multi-agent orchestration.
Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 1500 harnesses comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for Someone running several coding or operations agents who wants one place for tasks, budgets, approvals and history across harnesses.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 59 against 50
- Schema & documentation, 81 against 65
- Security & auth, 64 against 58
Also in its favour
- Free to start without a card
Watch for
claude_local defaults dangerouslySkipPermissions to true and codex_local defaults to bypassing approvals and the sandbox, with agents running on the host
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
- No incidents deducted, where Paperclip loses 15 points for them
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 Paperclip +16
Paperclip 81
The running server publishes OpenAPI at /api/openapi.json and validates requests with Zod, and the MCP server's tools take Zod schemas. No copy of the spec is published on the docs site, and paperclip.ing/openapi.json describes only the website (22). llms.txt at paperclip.ing, and docs pages answer as Markdown at .md (10). An API reference page per resource and task guides, but the MCP tool descriptions are one line each, such as List agents in a company (13). Typed inputs throughout, apart from the paperclipApiRequest tool, which takes any path under /api and a JSON body (12). cURL, JavaScript and Python examples and a status-code table, with one {error} shape and an occasional details field (12). A changelog page for every stable release and release notes in the repository, but the API path carries no version (12).
Paseo 65
Harness reading. Public docs, a CLI and plugin examples in the repository (65).
Reliability Paperclip +9
Paperclip 59
Read as local software. Official npm package paperclipai (Node.js 24.11 or newer) and a Docker image on GHCR (20). Public CI that runs the tests (pr-trusted.yml selects and runs the test shards, and e2e.yml runs the end-to-end suite), with the pass state on master unreadable on 4 November 2026 because GitHub's pages answer 403 here (15). Per the 8 October check, not re-read on 4 November, 2,849 open issues, 125 labelled bug, 1,599 opened before 8 July, and 78 closed in the last 30 days against 686 opened (6). Calendar versions in semver syntax, with a Breaking Changes section and an upgrade guide in release notes, but breaking changes arrive in ordinary releases and 2026.916.0 carried five (10). No 1.0. The npm latest tag is called the stable channel and follows a beta soak of at least three days, while the roadmap says the product is still moving quickly, so half credit (8). 20 + 15 + 6 + 10 + 8 = 59.
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.
Security & auth Paperclip +6
Paperclip 64
Harness reading of the framework checklist, as used 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. Anonymous usage telemetry is on by default and goes to telemetry.paperclip.ing. The README lists what is excluded and four opt-outs, and Sentry and OpenTelemetry stay off until configured. We found no first-run notice in the CLI source (18). Board approvals for hires and strategy, execution policies and per-action connection permissions, but claude_local defaults dangerouslySkipPermissions to true, codex_local defaults to bypassing approvals and the sandbox, local agents run on the host, sandbox providers are optional plugins and the default local_trusted mode has no login (10). A documented low_trust_review preset contains agents that read untrusted pull requests or tickets. It is opt-in (10). An activity log of mutating actions, run logs, cost events and audited board API keys (14). SECURITY.md with GitHub private reporting and twelve advisories published per the 8 October check, three now with CVEs in OSV. No security.txt, bug bounty or SOC 2 report found (12).
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.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Paperclip | Paseo | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 59 | 50 | Paperclip +9 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 81 | 65 | Paperclip +16 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 70 | 70 | even |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 64 | 58 | Paperclip +6 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 78 | 75 | Paperclip +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 66 | 68 | Paseo +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -15 | 0 | |
| Total | D 52.6/100 | B 62.1/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Paperclip | Paseo |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Paperclip Labs, Inc. | Mohamed Boudra |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-23 | 2026-11-07 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-07-23 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-07-23 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | 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 | yes | not read yet |
| Popularity | 99k stars, 60k npm/wk | none |
How the scores have moved
Paseo
No score change since it was listed.
Verdicts
Paperclip
Board approvals, budgets with a hard stop and an activity log sit above whichever harnesses do the work, with ten stable versions in 90 days. The Claude Code and Codex adapters skip permission prompts and the sandbox by default, twelve security advisories have appeared since April 2026, and a 24 October cross-company read fix is in no stable release.
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
Paperclip
- Set
PAPERCLIP_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1orDO_NOT_TRACK=1before the first start. Telemetry is on by default - Set
dangerouslySkipPermissionsanddangerouslyBypassApprovalsAndSandboxto false on agents that read untrusted input, or run them in a sandbox provider - Install with Node.js 24.11 or newer, and install and sign in to each harness CLI on the host first. Paperclip assumes they are there
- Use
--bind lanor--bind tailnetat onboarding for anything beyond one machine. The defaultlocal_trustedmode treats every request as the board admin - Treat 409 on task checkout as owned by another agent and pick different work. The API docs say not to retry
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, Paperclip or Paseo?
Paseo scores 62.1 (B) on agent readiness against Paperclip's 52.6 (D), and leads in 1 of 7 scored categories. Paperclip leads on reliability, schema & documentation and security & auth.
Are Paperclip and Paseo open source?
Yes. Paperclip is open source (MIT). Paseo is open source (Apache-2.0).
Other comparisons with Paperclip or Paseo
- Agent Zero vs Paseo
- Aider vs Paseo
- Amp vs Paseo
- Antigravity CLI vs Paseo
- Auggie CLI vs Paseo
- AXLR vs Paseo
- Claude Code vs Paseo
- Cline vs Paseo
- Conductor vs Paseo
- Crush vs Paseo
- Cursor CLI vs Paseo
- DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs Paseo
- dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) vs Paseo
- Devin vs Paseo
- Droid CLI vs Paseo
- Pi vs Paseo
- Emdash vs Paseo
- Gemini CLI vs Paseo
- GitHub Copilot CLI vs Paseo
- goose vs Paseo
- Harness² vs Paseo
- HarnessRouter vs Paseo
- Jules vs Paseo
- Junie CLI vs Paseo
- Kilo Code CLI vs Paseo
- Kimi Code CLI vs Paseo
- Kiro CLI vs Paseo
- Letta vs Paseo
- mini-swe-agent vs Paseo
- MiniMax Code vs Paseo
- Mistral Vibe CLI vs Paseo
- Muse Code vs Paseo
- OpenAI Agents API vs Paseo
- OpenAI Codex vs Paseo
- OpenCode vs Paseo
- OpenHands vs Paseo
- Orca vs Paseo
- Paseo vs Prime Agent
- Paseo vs Qoder CLI
- Paseo vs Qwen Code
- Paseo vs Mirror CLI
- Paseo vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Paseo vs Sculptor
- Paseo vs T3 Code
- Paseo vs Traycer
- Paseo vs Unstoppable
- Paseo vs Verdent
- Paseo vs Vibe-Trading
- Paseo vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)
- Amp vs Paperclip
- Antigravity CLI vs Paperclip
- Auggie CLI vs Paperclip
- AXLR vs Paperclip
- Claude Code vs Paperclip
- Clawboo vs Paperclip
- Clawboo vs Paseo
- CLI Manager vs Paperclip
- CLI Manager vs Paseo
- Cline vs Paperclip
- Conductor vs Paperclip
- Crush vs Paperclip
- DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs Paperclip
- dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) vs Paperclip
- Devin vs Paperclip
- Droid CLI vs Paperclip
- Emdash vs Paperclip
- Gemini CLI vs Paperclip
- GitHub Copilot CLI vs Paperclip
- goose vs Paperclip
- Harness vs Paperclip
- Harness vs Paseo
- HarnessRouter vs Paperclip
- Jules vs Paperclip
- Junie CLI vs Paperclip
- Kilo Code CLI vs Paperclip
- Kimi Code CLI vs Paperclip
- Kiro CLI vs Paperclip
- Letta vs Paperclip
- MiniMax Code vs Paperclip
- Mistral Vibe CLI vs Paperclip
- Muse Code vs Paperclip
- OpenCode vs Paperclip
- OpenHands vs Paperclip
- OpenMausBot vs Paperclip
- OpenMausBot vs Paseo
- Orca vs Paperclip
- Paperclip vs Parallax
- Paperclip vs Prime Agent
- Paperclip vs Qoder CLI
- Paperclip vs Qwen Code
- Paperclip vs Mirror CLI
- Paperclip vs Rovo Dev CLI
- Paperclip vs Sculptor
- Paperclip vs T3 Code
- Paperclip vs Traycer
- Paperclip vs Unstoppable
- Paperclip vs Verdent
- Paperclip vs Vibe-Trading
- Paperclip vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)
- Parallax vs Paseo
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/paperclip-vs-paseo.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/paperclip.json·/api/v1/tools/paseo.json - From a terminal
anchor compare paperclip paseo(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "paperclip", "b": "paseo"}at/mcp, no key