Comparison · facts verified 2026-09-07
Orbi, compared
Self-hosted delivery, sourced and dated. One deep dive per competitor: what it is from its own materials, where it differs from Orbi, and which job each one is right for. Every factual claim carries a source and a verification date — when the facts change, these pages get rewritten, not spun.
THE ONE-PAGE VIEW
Same destination, different ownership
Managed agents put the delivery line in a vendor cloud. Orbi runs the same issue → agent → PR loop on your machine, with GitHub as the source of truth and your model choice intact.
| Dimension | Orbi | Claude Managed Agents | Copilot cloud agent | OpenAI Codex | Devin | OpenHands | Hermes Agent* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs where | Your machine | Anthropic cloud | GitHub cloud | OpenAI cloud | Cognition cloud | Local/Docker/VM/cloud | Operator machine/VPS |
| Task entry | GitHub Issue + ai-ready | API call | Issue assignment to Copilot | ChatGPT, CLI, or GitHub | Slack or web | Web UI/CLI/webhook/API | Gateway/CLI or cron |
| State | GitHub Issues, labels, branches, PRs | Anthropic Session log | GitHub | OpenAI | Cognition | Conversations, workspaces, events | Memory, sessions, skills |
| Models | BYOK, any endpoint | Claude | GitHub’s available models | OpenAI | Cognition | BYOK, any LLM | Multiple providers |
| Isolation | Git worktree | Cloud sandbox | Cloud sandbox | Cloud sandbox | Cloud environment | Docker/VM/cloud backends | Local/container/SSH backends |
| Independent review (can edit code and rerun tests) | Yes | Not verified | No | Not verified | Yes | Yes (standalone workflow) | Not verified |
| Auto-merge | Yes | Not documented | No (stated in official docs) | Not documented | Yes | Not documented | Not documented |
| Tag / Release | Yes | Not verified | Not verified | Not verified | Not verified | Not verified | Not verified |
| Cost | Hardware; model can be free | Tokens + $0.08/session-hour | Copilot subscription | ChatGPT subscription/API | Subscription + credits | Self-hosted; model costs | Model/API costs |
| Open / self-hosted | AGPL-3.0 or Sustainable Use License / Yes | No / No | No / No | No / No | No / No | MIT / Yes | Yes / Yes |
The three delivery rows, in the vendors’ own words. Every Yes/No above points at an official page; a cell we could not verify reads “Not verified”, never “No”. No competitor’s official documentation describes the full chain — independent review, auto-merge, and a tagged Release; the Tag / Release cell is Orbi’s alone. Rows audited 2026-09-10 across the vendors’ official docs; quotes re-read on the live pages 2026-09-11.
“Pull request authors cannot approve their own pull requests. You will also not be able to approve a pull request that was raised by GitHub Copilot if it was you who assigned Copilot to the issue to which the pull request relates.”
GitHub Docs — Approving a pull request with required reviews; and, on the session cap: “Each Copilot cloud agent session has a maximum execution time of 59 minutes. This is a hard limit that cannot be extended or bypassed.” — About GitHub Copilot cloud agent · verified 2026-09-11.
“Findings are tagged by severity and don’t approve or block your PR, so existing review workflows stay intact.” · “The check run always completes with a neutral conclusion so it never blocks merging through branch protection rules.”
Anthropic — Claude Code code review · verified 2026-09-10, re-verified 2026-09-11. Managed Agents documentation does not cover the three delivery steps.
“Merge, close, convert to draft, mark ready for review, and toggle auto-merge directly from Devin Review without leaving the page.”
Devin Docs — Devin Review · verified 2026-09-11. Devin Review provides an auto-merge toggle. Devin’s GitHub integration page documents @mentions (Core/Teams) and Enterprise repository delegation only; automatic Issue triggering is not verified — Devin also does not document an unattended Issue→merge→Release chain.
*Hermes is a general assistant; its GitHub skill is not equivalent to a GitHub-native software delivery queue. OpenHands sources: official repository and official docs. Sources: Hermes Agent official repository; Orbi documentation; Anthropic; GitHub Docs; OpenAI Codex; Devin — all verified 2026-09-07; the delivery rows verified 2026-09-10, re-verified 2026-09-11. See each linked deep dive below for scope and sources.
THE OWNERSHIP BOUNDARY
Convenience should not mean surrendering the boundary
Hosted agents can be the right choice when minimal operations is the priority. They also leave five consequential decisions with a vendor: pricing, model capacity, data handling, supply, and account access.
| Risk | Observed case | Orbi’s trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Managed Agents adds $0.08/session-hour to token pricing. | Choose hardware and provider; no session-hour fee. |
| Degradation | Anthropic’s OpenClaw explanation said: “Capacity is a resource we manage thoughtfully.” | Switch provider or model in configuration. |
| Audit / data | Cloud agents execute with code, credentials, and task context in vendor infrastructure. | Keep code, keys, and run evidence local. |
| Supply / policy | On 2026-04-04 Anthropic changed the OpenClaw subscription route; users may need API billing or Extra Usage. | BYOK across providers avoids one supply cut. |
| Account access | Hosted service access and ToS interpretation remain vendor-controlled. | No agent-vendor account is required. |
Hosted-agent convenience is collateralized by vendor change power. Orbi leaves that five-part risk with you; the price is operating a machine, and the benefit is that you can change your own runtime without waiting for a hosted vendor.
Sources: Anthropic Managed Agents; Boris Cherny’s public statements; OpenClaw deep dive — verified 2026-09-07. These are ownership trade-offs, not claims about service quality.
CAPABILITY MATRIX
Which delivery capabilities are documented?
Capability claims last verified through .
THE LANDSCAPE
Deep dives
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Orbi vs Orca
The category's 66.8k-star ADE for running a fleet of parallel agents — and why "similar to Orca" is the misreading this page dismantles.
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Orbi vs OpenClaw
The open-source always-on personal agent — and the April 2026 Anthropic subscription policy change that affected its subscription route.
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Orbi vs GitHub Copilot cloud agent
Assign an Issue to Copilot and its cloud sandbox can return a PR — the closest overlap with Orbi's task loop.
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Orbi vs Claude Managed Agents (Anthropic)
Anthropic-hosted Agent API at token rates plus $0.08/session-hour.
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Orbi vs Claude Code
Claude Code can turn Issues into PRs; Orbi carries a reviewed, frozen head through merge and a tagged release.
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Orbi vs OpenHands
Open-source AI development platform with Docker, cloud, BYOK, and broad automation surfaces.
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Orbi vs Hermes Agent
Nous Research's open-source always-on personal assistant — with GitHub tools, but not positioned as a software delivery agent.
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Orbi vs OpenAI Codex (cloud)
Cloud software-engineering agent from the ChatGPT side, one sandbox per task.
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Orbi vs Devin
Cognition's managed autonomous engineer — Slack-driven tasks, cloud execution, and a billing structure that has already been rewritten once.
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Orbi vs Keelen
Unattended GitHub delivery with BYO model credentials, isolated VM runs, and a clear choice between subscription-led execution and self-hosting.
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Orbi vs Google Jules
Human-approved plans, a user-owned branch, and a PR handoff — with merge and release steps not documented in the cited flow.
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Orbi vs Cursor Cloud Agents
Cloud agents return merge-ready PRs and demo artifacts; Orbi carries the delivery line through review, merge, and release.
Every deep dive includes its own official sources and verification date.
OPEN SOURCE (AGPL-3.0) CORE
Choose by where it runs
An assistant in your chats, an agent in a vendor's cloud, or a delivery line in your own repository. Orbi is the third one — self-hosted, GitHub-native, free forever.