Comparison · facts verified 2026-09-07
Rent the cattle, or keep the herd at home. Anthropic's Claude Managed Agents is a managed API for defining agents and letting Anthropic operate the sandbox, state, tools, and credentials. Orbi is a self-hosted GitHub delivery system. Both can turn intent into work; the ownership boundary is different. Every factual claim below carries a source and date.
THE COMPETITOR, FROM ITS MATERIALS
Claude Managed Agents is Anthropic's managed Agent API: a developer defines the system prompt, tools, permissions, and MCP connections, while Anthropic operates the sandbox, state management, tool orchestration, credential storage through Vault, and error recovery. Its architecture is described as three layers: a stateless, replaceable Brain for reasoning; a one-shot Hands sandbox for execution; and a Session append-only event log as the sole persistent layer. The service launched on 2026-04-08. and the service is API-triggered rather than a scheduler or messaging integration.
Sources: Anthropic (Managed Agents announcement and product materials) — verified 2026-09-07.
THE METER IS PART OF THE PRODUCT
The pricing model combines standard Claude token rates with time spent in a session: Sonnet 4.6 is listed at $3 per million input tokens and $15 per million output tokens, plus $0.08 per session-hour, metered in milliseconds and excluding idle time. Web search is $10 per 1,000 searches. This is a clear published unit, but Anthropic controls both the model price and the capacity available to the service.
Sources: Anthropic pricing (token and web-search rates); Managed Agents documentation (session-hour billing) — verified 2026-09-07.
Managed Agents puts the cattle in Anthropic's cloud and rents them by the hour. Orbi keeps the delivery line on your machine, uses GitHub as its pasture, and lets you choose the model.
DIFFERENCES THAT DECIDE THE CHOICE
| Dimension | Orbi | Claude Managed Agents |
|---|---|---|
| Runs where | Your machine; code, keys, and state stay on your infrastructure | Anthropic cloud sandboxes, with credentials stored in its Vault |
| Task entry | GitHub Issue + ai-ready label; native scheduling through the task pool | API trigger; no built-in scheduler or messaging integration |
| Models | BYOK: any OpenAI-compatible endpoint, including free tiers | Claude only; Brain is Anthropic's replaceable reasoning layer |
| State | GitHub Issues, labels, branches, PRs, and local run evidence | Append-only Anthropic Session event log |
| Cost | Your hardware and model; no $/session-hour or platform fee | Claude token prices + $0.08/session-hour; web search $10/1,000 |
| Auditability | Fair-code source and GitHub-native evidence are inspectable | Managed service; implementation and infrastructure are Anthropic's |
Orbi column: Orbi documentation and repository. Managed Agents column: Anthropic product materials and pricing — verified 2026-09-07.
VENDOR DEPENDENCE, STATED PLAINLY
A managed service can be the right operational choice, but it puts price, capacity, model availability, data handling, and account continuity inside the vendor relationship. Anthropic can change token or session rates, allocate capacity, or set access policy. Vault isolates credentials inside Anthropic's infrastructure, but code and task context still pass through that infrastructure. Orbi makes the opposite trade: you operate the machine and integrations, while avoiding Anthropic-specific pricing, model, and access dependence.
Sources: Anthropic engineering materials — verified 2026-09-07. These are ownership trade-offs, not claims about service quality.
AN HONEST READ
PROVENANCE
This page is a dated snapshot. Re-check vendor pages before making an architecture or procurement decision; all sources below were checked on 2026-09-07.
OPEN SOURCE CORE
Anthropic can be the right home for a product-embedded Claude agent. Orbi is the right home when the machine, model, and evidence need to remain yours.
