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Head to head · Assistants reached by message · October 2026 research run

PicoClaw vs szn

PicoClaw scores 46.1 (D) on agent readiness against szn's 7.3 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do assistants reached by message.

Best AI personal assistants that act for one person · All 834 assistants comparisons

PicoClawSipeed · Agent harness D46.1/100#883 of 1010 sznNomadic Futures · Platform F7.3/100#1010 of 1010

Which one, for what

PicoClaw D

Best for A person who wants a chat-app assistant on a cheap Linux board, an old Android phone or a home server, with reminders, web search and file memory, and who accepts running software its maker calls pre-production.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 54 against 5
  • Schema & documentation, 51 against 10
  • Agent ergonomics, 66 against 0
  • Security & auth, 51 against 0
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 22 against 2
  • Transparency & trust, 56 against 23

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Free to start without a card
  • Open source

Watch for

No commit on main since 19 August 2026 and no release since v0.3.1 on 3 July 2026. An issue of 6 October calls the repository unmaintained, with no reply

szn F

Best for A person who wants calls, emails and bookings done for them and has an access code.

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where PicoClaw loses 7 points for them

Watch for

Early access by access code only.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runPicoClawsznEdge
Reliability16%20545PicoClaw +49
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.25110PicoClaw +41
Agent ergonomics13%16.2660PicoClaw +66
Security & auth14%17.5510PicoClaw +51
Payments & pricing10%12.56020PicoClaw +40
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8222PicoClaw +20
Transparency & trust7%8.85623PicoClaw +33
Negative events≤15-70
TotalD 46.1/100F 7.3/100

Facts side by side

FactPicoClawszn
KindAgent harnessPlatform
VendorSipeedNomadic Futures
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthNoneOAuth or key
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceMITClosed service. No terms of service were found on theszn.ai. A privacy policy and an acceptable use policy (both last updated March 2026) apply.
Read-only variant documentednoyes
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-07-03none
Terms last updatedno document linkedno document linked
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked
Customer content may train models
Terms restrict automated access
Terms restrict benchmarking
Terms or service can change without notice
Arbitration or class-action waiver
Popularity30k starsnone

Verdicts

PicoClaw

Self-hosted under the MIT licence, with 19 documented chat channels, scheduled and heartbeat tasks, and local file memory. The repository has had no commit since 19 August 2026 and no release since 3 July, and 15 CVEs are listed against it with no advisory or security policy from the project.

szn

szn is an errand assistant in early access that makes calls, sends emails and books for its owner, free during the preview for people with an access code. No outside agent can call it, no terms of service or legal entity appear in its policies, and its privacy policy says nothing on training.

Before you call either

PicoClaw

  1. Set allow_from to the owner's user ID on every channel before starting the gateway. An empty list accepts messages from anyone
  2. Set tools.exec.allow_remote to false unless chats must run shell commands. The shipped default is true, whatever docs/guides/configuration.md says
  3. Set isolation.enabled to true on Linux (needs bwrap) or run in a container. The deny patterns do not inspect child processes
  4. Use PICOCLAW_KEY_PASSPHRASE for credential encryption. One docs page names PICOCLAW_CREDENTIAL_PASSPHRASE, which the source does not read
  5. Treat the README's ClawdChat line (read a remote skill file and follow it) as untrusted third-party instructions

szn

  1. Don't plan to call szn from another agent. It answers only its web app, iMessage, SMS and email for the owner.
  2. Tell the owner they need an access code to start, and that the acceptable use policy makes them responsible for confirming actions.

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, PicoClaw or szn?

PicoClaw scores 46.1 (D) on agent readiness against szn's 7.3 (F), and leads in every scored category.

Are PicoClaw and szn open source?

PicoClaw is open source (MIT). No open-source release is listed for szn.

Other comparisons with PicoClaw or szn

Disclosure

szn competes with LocalGhost, which Anchor Terminal's founder builds. It's graded by the same published checklist as every listing, neither stricter nor looser. Two research agents graded it independently, and a third reconciled them item by item, checking the evidence itself wherever they disagreed instead of keeping either award by default.

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