Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run
Qwen Code vs Sculptor
Qwen Code scores 68.7 (B) on agent readiness against Sculptor's 53.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent harnesses.
Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 1500 harnesses comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for Developers and CI jobs that want an open-source harness tied to no single model vendor, with run budgets and SDKs.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 69 against 43
- Schema & documentation, 91 against 45
- Agent ergonomics, 85 against 50
- Maintenance & community, 88 against 75
- Transparency & trust, 66 against 57
Also in its favour
- Free to start without a card
Watch for
The default approval mode is Auto, where an LLM classifier approves tool calls, and sandboxing and folder trust are both off by default
Sculptor D
Best for Developers who want parallel coding agents in isolated workspaces and are fine with a research preview.
Also in its favour
- No key needed to call it
- No incidents deducted, where Qwen Code loses 4 points for them
Watch for
Labelled an experimental research preview that may change drastically
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 Qwen Code +46
Qwen Code 91
Framework reading. A settings.schema.json in the repository, a settings reference with the type and default of each key, and an OpenAPI file for the daemon's REST API (25). llms.txt on the docs site lists the pages with a line each, though it links to HTML and the Markdown path we tried returned 404 (8). The approval-mode page says when to use each mode and the sandbox page what each method and Seatbelt profile allows (15). Approval modes, sandbox backends, filesystem and network policies are enums (13). The headless page documents json and stream-json output, and exit codes 41, 42, 44, 52, 53, 55 and 130 are documented (15). A dated changelog generated from releases (15).
Sculptor 45
Harness reading. A README, specs and agent docs in the repository; no API reference (45).
Agent ergonomics Qwen Code +35
Qwen Code 85
Framework reading, adapted to a harness driven by a pipeline. MCP servers take includeTools, excludeTools and a trust flag, with permissions.allow, ask and deny rules and --exclude-tools (20). Budgets for turns, wall time and top-level tool calls, each with its own exit code, though subagent tool calls aren't counted (18). Documented exit codes (18). --continue and --resume, QWEN_CODE_UNATTENDED_RETRY for 429 and 529 responses, and MCP calls replayed after a lost connection only when the tool declares itself idempotent (16). A TypeScript SDK on npm at 0.1.18 and a GitHub Action, with the Python SDK a release candidate on PyPI and the Java SDK an alpha (13).
Sculptor 50
Harness reading. Workspaces as isolated copies, review and merge back, and built-in skills (50).
Reliability Qwen Code +26
Qwen Code 69
Local-package reading. npm with engines node 22 or newer (re-read in package.json at 0.26.5), Homebrew at 0.26.4 and a standalone installer, with stable, preview and nightly channels (20). Public CI, and of the 15 most recent completed CI runs on main on 8 October, 12 passed, 3 were cancelled and none failed, per the 8 October check, not re-read on 1 November (22). 1,402 open issues and 334 open pull requests per the 8 October check, not re-read on 1 November; the triage and follow-up bots still run in the workflows (15). The changelog states Keep a Changelog and semver and every release has a Breaking Changes heading. Breaking changes shipped in patch releases 0.23.4 and 0.24.1, and again in 0.26.1 (24 October, QQ bot session isolation) and 0.26.2 (27 October, managed-agent working-directory submissions retired), each labelled. All are 0.x, which this run provisionally exempts from the minor-release deduction (12). 0.26.5, pre-1.0 (0). 20 + 22 + 15 + 12 + 0 = 69.
Sculptor 43
Local software. Desktop downloads for Mac (Apple Silicon), Linux and Linux ARM64 (20). checks.yml and a PR gate run 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). sculptor-v tags up to v0.49.0, no changelog file (8). 0.x and labelled a research preview (0). 20 + 15 + 0 + 8 + 0 = 43.
Maintenance & community Qwen Code +13
Qwen Code 88
0.26.5 on 1 November 2026 (30). 39 stable releases from 3 August to 1 November (v0.21.4 to v0.26.5), plus previews and nightlies (20). Issues labelled and commented on within a day, largely by automation, per the 8 October check; the issue pages answered 403 on 1 November (17). The TypeScript SDK reached 0.1.26 on 29 October, while the Python SDK's newest tag is still sdk-python-v0.1.0-preview.0 (9 May 2026) and the Java SDK is an alpha (11). CI, CodeQL, a monthly scorecard and Dependabot (10). 30 + 20 + 17 + 11 + 10 = 88.
Sculptor 75
Commits on 6 November 2026 and frequent tagged versions (30). More than three 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; the README says Imbue can't take many outside contributions yet (0). Current official downloads (15). CI on pull requests (10). 30 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 10 = 75.
Transparency & trust Qwen Code +9
Qwen Code 66
Apache-2.0 (30). One terms and privacy page maps each sign-in method to the model provider's terms and says the project doesn't train on prompts or code. Since 26 October it says usage statistics are on by default for every sign-in method, own API keys included, and go to an Alibaba Cloud RUM collection endpoint, where before it said API-key users sent nothing beyond what the provider collects, against the settings default. It still gives no retention period and names no legal entity (20, was 18). The end of the Qwen OAuth free tier is dated 15 April 2026 and tools.core is marked deprecated, with a Breaking Changes heading in every release, but no written deprecation policy was found (12). Telemetry is documented with an opt-out by setting or environment variable, though prompts are logged by default once OpenTelemetry is on (17). 30 + 20 + 12 + 17 = 79.
Sculptor 57
MIT (30). Consent-based telemetry documented in the repository (18 of 30). The README warns of drastic changes during the research preview, with no deprecation policy (5). Opt-in telemetry (20). 30 + 18 + 5 + 20 = 73.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Qwen Code | Sculptor | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 69 | 43 | Qwen Code +26 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 91 | 45 | Qwen Code +46 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 85 | 50 | Qwen Code +35 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 53 | 57 | Sculptor +4 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 88 | 75 | Qwen Code +13 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 66 | 57 | Qwen Code +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -4 | 0 | |
| Total | B 68.7/100 | D 53.1/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Qwen Code | Sculptor |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Alibaba (Qwen team) | Imbue, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-11-01 | 2026-11-06 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-01 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-01 | 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 | 28k stars, 105k npm/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 2.8/5 (4) | none |
How the scores have moved
Verdicts
Qwen Code
Apache-2.0 with no account of its own, any OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini-compatible endpoint, and headless runs bounded by turn, tool-call and wall-time budgets with distinct exit codes. Out of the box, Auto mode lets an LLM classifier approve tool calls, with the sandbox and folder trust both off. Security fixes ship as changelog lines without advisories.
Sculptor
Imbue's open-source app for parallel coding agents in isolated workspaces, with telemetry off until you choose otherwise. It's an experimental research preview that warns of bugs and drastic changes, Mac and Linux only, with no changelog.
Before you call either
Qwen Code
- Pass
--approval-modeon every run. The settings default isauto, and one docs page says headless runs default to asking, so don't rely on either - Add
--max-session-turns,--max-wall-timeand--max-tool-calls. All three are unlimited by default. Exit 53 is the turn limit and 55 a budget --yolodoesn't turn on a sandbox. Add--sandbox, or on Linux settools.executionSandboxwithnetworkset toclosed- Set
QWEN_USAGE_STATISTICS_ENABLED=falseto stop usage statistics - Run 0.26.2 or later before using
qwen servein a cloned repository. Earlier versions let the repository's.envset the daemon token
Sculptor
- Download from the README's links, connect a repository and create a workspace before prompting
- Review the diff before merging a workspace back to main
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Qwen Code or Sculptor?
Qwen Code scores 68.7 (B) on agent readiness against Sculptor's 53.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.
Are Qwen Code and Sculptor open source?
Yes. Qwen Code is open source (Apache-2.0). Sculptor is open source (MIT).
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/qwen-code-vs-sculptor.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/qwen-code.json·/api/v1/tools/sculptor.json - From a terminal
anchor compare qwen-code sculptor(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "qwen-code", "b": "sculptor"}at/mcp, no key