# Paseo vs Prime Agent

> Paseo scores 62.1 (B) to Prime Agent's 56.8 (C) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paseo-vs-prime-agent
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paseo-vs-prime-agent.md (~5,250 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

Paseo scores 62.1 (B) on agent readiness against Prime Agent's 56.8 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Prime Agent leads on reliability. Both do agent harnesses.

- Paseo: grade B, 62.1/100, rank #577 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/paseo.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/paseo.json
- Prime Agent: grade C, 56.8/100, rank #820 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/prime-agent.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/prime-agent.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 1500 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Paseo (B)

Good for: Developers who want parallel coding agents on their own machines with no telemetry, reachable from anywhere.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 65 against 45
- Security & auth, 58 against 50

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Prime Agent loses 3 points for them

Watch for: Pre-1.0, at 0.15.3

### Prime Agent (C)

Good for: Long-running research and coding work where one model drives subagents, schedules and goals from code, and where the owner can isolate the machine.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 58 against 50

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No approval prompts and no sandbox. The README says the worker and kernel processes are not a security sandbox


## Why the edge

### Schema & documentation: Paseo +20

- Paseo (65): Harness reading. Public docs, a CLI and plugin examples in the repository (65).
- Prime Agent (45): Harness reading of the framework line. `--mode json` emits a session event stream and `rpc` and `acp` modes exist, but we found no published schema or reference for them outside the source (10). docs.primeintellect.ai serves an llms.txt that still had no Prime Agent page on 3 November 2026 (0). The README states what the agent does, how it differs and that it is not a sandbox, and the bundled skills say when to use each function (10). CLI values are validated with messages that list the valid choices, and MCP tool schemas are read live from the server (7). The README gives the install line and the main commands, the repository's docs folder adds Slack and Google Workspace MCP connector guides, and the MCP skill documents its error types, but there is no headless or configuration guide (5). Versioned stable releases and, since 0.10.1 on 21 October 2026, a dated CHANGELOG.md in the repository. 0.10.0 has no entry and the nightly betas have none of substance (13). 10 + 0 + 10 + 7 + 5 + 13 = 45.

### Reliability: Prime Agent +8

- 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.
- Prime Agent (58): Read with the local-software lines. The installer's stable channel now points at v0.10.2 (28 October 2026), the Rust build, with checksummed binaries for macOS and Linux on x64 and arm64 and for Windows x64, read from the channel manifest on 3 November 2026 (20). A public CI workflow runs fmt, clippy with warnings as errors, sharded workspace tests and cargo-deny on main. Its badge read passing on 8 October, but GitHub's pages answered 403 on 3 November, so the current pass state is unread (15). 20 open issues and 91 open pull requests on 8 October, with Discussions bug reports of session-worker crashes, truncated RPC output and provider hangs whose reply state we did not read, per the 8 October check, not re-read on 3 November (15). A dated CHANGELOG.md now covers 0.10.1 (21 October) and 0.10.2 (28 October), and 0.10.1 records the removal of the `--tools` flags, but no entry is marked breaking, 0.10.0 (9 October) has no entry and the project is at 0.x (8). Version 0.10.2, pre-1.0 (0). 20 + 15 + 15 + 8 + 0 = 58.

### Security & auth: Paseo +8

- 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.
- Prime Agent (50): 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. Usage telemetry is on by default. It is pseudonymous, limited to primitive values with no prompts, tool content or file paths per the source, disclosed on first run and mirrored to a local `telemetry.jsonl` (18). No approval prompts were found and there is no sandbox, which the README states. MCP tools can be limited with `enabledTools` and `disabledTools`, and the agent is told to recommend a connection, not make one (4). The README tells users to work only with trusted repositories, instructions and skills. No detection or mitigation found (5). Append-only JSONL session files, a `prime-agent incident` timeline command and the local telemetry mirror (12). The vendor's security policy has a reporting address, safe harbour, response times and discretionary rewards, scoped to its website and API. The repository has no SECURITY.md and no published advisories, CONTRIBUTING.md says to report privately without naming an address, and security.txt returned 404. security.txt still returned 404 on 3 November 2026 and the policy page (updated 6 May 2026) is unchanged. Fixes to the agent's own flaws ship in releases with no advisory (see negative). cargo-deny runs in CI (11). 18 + 4 + 5 + 12 + 11 = 50.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Paseo | Prime Agent | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 58 | Prime Agent +8 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 45 | Paseo +20 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 73 | Prime Agent +3 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 58 | 50 | Paseo +8 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 79 | Prime Agent +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 68 | 67 | Paseo +1 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **62.1 · B** | **56.8 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Paseo | Prime Agent |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Mohamed Boudra | Prime Intellect |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-11-07 | 2026-10-28 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | yes |
| Popularity | none | 22k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.8/5 (4) |

## How the scores have moved

### Paseo

No score change since it was listed.

### Prime Agent

- -3.9 on 3 November 2026: product, correction, negative event
- +0.2 on 28 October 2026: new evidence
- no change on 27 October 2026: checklist

## Verdicts

**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.

**Prime Agent.** Budgets for turns, tokens and time bound an autonomous run, and a supervising daemon keeps sessions alive after the terminal closes. Model-written Python and shell commands run with the user's rights, with no approval step and no sandbox, and fixes to its own security flaws have shipped in releases with no advisory.

## Before you call either

### Paseo

1. Run the daemon on the machine that has your tools and credentials, and connect from the clients
2. Script runs from the CLI for repeatable agent jobs

### Prime Agent

1. Run it in a disposable clone, container or VM. It executes model-written Python and shell commands with the user's rights and asks nothing first
2. Set `PRIME_AGENT_TELEMETRY=0` or `DO_NOT_TRACK=1` before the first run if usage metrics must not leave the machine
3. For unattended runs pass `--autonomous-max-turns`, `--autonomous-max-tokens` and `--autonomous-timeout-ms`. Reaching a limit does not mean the task succeeded
4. Headless use is `-p` with `--mode json` per the argument parser. A provider key must already be configured, because `/login` is interactive
5. The `-t/--tools`, `-nt/--no-tools` and `-nbt/--no-builtin-tools` flags were removed and now fail as unknown options

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Paseo or Prime Agent?

Paseo scores 62.1 (B) on agent readiness against Prime Agent's 56.8 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Prime Agent leads on reliability.

### Are Paseo and Prime Agent open source?

Yes. Paseo is open source (Apache-2.0). Prime Agent is open source (MIT).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paseo-vs-prime-agent.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paseo-vs-prime-agent.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "paseo", "b": "prime-agent"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare paseo prime-agent`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/paseo.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/prime-agent.json

## Other comparisons with Paseo or Prime Agent

- [Agent Zero vs Paseo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-paseo.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Aider vs Paseo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-paseo.md)
- [Aider vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Amp vs Paseo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-paseo.md)
- [Amp vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs Paseo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-paseo.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Auggie CLI vs Paseo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/auggie-vs-paseo.md)
- [Auggie CLI vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/auggie-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [AXLR vs Paseo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axlr-vs-paseo.md)
- [AXLR vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axlr-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Claude Code vs Paseo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-paseo.md)
- [Claude Code vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Cline vs Paseo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-paseo.md)
- [Cline vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Conductor vs Paseo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-paseo.md)
- [Conductor vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/conductor-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Crush vs Paseo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-paseo.md)
- [Crush vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Paseo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-paseo.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs Paseo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-harness-vs-paseo.md)
- [DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-harness-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [dsh-superagent (DeepSeek) vs Paseo](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-superagent-vs-paseo.md)
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- [Devin vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/devin-vs-prime-agent.md)
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---

Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp