Agent Maestrovsherdr
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
Agent Maestro
Joouis · Agent harness
OSSMCP
Panel
6.35 spec wins
- Reliability
- 5.8
- Usefulness
- 6.0
- Cost
- 8.3
- Longevity
- 5.0
“Its hosted web-search tool is executed through Exa, so your editor now subcontracts curiosity.”
herdr
herdr · Agent harness
OSS
Panel
6.31 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.2
- Usefulness
- 5.7
- Cost
- 7.5
- Longevity
- 6.0
“A tmux for agents whose detach key is ctrl+b q, so twenty years of muscle memory finally counts as onboarding.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Agent Maestro | herdr |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Runs | local | local |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows | macos, linux, windows |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | Yes | No |
| MCP server | No | No |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | YesAgent Maestro is a control plane; command execution and file edits happen inside the Roo Code, Cline or CLI agent it drives. | Yes |
| Multi-file edits | Yes | No |
| Git operations | No | No |
| Browser control | No | No |
| Sandboxed execution | No | No |
| Multi-agent orchestration | YesUp to twenty concurrent Roo Code tasks can run at once. | Yes |
| Headless / CI mode | YesTasks are created and managed entirely through REST APIs, which the README calls headless AI agent control. | No |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, GitHub Copilot | Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, OpenCode, Grok |
| Bring your own model | Yes | No |
| Local models | No | No |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | byok | byok |
| Starts at | $0/mo | $0/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Bring your own key | Yes | No |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| GitHub stars | 206 | 41,859 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Agent Maestro | herdr | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 6.8 | 7.0 | herdr — Pick herdr if your Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or OpenCode sessions die when you close the laptop; pick Claude Squad if what you actually need is a worktree per task. |
| El Crítico | 6.0 | 6.0 | no preference |
| El Profesor | 6.8 | 6.8 | no preference |
| La Inversora | 5.5 | 4.8 | Agent Maestro — One maintainer, 205 stars, no company and nothing to charge for: the asset is a glue layer, and glue layers get absorbed rather than acquired. |
| La Jefa | 5.0 | 5.5 | herdr — Sessions that persist on sixty machines after the engineer walks away, installed by a PowerShell command that bypasses execution policy, with no admin or audit; not yet. |
| El Hacker | 7.8 | 8.0 | herdr — Apache-2.0, one binary via brew or mise, a socket API I can script from anything, no MCP and no model settings because it owns terminals, not agents. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.