AtomCodevsOpenABCode
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
AtomCode
AtomGit · Terminal agent
#194OSS
Panel
5.91 spec wins
- Reliability
- 5.7
- Usefulness
- 5.2
- Cost
- 7.7
- Longevity
- 5.0
“The project states that every line of its code was written by AI, which is either a credential or a warning.”
OpenABCode
MatrixMap AI · Terminal agent
#176OSS
Panel
5.91 spec wins
- Reliability
- 5.8
- Usefulness
- 6.2
- Cost
- 6.7
- Longevity
- 5.0
“Its default rules send review work to one vendor and everything else to another, which is diplomacy rather than engineering.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | AtomCode | OpenABCode |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Terminal agent | Terminal agent |
| Runs | local | local |
| Platforms | macos, linux | macos, linux |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | No | No |
| MCP server | No | No |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-file edits | Yes | Yes |
| Git operations | Yes | No |
| Browser control | No | No |
| Sandboxed execution | No | NoOpenABCode has no permission system of its own; the docs describe running it under a Gondolin micro-VM, plain Docker or OpenShell for isolation. |
| Multi-agent orchestration | No | No |
| Headless / CI mode | No | No |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | OpenAI-compatible | Anthropic Claude, OpenAI, Google Gemini |
| Bring your own model | Yes | Yes |
| 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 | AGPL-3.0 |
| GitHub stars | 202 | 427 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | AtomCode | OpenABCode | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 6.5 | 6.3 | AtomCode — Pick AtomCode if you want a small terminal agent that will scout before it touches anything; pick Aider if you want the same discipline with a much larger community behind it. |
| El Crítico | 5.3 | 5.8 | OpenABCode — It ships no permission system of its own, and the documentation answers that by describing micro-VM, Docker and policy-sandbox patterns you set up yourself. |
| El Profesor | 6.5 | 6.3 | AtomCode — Loop detection for repetitive tool calls, three-layer repair for malformed tool arguments and per-turn structured logs are three failure modes handled explicitly rather than hoped away. |
| La Inversora | 5.5 | 5.5 | no preference |
| La Jefa | 4.8 | 4.8 | no preference |
| El Hacker | 6.8 | 7.0 | OpenABCode — AGPL-3.0, and the route rules, keyword heuristics and extension mappings are configuration I rewrite per project, with `/route` to switch the whole thing off. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.