OpenDevvsSwival
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
OpenDev
OpenDev · Terminal agent
#97OSSMCP
Panel
6.63 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.2
- Usefulness
- 6.2
- Cost
- 8.2
- Longevity
- 5.8
“It publishes a technical report on arXiv, which is an unusual amount of paperwork for something you install with a package manager.”
Swival
Swival · Terminal agent
#134OSS
Panel
6.61 spec wins
- Reliability
- 5.8
- Usefulness
- 6.2
- Cost
- 8.8
- Longevity
- 5.7
“The install command pins Python 3.14, which is a level of confidence the rest of us can only admire.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | OpenDev | Swival |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Terminal agent | Terminal agent |
| Runs | local | local |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows | macos, linux, windows |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | Yes | No |
| MCP server | No | No |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-file edits | Yes | Yes |
| Git operations | No | No |
| Browser control | No | No |
| Sandboxed execution | No | No |
| Multi-agent orchestration | YesParallel agents are the headline feature, each one bound to the LLM you pick for it. | No |
| Headless / CI mode | No | YesSwival takes the task as a command-line argument and runs the loop to completion, which suits scripted use. |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, Mistral, Qwen, OpenRouter, Ollama, LM Studio | LM Studio, llama.cpp, Hugging Face Inference API, OpenRouter, Google Gemini, Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, ChatGPT Plus/Pro, AWS Bedrock, Apple Foundation Models, any OpenAI-compatible server |
| Bring your own model | Yes | Yes |
| Local models | Yes | YesLM Studio and llama.cpp need no auth and no flags, and the loaded model is auto-discovered. |
| 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 | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 843 | 341 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | OpenDev | Swival | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 7.0 | 7.0 | no preference |
| El Crítico | 6.3 | 6.3 | no preference |
| El Profesor | 6.5 | 6.5 | no preference |
| La Inversora | 6.5 | 6.0 | OpenDev — 832 stars, no company, no price and no hosted surface: a well-executed tool occupying a position that generates goodwill and nothing else. |
| La Jefa | 5.3 | 6.3 | Swival — It takes the task as a command-line argument and runs to completion, which is the one property I need before anything lives on a build agent. |
| El Hacker | 8.0 | 7.8 | OpenDev — MIT, `cargo install`, MCP servers attach, and Ollama or LM Studio are in the provider list, so a worker can run on weights I serve myself. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.