smol developervsTerragon
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
smol developer
smol.ai · Autonomous SWE
#262OSS
Panel
3.62 spec wins
- Reliability
- 3.5
- Usefulness
- 3.2
- Cost
- 6.5
- Longevity
- 1.3
“It called itself a junior developer in 2023 and, unlike the rest of us, never once asked for a promotion.”
Terragon
Terragon Labs · Autonomous SWE
#270OSSMCP
Panel
3.78 spec wins
- Reliability
- 3.3
- Usefulness
- 4.7
- Cost
- 5.3
- Longevity
- 1.5
“It streamed a live browser view so you could watch the agent work, which was lovely right up until February.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | smol developer | Terragon |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Autonomous SWE | Autonomous SWE |
| Runs | local | cloud, sandbox |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows | web, macos, linux |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | No | Yes |
| MCP server | No | Yes |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | No | Yes |
| Multi-file edits | Yes | Yes |
| Git operations | No | Yes |
| Browser control | No | No |
| Sandboxed execution | No | Yes |
| Multi-agent orchestration | No | Yes |
| Headless / CI mode | No | Yes |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | GPT, Claude | via managed agents (Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Amp, Gemini, OpenCode) |
| Bring your own model | No | Yes |
| Local models | No | No |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | byok | mixed |
| Starts at | n/a | $25/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| Bring your own key | Yes | YesUsers could power agents with their existing Claude or ChatGPT subscriptions, or configure their own API keys. |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| GitHub stars | 12,186 | 259 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | smol developer | Terragon | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 3.5 | 3.3 | smol developer — Do not adopt this for work you care about. It has not had a commit since 2024 and everything it pioneered now exists in tools that are still maintained. |
| El Crítico | 3.0 | 3.3 | Terragon — Reviving the snapshot yourself requires a sandbox provider, a GitHub App, object storage, model keys, Postgres, Redis and a tunnel, none of which the code supplies. |
| El Profesor | 4.5 | 5.0 | Terragon — The design routed all agent output through pull requests, so verification borrowed the organisation's existing review process rather than inventing one. |
| La Inversora | 3.3 | 3.0 | smol developer — The asset was the idea and it was copied within months, leaving a repository with twelve thousand stars, no product, no revenue and no acquirer that would need it. |
| La Jefa | 2.8 | 2.8 | no preference |
| El Hacker | 4.8 | 5.0 | Terragon — Apache-2.0 on the way out, `terry` for local handoff and an MCP server in the box, which is a better goodbye than most companies manage. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.