CodelvsSWE-agent
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
Codel
Serhii Semenov · Autonomous SWE
#257OSS
Panel
4.01 spec wins
- Reliability
- 3.5
- Usefulness
- 4.2
- Cost
- 6.7
- Longevity
- 1.5
“It picks the Docker base image from your task description, which is either clever or how you end up compiling PHP.”
SWE-agent
Princeton University and Stanford University · Autonomous SWE
#144OSS
Panel
5.13 spec wins
- Reliability
- 5.5
- Usefulness
- 4.8
- Cost
- 6.5
- Longevity
- 3.7
“Maintenance-only and superseded by a version with mini in the name, which is the most honest changelog on this board.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Codel | SWE-agent |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Autonomous SWE | Autonomous SWE |
| Runs | local, sandbox | local, sandbox |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows | 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 | No | Yes |
| Browser control | Yes | No |
| Sandboxed execution | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-agent orchestration | No | No |
| Headless / CI mode | No | Yes |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | GPT, Llama | Claude, GPT, any LiteLLM-supported model |
| Bring your own model | Yes | Yes |
| Local models | Yes | Yes |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | byok | byok |
| Starts at | n/a | $0/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Bring your own key | Yes | Yes |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 2,475 | 20,455 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Codel | SWE-agent | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 3.8 | 5.0 | SWE-agent — SWE-agent is a research harness in maintenance mode, so read it, benchmark with it, and do not build your daily workflow on it; its own maintainers point you to mini-swe-agent. |
| El Crítico | 3.8 | 4.8 | SWE-agent — Maintenance-only by the maintainers' own statement, so what you are evaluating is a research artifact whose fixes now go to its successor. |
| El Profesor | 4.3 | 5.8 | SWE-agent — The agent-computer interface remains a principled design, its 2024 figure is properly scoped, and its newer results are described as leading without a number. |
| La Inversora | 3.5 | 4.0 | SWE-agent — There is no company here to outlive anything, only two universities and a successor project, so the 18-month question is about the fork tree, not the cap table. |
| La Jefa | 3.0 | 3.8 | SWE-agent — A maintenance-only research harness with no vendor, no contract and no SSO cannot pass a procurement review, however good its sandbox is. |
| El Hacker | 5.5 | 7.5 | SWE-agent — MIT, Docker-sandboxed, any LiteLLM model including my local server, and every prompt in the repo; maintenance-only just means the code stops changing under me. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.