Docker AgentvsLangChain
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
Docker Agent
Docker · Agent framework
OSSMCP
Panel
7.63 spec wins
- Reliability
- 7.2
- Usefulness
- 7.2
- Cost
- 8.3
- Longevity
- 7.7
“Its harness mode delegates the actual coding to Claude Code, Codex and OpenCode, which is delegation all the way down.”
LangChain
LangChain · Agent framework
OSSMCP
Panel
7.61 spec wins
- Reliability
- 7.2
- Usefulness
- 7.5
- Cost
- 7.5
- Longevity
- 8.2
“145,000 stars and 916 watchers, which is about the ratio of people who install it to people who read the changelog.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Docker Agent | LangChain |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Agent framework | Agent framework |
| Runs | local | local, cloud |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows | macos, linux, windows |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | No |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | Yes | No |
| Multi-file edits | Yes | No |
| Git operations | No | No |
| Browser control | NoOnly a GET-only fetch tool is documented; there is no browser automation. | No |
| Sandboxed execution | NoMCP toolsets can be run as Docker containers, but the built-in shell tool executes arbitrary commands in the user's own environment rather than in a sandbox. | No |
| Multi-agent orchestration | Yes | Yes |
| Headless / CI mode | Yes`docker agent serve api` is documented for CI/CD integration, with SSE streaming and a session database. | Yes |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Amazon Bedrock, xAI, Mistral, DeepSeek, Groq, Cerebras, Together, Fireworks, OpenRouter, Moonshot, MiniMax, GitHub Copilot, Docker Model Runner | OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, AWS Bedrock, Azure, OpenRouter, Fireworks, HuggingFace, Ollama |
| Bring your own model | Yes | Yes |
| Local models | YesThrough the dmr (Docker Model Runner), local and custom provider types. | 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 | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 3,371 | 147,373 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Docker Agent | LangChain | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 7.5 | 7.8 | LangChain — Pick LangChain if you want a working agent in a dozen lines and the freedom to swap the model with a string; pick OpenAI Agents SDK if you will only ever use one vendor and want less surface. |
| El Crítico | 7.0 | 7.3 | LangChain — Three package layers, langchain-core, langchain and a provider package per vendor installed as an extra, so the dependency matrix is where a careful engineer expects the breakage to live. |
| El Profesor | 7.5 | 7.3 | Docker Agent — Agents are pushed and pulled as OCI artifacts, so versioning and distribution reuse an existing standard instead of inventing a registry. |
| La Inversora | 7.5 | 7.8 | LangChain — The library is free, the traces are metered: 5k a month on Developer, 10k on Plus, then pay-as-you-go, with deployment compute billed in LCUs at $1.50 apiece. |
| La Jefa | 7.5 | 7.0 | Docker Agent — It is already inside a product we license, so rollout is a memo, and a documented serve command with session storage means it can sit in a pipeline. |
| El Hacker | 8.5 | 8.5 | no preference |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.