ChatDevvsKaibanJS
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
ChatDev
OpenBMB · Agent framework
OSS
Panel
5.43 spec wins
- Reliability
- 4.8
- Usefulness
- 4.8
- Cost
- 7.0
- Longevity
- 4.8
“A virtual software company staffed entirely by language models, which is also the business plan of several real ones.”
KaibanJS
Kaiban AI · Agent framework
OSS
Panel
5.20 spec wins
- Reliability
- 4.8
- Usefulness
- 4.7
- Cost
- 7.3
- Longevity
- 4.0
“LangChain-compatible, which is either a feature or a warning depending on which week you read the changelog.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | ChatDev | KaibanJS |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Agent framework | Agent framework |
| Runs | local | local |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows | macos, linux, windows, web |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | No | No |
| MCP server | No | No |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | Yes | No |
| Multi-file edits | Yes | No |
| Git operations | No | No |
| Browser control | No | No |
| Sandboxed execution | No | No |
| Multi-agent orchestration | Yes | Yes |
| Headless / CI mode | No | No |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | any | GPT, Claude, 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 | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 34,431 | 1,480 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | ChatDev | KaibanJS | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 5.8 | 5.5 | ChatDev — Pick ChatDev to watch role-playing agents build a small program from nothing; pick OpenHands the moment the code already exists and has users. |
| El Crítico | 5.8 | 5.0 | ChatDev — Version 2.0 turned a research project into a zero-code console and pushed the classic line to a legacy branch, so the version every paper describes is now the old one. |
| El Profesor | 4.8 | 5.8 | KaibanJS — Agents are declared by role and goal, tasks carry an expected output, and results feed forward, with the board rendered as a view over a single state store. |
| La Inversora | 5.5 | 4.3 | ChatDev — OpenBMB is a research organisation, and 34,000 stars of academic distribution is influence with no invoice attached anywhere in it. |
| La Jefa | 4.8 | 4.5 | ChatDev — Nothing to buy and nothing that runs unattended, so it cannot be scheduled, measured or supported, which leaves it as an experiment on somebody's laptop. |
| El Hacker | 5.8 | 6.3 | KaibanJS — MIT, npm install kaibanjs, and every model key is mine, but there is no local endpoint option, so my own GPU never gets invited. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.