Agent Swarm vs Codex Delegate
A side-by-side look at the Agent Swarm and Codex Delegate MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose Agent Swarm for coding agents work; choose Codex Delegate for coding agents as a local process. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.
Which MCP server should you choose?
Choose Agent Swarm when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Coding Agents domain.
- You have the keys it needs:
API_KEY, HARNESS_PROVIDER.
Choose Codex Delegate when
- You need dedicated capabilities in the Coding Agents domain.
- You prefer a local stdio subprocess transport.
- You want tools like
delegate, cancel, doctor.
Feature & specification comparison
Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | Coding Agents | Coding Agents |
| Quality signal | 41/100 · Fair | 63/100 · Good |
| Install command | Not confirmed yet | Confirmed |
| Transport | — | Local subprocess (stdio) |
| Auth | Not declared | Not declared |
| Pricing | Not declared | BYOK (pay the provider) |
| Required env vars | API_KEYHARNESS_PROVIDER | None listed |
| Verified owner | Community listing | Community listing |
| GitHub stars | 929 | 2 |
| Directory activity | 2 views 0 installs 0 upvotes | 4 views 0 installs 0 upvotes |
| Tools | Not listed | 3 |
| Full listing | View Agent Swarm | View Codex Delegate |
Tools & capabilities
Agent Swarm tools
No tool names declared yet. Check the project README from the listing page.
Codex Delegate tools 3
delegateDelegate a coding task to OpenAI Codex. Never run codex from the shell — use this tool. Check status before trusting result — a run that spawns then fails returns normally. Keep model, reasoningEffort and fast at their defaults unless the user asks. See the delegate skill.cancelCancel active runs. delegationId selects one (announced in progress before spawn — the only handle if a run wedges at startup), threadId all on its thread, neither all. Waits for settlement; if a process tree survives the kill deadline, it still returns and the delegate result warns. Status: cancelled, nothing-active, or not-found (no active run with this ID).doctorDiagnose plugin/CLI/login, recursion, and workspace (default: server cwd). deep adds no-quota help and model-catalog checks.
Ready-to-paste client configs
Paste either block (or both) into your client config, e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json. We only show a config when the install command is confirmed.
Agent Swarm
No confirmed install command for Agent Swarm yet — follow the setup steps linked from its listing page rather than a guessed package name.
Codex Delegate
{
"mcpServers": {
"codex-delegate": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"codex-delegate-mcp"
]
}
}
}