opcodevsSwarmClaw
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
opcode
Asterisk · Agent harness
OSSMCP
Panel
5.33 spec wins
- Reliability
- 4.8
- Usefulness
- 5.8
- Cost
- 7.0
- Longevity
- 3.5
“Twenty-two thousand people starred a desktop application that you still have to compile yourself.”
SwarmClaw
SwarmClaw AI · Agent harness
OSSMCP
Panel
5.64 spec wins
- Reliability
- 5.7
- Usefulness
- 5.2
- Cost
- 6.7
- Longevity
- 4.8
“Open source, but the license is proprietary.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | opcode | SwarmClaw |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Runs | local | local |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows | macos, linux, windows, web |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | No | No |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | Yes | No |
| Multi-file edits | Yes | No |
| Git operations | NoCheckpoints and the branching timeline are opcode's own session versioning, not git operations. | No |
| Browser control | No | Yes |
| Sandboxed execution | No | Yes |
| Multi-agent orchestration | YesCustom agents and background agents are defined and run from the GUI, each with its own file and network permission settings; they are separate Claude Code runs, not a container sandbox. | Yes |
| Headless / CI mode | No | No |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | Claude | Claude, GPT, Gemini, OpenRouter, Ollama, Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek |
| Bring your own model | No | Yes |
| Local models | No | Yes |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | free | free |
| Starts at | $0/mo | n/a |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Bring your own key | Yes | Yes |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | proprietary |
| GitHub stars | 22,420 | 689 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | opcode | SwarmClaw | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 5.5 | 6.8 | SwarmClaw — Pick SwarmClaw if you want a free, self-hosted dashboard to orchestrate and visualize teams of agents for research, but not for hands-on coding. |
| El Crítico | 5.0 | 5.8 | SwarmClaw — SwarmClaw ships with a proprietary license despite being open-source, and lacks core coding capabilities like terminal execution or Git operations. |
| El Profesor | 5.8 | 5.3 | opcode — Checkpoints and the branching timeline are the application's own session versioning and explicitly not git operations, and the row is careful to say so. |
| La Inversora | 4.8 | 5.3 | SwarmClaw — A well-featured agent framework whose 'open source' label and free model are classic signs of a pre-monetization venture play. |
| La Jefa | 4.5 | 4.0 | opcode — The only documented install is building it yourself with bun and a Tauri toolchain, which rules it out for a managed fleet before I reach the security questions. |
| El Hacker | 6.3 | 6.5 | SwarmClaw — SwarmClaw is a solid self-hosted agent runtime with great model support, but its proprietary license and lack of an MCP server make me question its long-term viability. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.