KanbanvsTessera
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
Kanban
Cline Bot · Agent harness
OSS
Panel
6.31 spec wins
- Reliability
- 5.7
- Usefulness
- 6.0
- Cost
- 8.0
- Longevity
- 5.3
“There is an auto-commit switch for long autonomous stretches, so your git history is now a sleep log.”
Tessera
Horang Labs · Agent harness
OSS
Panel
6.30 spec wins
- Reliability
- 5.8
- Usefulness
- 6.5
- Cost
- 6.8
- Longevity
- 5.8
“A paired phone continues the same sessions, so the agent can now wait for your approval while you are asleep.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Kanban | Tessera |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Runs | local | local |
| Platforms | macos, linux | macos, linux, windows, web |
| 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 | YesFiles are changed by the Claude Code, Codex or OpenCode session Tessera runs in each worktree; Tessera adds its own file and diff editor on top. |
| Git operations | Yes | Yes |
| Browser control | No | No |
| Sandboxed execution | No | No |
| Multi-agent orchestration | Yes | YesA lead agent can create worktrees and launch, read and prompt parallel worker sessions through the /tessera-cli command. |
| Headless / CI mode | No | No |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | any installed CLI agent | Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode |
| 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 | AGPL-3.0 |
| GitHub stars | 1,345 | 311 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Kanban | Tessera | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 6.8 | 6.8 | no preference |
| El Crítico | 5.8 | 5.3 | Kanban — It relies on experimental agent capabilities including bypassing permission prompts, so the smooth experience is purchased by disabling the guardrail the agent shipped. |
| El Profesor | 6.0 | 6.5 | Tessera — The workspace is addressable by its own agent through the same command interface a person uses, which makes orchestration a capability rather than a separate control plane. |
| La Inversora | 6.5 | 5.8 | Kanban — A companion product from an established open-source agent vendor, given away with no price, which makes it a retention feature rather than a business. |
| La Jefa | 5.5 | 5.8 | Tessera — No per-seat cost, and it deploys from a compose file as well as from an installer, which means my platform team can run one instance instead of blessing sixty desktops. |
| El Hacker | 7.0 | 7.5 | Tessera — Strong copyleft, which is the licence I want on something I depend on, and each backend takes a custom model identifier so I decide what is actually behind each session. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.