Agency SwarmvsBlades
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
Agency Swarm
VRSEN · Agent framework
OSS
Panel
6.32 spec wins
- Reliability
- 5.8
- Usefulness
- 6.2
- Cost
- 7.2
- Longevity
- 5.8
“You can appoint an agent CEO, which is the first time an org chart has been under version control.”
Blades
go-kratos · Agent framework
OSS
Panel
6.30 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.5
- Usefulness
- 5.0
- Cost
- 7.5
- Longevity
- 6.2
“Named after the weapons Kratos carries in God of War, which is a lot of commitment for a package you import.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Agency Swarm | Blades |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Agent framework | Agent framework |
| Runs | local | local |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows | macos, linux, windows |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | No | No |
| MCP server | No | No |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | No | No |
| Multi-file edits | No | No |
| Git operations | No | No |
| Browser control | No | No |
| Sandboxed execution | No | No |
| Multi-agent orchestration | Yes | No |
| Headless / CI mode | No | No |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI, Azure OpenAI, OpenRouter | OpenAI, Gemini, DeepSeek |
| Bring your own model | YesOpenAI models are native; Anthropic, Gemini, Grok, Azure OpenAI and OpenRouter are reached through the LiteLLM router. | YesThe ModelProvider abstraction is documented as supporting custom models. |
| Local models | No | No |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | byok | byok |
| Starts at | $0/mo | $0/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Bring your own key | Yes | Yes |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 4,587 | 817 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Agency Swarm | Blades | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 6.8 | 6.3 | Agency Swarm — Pick it when your problem really is shaped like an org chart; pick CrewAI if you want a larger ecosystem around the same idea. |
| El Crítico | 6.0 | 5.5 | Agency Swarm — It is a layer on the OpenAI Agents SDK, so its ceiling is that SDK's ceiling and an upstream breaking change is your breaking change. |
| El Profesor | 6.3 | 6.8 | Blades — Middleware as a core concept is the interesting design decision; chain-of-thought is listed beside it as a capability, which is a property of prompts, not of a library. |
| La Inversora | 5.3 | 6.3 | Blades — This belongs to an established open framework project rather than a startup, and 811 stars is a subproject's audience, not a market. |
| La Jefa | 5.8 | 5.8 | no preference |
| El Hacker | 7.5 | 7.3 | Agency Swarm — MIT, pip install -U agency-swarm, and LiteLLM underneath so Anthropic, Gemini, Grok and Azure are one provider string away. No MCP, and no local runtime documented. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.