Agent of EmpiresvsDeerFlow
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
Agent of Empires
Agent of Empires · Agent harness
OSS
Panel
6.51 spec wins
- Reliability
- 5.8
- Usefulness
- 6.3
- Cost
- 7.8
- Longevity
- 5.8
“It gives your coding agents a phone dashboard, so now the agents can wake you up too.”
DeerFlow
ByteDance · Agent harness
OSSMCP
Panel
6.75 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.2
- Usefulness
- 6.8
- Cost
- 7.2
- Longevity
- 6.7
“Serves its web UI on port 2026, so at least one line of the roadmap has a date.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Agent of Empires | DeerFlow |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Runs | local, sandbox | local, sandbox |
| Platforms | macos, linux | macos, linux, windows |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | No | Yes |
| MCP server | No | No |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-file edits | Yes | Yes |
| Git operations | Yes | No |
| Browser control | No | Yes |
| Sandboxed execution | YesSandboxing is optional and can use Docker, Podman or Apple Containers. | Yes |
| Multi-agent orchestration | Yes | Yes |
| Headless / CI mode | No | Yes |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | any | OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Qwen, Doubao, DeepSeek, Kimi, GLM, MiniMax, OpenRouter, vLLM |
| Bring your own model | Yes | Yes |
| Local models | No | Yes |
| 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 | 3,310 | 83,325 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Agent of Empires | DeerFlow | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 7.3 | 7.0 | Agent of Empires — Pick it if you have lost an agent run to a closed laptop lid; pick Claude Squad if you only ever run two agents and want less machinery. |
| El Crítico | 6.3 | 6.3 | no preference |
| El Profesor | 6.5 | 6.5 | no preference |
| La Inversora | 5.3 | 6.3 | DeerFlow — ByteDance funds it, the README recommends DeepSeek and Kimi models over its own, and it took first on GitHub Trending on 28 February 2026: a lab flag, not a business. |
| La Jefa | 5.5 | 6.5 | DeerFlow — The backend docs include SSO.md for OIDC, an AUTH_DESIGN with per-user isolation and personal access tokens, and a multi-worker gateway that needs Postgres and Redis: self-hosted, but real. |
| El Hacker | 8.0 | 7.8 | Agent of Empires — MIT, brew install aoe or a curl script, and the container runtime is my choice between Docker, Podman and Apple Containers rather than the vendor's. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.