Shelbi vs OpenHands

Shelbi and OpenHands both coordinate agents, with different workflows

Both can run agents you already use. OpenHands Agent Canvas supports its own agent and third-party agents through the Agent Client Protocol (ACP), including Claude Code and Codex. Shelbi organizes CLI agents into a persistent workspace pool, with an orchestrator, an Issues board, and a review workflow. The choice depends on how you want to coordinate work and operate the machines behind it.

At a glance

Checked November 5, 2026, against Shelbi v0.13.3 and OpenHands' current docs and releases. OpenHands lists v1.35.0, released November 3. Its pricing page lists self-hosted Teams at $500/month for up to 10 users, with additional seats at $50/month and a 5,000-session monthly cap. Enterprise pricing is custom. Free Canvas uses a single user or shared identity. These are self-hosted plan prices; check Cloud billing separately rather than assuming the same rates.

Where Shelbi excels

• A persistent worker pool in a native app or TUI. Both clients share Shelbi's application model and command registry. A workspace keeps its git worktree between tasks and switches branches for each assignment. From the sidebar you can open a remote workspace's agent, shell, diff and editor. A whole remote project opens in the native window over one SSH relay channel per host, without port forwarding. Both machines need the same Shelbi version; otherwise Shelbi opens the remote TUI with a version notice. OpenHands also supports remote execution, but connects Canvas to Agent Server backends.

• You configure the agents and their coordinator. Shelbi launches Claude Code, Codex, or a custom CLI runner. Different agents can use different runners in the same project. Orchestrator onboarding lets you choose its Harness, Default model, and instructions before launch. Workflow definitions and agent instructions are editable files. OpenHands also lets you bring agents; Shelbi fits when you want that coordination expressed as your own project workflow over a declared pool of machines and workspaces.

• A board connected to your repository and shipping history. Keep issues as local markdown, or use GitHub Issues as the board's source of truth. In both clients, New issue opens New task with Title, Workflow, Status, Priority, Description, and Let Orchestrator write this up. The project's Changelog records shipped work. Agents and scripts can use shelbi changelog add, list, search and show. Configuration, instructions and local logs remain inspectable on disk; choosing GitHub means the issues themselves live there.

• Explicit control over review and automation. Zen Mode is off by default. The Review view brings together the task, review agent, diff and editor tools, with Approve and Reject actions. Optional Zen Mode lets the orchestrator promote eligible backlog and review and merge passing work under your project's zenmode.md policy. shelbi zen on, shelbi zen off and shelbi zen pause control that delegation. OpenHands offers automation too; Shelbi makes this choice part of the project's board and review loop.

Where OpenHands excels

• An agent framework as well as a control center. The Software Agent SDK provides Python and REST APIs, tools for shell commands, file editing and browsing, and support for multi-agent tasks. You can build an agent with it or use the built-in OpenHands agent in Canvas. Its LLM configuration supports multiple providers and local model servers. Shelbi coordinates installed agent CLIs; their tools and model capabilities come from those agents.

• Broader client platforms and deployment choices. Agent Canvas runs in a browser, with a desktop preview for macOS, Windows and Linux. Its backends can run locally, on your infrastructure, or through managed OpenHands Cloud. The October 27 release added per-conversation Local, Worktree and Docker choices on backends that support them. Canvas is not itself a sandbox: direct local execution uses the host account's permissions. Shelbi's native desktop app is macOS-only, and its worktrees separate branches rather than sandbox commands.

• Service integrations and team administration. OpenHands includes automation templates for issue-to-PR work, GitHub PR reviews, repository monitoring and Slack monitoring. Automation Server runs scheduled and event-triggered work on supported backends, including local installations. Paid Teams adds individual identities, role-based access, SSO/SAML and budgeting controls. Shelbi's implemented issue backends are local files and GitHub Issues; you manage its machines and access yourself.

• Optional feedback within the agent loop. OpenHands' critic can evaluate work and trigger iterative refinement after a low score. It is experimental, applies to OpenHands agent conversations, and is not promised for every third-party ACP agent. This is a different layer from Shelbi's workflow checks and review policy. Neither should be treated as a guarantee that a change is correct.

Choose Shelbi if…

You want an orchestrator for a persistent pool of CLI agents on your own local and SSH machines. Use the native macOS app or TUI, keep local issues or connect GitHub Issues, and choose manual review or the policy you give Zen Mode. It fits when a shared board, reusable workspaces and control over the workflow matter most.

Choose OpenHands if…

You want a built-in agent and SDK, browser access or a desktop preview on Windows or Linux, or a choice of self-hosted and managed backends. Its automation templates and paid team controls cover more service integrations and administration. Check the backend's agent and runtime support: the ACP guide lists Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI on Cloud, with Pi and OpenCode available only on local or self-hosted backends. The old OpenHands CLI is no longer actively maintained, and the legacy openhands serve GUI is deprecated.