OpenHands and CrewAI are two different systems for building and coordinating AI agents. Each takes a different approach to automation, especially for tasks like software bootstrapping, shell execution, and orchestrated workflows.
# Recommendation for Hitchhiker Agents
For now I've started with CrewAI. It's more light weight and not purely focussed on code. It also feels like we can focus on a federated agent approach and seek to combine both.
- Use **OpenHands** if you want: - A turnkey developer agent - Sandboxed shell + web + code execution - Advanced orchestration out of the box - Use **CrewAI** if you want: - Lightweight modular design - Fine control over workflows - To orchestrate custom agents or mix with local binaries Hybrid approach is possible: use CrewAI for orchestration and a small execution agent (e.g. Ollama or custom binary) for safe shell execution. Bring in OpenHands later for more complex software automation.
# Strengths Comparison - **OpenHands Strengths** - Built-in tools for code, shell, API, and web tasks - Sandboxed execution - Agent planning and orchestration included - Prebuilt UI and dev environment - Strong for developer agent use cases - **CrewAI Strengths** - Modular, lean architecture - Focused on orchestration of multiple agents with defined roles - Easier to integrate into custom systems - Less dependency overhead - Better suited for small-to-mid-size bootstrapping flows
# Tradeoffs - **OpenHands Tradeoffs** - Heavier to install and bundle (e.g. Docker, Python stack) - Can be overkill for simple workflows - More opinionated architecture, harder to trim down - **CrewAI Tradeoffs** - Requires building your own execution layer (e.g. shell wrappers) - No built-in sandboxing - Less focused on development agent tasks out of the box
# See