From ff2e2fbf429846b1b531126f348c0021d6bc212a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Bryan Helmkamp Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2026 18:52:20 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] add comparison --- docs/getting-started/comparison.mdx | 170 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 170 insertions(+) create mode 100644 docs/getting-started/comparison.mdx diff --git a/docs/getting-started/comparison.mdx b/docs/getting-started/comparison.mdx new file mode 100644 index 000000000..36d0cbd8d --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/getting-started/comparison.mdx @@ -0,0 +1,170 @@ +--- +title: Comparison +description: How Fabro compares to AI coding agents, software factories, and orchestration platforms. +--- + +Fabro occupies a unique position at the intersection of AI coding agents and workflow orchestration. This page summarizes how Fabro differs from the most relevant alternatives across nine dimensions. + +## Notable Comparisons + +The most relevant comparisons to Fabro are other tools that enable AI-assisted coding workflows with varying degrees of structure, automation, and human involvement. These include: + +### Automated Coding Workflows + +- **Factory AI (Droids)** — Enterprise coding automation platform +- **Ona (Gitpod)** — Agentic coding platform with cloud dev environments +- **Devin** — Autonomous coding agent by Cognition + +### AI Coding REPLs + +AI coding REPLs like Claude Code, Codex CLI, and Cursor are interactive, prompt-driven agents designed for single-session tasks. They are powerful pair-programming tools but operate at a different level than Fabro — they lack declarative workflow definition, multi-stage orchestration, and Git-native checkpointing. + +REPLs and Fabro pair nicely. REPLs are ideal for exploring ideas interactively — prototyping an approach, testing assumptions, and iterating in real time. When you're ready to move from exploration to implementation, you can hand the work off to a Fabro workflow for the build out. + +## Other Comparisons + +**8090 Software Factory** + +8090.ai is an AI SDLC orchestration platform that structures upstream context — requirements, architecture, and planning — then delegates implementation to external coding agents via MCP. Because 8090 stops before code generation and does not perform coding activities itself, it operates in a different stage than Fabro and is not compared in the sections below. + +**OpenAI Symphony** + +[Symphony](https://github.com/openai/symphony) is a new multi-agent orchestration framework from OpenAI that dispatches Codex sessions from a Linear issue board. It is currently an engineering preview with a narrow, fixed workflow (poll → dispatch → resolve → land). Because it is early-stage and with a limited implementation, it is not compared in the sections below. + +## Comparison Dimensions + + +We strive to keep this information accurate, but the landscape changes rapidly. If you spot an inaccuracy, please [let us know](mailto:hello@fabro.sh). + + +### Licensing + +Open source vs. proprietary — trust, auditability, extensibility. + +| Tool | License | +|---|---| +| **Fabro** | Open source, MIT license. Fork and customize. | +| **Factory AI** | Proprietary, closed source | +| **Devin** | Proprietary, closed source | +| **Ona** | Proprietary, closed source | +| **AI Coding REPLs** | Proprietary except Codex CLI (Apache 2.0) | + +### Workflow Definition + +How coding tasks are structured, repeated, and version-controlled. + +| Tool | Approach | +|---|---| +| **Fabro** | Declarative, deterministic workflow graphs with loops, branching, and gates. Version controlled. | +| **Factory AI** | Non-deterministic Markdown skills (custom Droids) and black box Missions stored in a proprietary database. | +| **Devin** | One-off chat tasks or non-deterministic Markdown skills stored in a proprietary database. | +| **Ona** | One-off chat tasks or proprietary, web-based workflow builder. | +| **AI Coding REPLs** | Not applicable. Imperative prompts with Markdown skills. | + +### Model Access + +Access to models of various intelligence and costs across providers with per-step control. + +| Tool | Models | +|---|---| +| **Fabro** | Multi-provider with ensembles. Use the right model at each step. | +| **Factory AI** | Multi-provider. One user selection per task. | +| **Devin** | Proprietary, black box selection. | +| **Ona** | Multi-provider. One user selection per task. | +| **AI Coding REPLs** | Locked to REPL provider's ecosystem. | + +### Human-in-the-Loop + +How and where humans intervene in the workflow. + +| Tool | Approach | +|---|---| +| **Fabro** | Deterministically defined human gates in the workflow, plus ad-hoc injected steering. | +| **Factory AI** | Plan before implementation, then review pull requests. | +| **Devin** | IDE-based mid-task chat intervention plus pull request review. | +| **Ona** | Humans review at the pull request boundary. | +| **AI Coding REPLs** | REPL prompts plus permission prompt modes. | + +### Multi-Agent Orchestration + +How multiple agents coordinate on complex work. + +| Tool | Coordination | +|---|---| +| **Fabro** | Explicit graph of stages that fan out and converge. Deterministic composition of agents, prompts, commands, and gates. | +| **Factory AI** | Hierarchical subagents delegated from a parent Droid. Non-deterministic Missions for parallel feature workers. | +| **Devin** | Opaque internal compound system. Multiple instances run in parallel but users cannot define the orchestration. | +| **Ona** | Fleet of independent agents in isolated VMs. Horizontal scale but no agent-to-agent communication. | +| **AI Coding REPLs** | Limited. Session-scoped sub-agents or parallel background agents with no shared workflow definition. | + +### Execution Environment + +Where code runs and who controls the sandbox. + +| Tool | Environment | +|---|---| +| **Fabro** | Local or BYO provider (Daytona, Sprites, exe.dev) and SSH support. | +| **Factory AI** | Local plus cloud VM configured with cloud templates. Enterprise supports air-gapped environments. | +| **Devin** | Proprietary cloud VM managed by Devin ("Devbox") or self hosted. | +| **Ona** | Proprietary cloud VMs managed by Ona (Gitpods) or self-hosted. | +| **AI Coding REPLs** | Local and proprietary cloud modes. | + +### Cloud Sandbox Access + +Human access to the running sandbox via preview URLs, SSH, and VNC. + +| Tool | Access | +|---|---| +| **Fabro** | Live preview URLs, SSH, and VNC when using a supported sandbox provider (e.g. Daytona). | +| **Factory AI** | SSH access to cloud environments. No preview URLs or VNC. | +| **Devin** | Browser-based shell and VS Code in the Devbox. No direct SSH or VNC. | +| **Ona** | SSH access to cloud environments. No preview URLs or VNC. | +| **AI Coding REPLs** | None. | + +### Git Checkpointing + +How state is managed during execution. + +| Tool | Git behavior | +|---|---| +| **Fabro** | Commits after every stage with provenance captured. Inspect, revert, or fork from any checkpoint. | +| **Factory AI** | Standard git operations. No per-step checkpointing. | +| **Devin** | Opens pull requests. No per-step git checkpointing. | +| **Ona** | Disposable VMs with pull request output. No per-step checkpointing. | +| **AI Coding REPLs** | None. | + +### Quality Verification + +How the system verifies that generated code meets requirements. + +| Tool | Verification | +|---|---| +| **Fabro** | First class quality verification system (criteria, controls, evals) combining agent reviews, CI checks, and human approvals. | +| **Factory AI** | Sub-agent code reviews. PR-based human review. | +| **Devin** | Sub-agent code reviews. PR-based human review. | +| **Ona** | Human review at PR boundary. | +| **AI Coding REPLs** | Manual. User reviews output in the REPL or at the PR boundary. | + +### Observability + +Can you trace what happened step-by-step? Audit and debug agent behavior. + +| Tool | Visibility | +|---|---| +| **Fabro** | Full trace of every model call, tool invocation, and decision. Cross-run comparison. | +| **Factory AI** | OpenTelemetry-native with dual-export and structured metrics. | +| **Devin** | Session replay with timeline and milestones. Enterprise audit logging. | +| **Ona** | Enterprise audit logging with real-time event streaming. | +| **AI Coding REPLs** | Varies. Limited to session-level transcripts or enterprise audit logs. | + +### Deployment Model + +SaaS dependency vs. self-hosted control. + +| Tool | Deployment | +|---|---| +| **Fabro** | Self-hosted Rust single binary with no runtime dependencies. | +| **Factory AI** | SaaS with enterprise hybrid and air-gapped options. | +| **Devin** | SaaS only. Enterprise can host execution in customer VPC. | +| **Ona** | SaaS with enterprise self-hosted VPC option. | +| **AI Coding REPLs** | Local CLI tools with optional proprietary cloud modes. |