All comparisons
Agent platform
Concord vs OpenHands
OpenHands runs agents. Concord makes agents, OpenHands' included, work as one team without colliding.
Concord
- Yes14
- Partly0
- Not in their docs0
OpenHands
- Yes2
- Partly3
- Not in their docs9
Across 14 capabilities, from public docs as of October 2026.
at a glance
Two tools, side by side.
| Attribute | Concord | OpenHands |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Shared work-state and messaging for coding agents (MCP server + CLI) | Self-hosted control center that runs coding agents in sandboxes |
| Works with | Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Copilot CLI, Grok Build, Goose, Antigravity, Devin CLI, any MCP client | OpenHands agent, plus Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI via ACP |
| Runs | Inside the agents you already use. Local SQLite, or Cloud across machines | Web UI with Docker sandboxes, a VM or OpenHands Cloud |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Price | Free locally. Cloud free for one person. Team $15/seat, agents free | Free self-hosted. Teams from $500/month |
feature by feature
Concord 14 of 14. OpenHands 2.
| Capability | Concord | OpenHands |
|---|---|---|
| Works with the agents you already run | Yes9 harnesses + any MCP client | PartlyACP agents in its UI |
| Native MCP server | Yes | Partly |
| Claim files before editing | Yes | Not in their docs |
| Overlap warning before an edit | Yes | Not in their docsisolates in worktrees |
| Block edits to claimed files in hooks or CI | Yesconcord check | Not in their docs |
| Replyable prompts between different vendors' agents | Yeslive where the harness allows | Not in their docsparent-to-child brief only |
| Task memory: decisions, assumptions, findings | Yes | Not in their docs |
| Accepted handoffs with an audit trail | Yesversioned, append-only | Not in their docs |
| Review packet: tests, risks, provenance | Yes | Not in their docs |
| Flags work a dead session left claimed | Yes | Not in their docs |
| Agents on different machines | YesConcord Cloud | Partlyremote backends |
| Open source | YesMIT | YesMIT |
| Runs locally with no account | Yes | Yes |
| Keep your terminal and IDE, no new app | Yes | Not in their docsweb UI |
From OpenHands's public docs as of October 2026.YesPartlyNot in their docs
in their code
We read OpenHands/OpenHands.
| Question | concord-mcp | OpenHands/OpenHands |
|---|---|---|
| Who owns a file | YesVersioned claims on files and tasks | None |
| Two agents, one file | YesOverlap warning before the edit. concord check can block it | A worktree per child agent, or a shared folder with a conflict warning |
| Handing work over | YesReceiver accepts or declines. Append-only audit history | A parent link only |
| What gets remembered | YesTyped decisions, assumptions and findings on each task | Conversation history and condensation |
| MCP tools shipped | Yes5 coordination tools, for any MCP client | Consumes MCP, ships no server |
Read from both repositories in October 2026. concord-mcp: 781 test cases, 28 test files on claims alone. Latest release v0.18.0.
from their issue tracker
- #18885Open: agent reverts to an older instruction contextHow Concord handles it
- #15974Open: unclear which directory the agent modifiesHow Concord handles it
- #18772Open request: deliver an AI team's work as one PRHow Concord handles it
why teams pick concord
An agent runner and a coordination layer solve different problems. Concord is the one that stops parallel agents duplicating and overwriting each other.
- 01
Isolation isn't coordination
Worktrees stop clashes on disk and move them to merge time. Claims stop them before the work starts.
Worktrees and agents - 02
Agents that talk
A Codex session can ask a Claude Code session a question and get a reply on the same task.
Agent-to-agent messages - 03
$15 a seat, agents free
Concord prices people, not sessions. Run as many agents as you like.
See pricing
common questions
- Is Concord an OpenHands alternative?
- For coordination, yes. Concord doesn't run agents. It gives every agent you run claims, overlap checks, messages, memory and handoffs.
- Can I use Concord with OpenHands?
- Yes, where the agent can call MCP tools. Any MCP-capable agent can claim and record work through Concord.
- Are worktrees enough for parallel agents?
- They stop file clashes on disk, not duplicated work or conflicting decisions. Concord shares one workspace across a checkout and all its worktrees.
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