OpenRig vs Claude Managed Agents
On April 8, 2026, Anthropic told the world that multi-agent infrastructure is a first-class problem worth building a product around. Their answer is a cloud-hosted, Claude-only runtime at $0.08 per session-hour.
OpenRig is Apache 2.0, runs on your machine, works with Claude Code and Codex, and costs nothing. We have been building this for months. Anthropic validated the category. Here is the open version.
OpenRig = local control plane for live multi-agent coding topologies
Capability Matrix
| Capability | OpenRig | Claude Managed Agents |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment | Local (your machine) | Cloud (Anthropic-hosted) |
| Runtimes | Claude Code + Codex + terminal (Pi and OpenHands adapters in development) | Claude only |
| Cost | Free (your hardware) | $0.08/session-hour + tokens |
| Agent interaction | Interactive tmux sessions you can attach to | API / event-stream |
| Topology definition | RigSpec YAML with pods, edges, policies | callable_agents list |
| Topology as artifact | RigSpec, RigBundle, exportable and shareable | No portable artifact |
| Discovery | Fingerprint existing sessions, draft RigSpecs | Only manages what it creates |
| Pods | First-class with continuity policies, shared memory | Shared filesystem, no pod abstraction |
| Visual topology | Explorer sidebar + graph view + node detail | Console tracing (no topology graph) |
| Snapshot / restore | Full topology restore with topological ordering | Session persistence (different mechanism) |
| Multi-agent | Any topology shape, any depth | One level of delegation |
| Open source | Apache 2.0 | Proprietary |
| Agent identity | Persistent across sessions (rig whoami) | Versioned configs |
What OpenRig has that they don't
These capabilities have no equivalent in Claude Managed Agents.
Existing-session discovery and adoption
Find agents already running in tmux. Draft a RigSpec from organic sessions. Bind them into a managed topology.
Cross-harness topologies
Claude Code and Codex and terminal nodes in one topology. If you use both, only OpenRig sees the combined graph.
Portable topology artifacts
RigSpec, AgentSpec, RigBundle -- version-controlled, shareable, forkable. Export your topology as a YAML file and hand it to a teammate.
Interactive local sessions
Attach to any agent and start talking. The exploratory, creative conversation that drives real development happens in interactive sessions, not through API events.
Visual topology graph for live rigs
Explorer sidebar, topology graph with pod grouping, node detail panel, live status. Not console tracing -- a live map of your agent network.
Pod-level shared memory with continuity policies
Agents sharing a context domain with formalized restore semantics and mental-model HA. Not just a shared filesystem.
Spec library
Browse, preview, and launch pre-built topologies. Start from proven patterns instead of writing everything from scratch.
36 CLI commands for humans and agents
A complete command surface designed for both operator workflows and agent-driven orchestration.
The Terraform Analogy
Terraform does not compete with AWS. Terraform manages resources across clouds.
OpenRig does not compete with Claude Managed Agents. OpenRig manages topologies across runtimes. Claude Code, Codex, terminal nodes — with adapters for Pi and OpenHands already in development. Eventually, Managed Agents itself could become one of those runtimes via an adapter.
Anthropic built the cloud runtime. OpenRig is the control plane above it.
Start building
Open source. Local-first. Cross-harness. No vendor lock-in. No per-session pricing.