Comparison with Claude Agent SDK and Codex

This page helps you understand how LangChain Deep Agents compare to the Claude Agent SDK and the Codex SDK.

Deep Agents is actively used in production by OpenSWE and LangSmith Fleet.

Overview

Aspect	LangChain Deep Agents	Claude Agent SDK	Codex SDK
Use cases	Custom general-purpose agents (including coding)	Custom AI coding agents	Prebuilt coding agent that can execute coding tasks
Model support	Flexible and model-agnostic (Anthropic, OpenAI, and 100s others)	Tightly integrated with Claude models (Anthropic, Azure, Vertex AI, AWS Bedrock)	Tightly integrated with OpenAI models (GPT-5.3-Codex and variants)
Architecture	Python SDK, TypeScript SDK, and CLI	Python SDK, TypeScript SDK	TypeScript SDK, CLI, desktop app, IDE extension, cloud interface
Execution environment	Local, remote sandboxes, virtual filesystem	Local	Local, cloud
Deployment	`deepagents deploy`	Self-hosted	N/A
Frontend	Integration with React	Server-side only	Server-side only
Observability	LangSmith tracing & evaluations	N/A	OpenAI traces & command-line evaluations
Security configurability	Composable, per-tool human-in-the-loop	Permission system with modes, rules and hooks	Built-in tiers using approval modes and OS-level sandboxes
License	MIT	MIT (underlying Claude Code is proprietary)	Apache-2.0

Summary

Choose Deep Agents for an open source, model-agnostic harness you can deploy in a production-ready, multi-tenant way while keeping control of your memory.
Choose Claude Agent SDK or Codex SDK if you want to standardize on a single model provider and are comfortable building the hosting, auth, and multi-tenant isolation layers yourself.

Feature comparison

The feature comparison is grouped by decision area.

Agent capabilities

Feature	Deep Agents	Claude Agent SDK	Codex SDK
File Read/Write/Edit	✅ `read_file`, `write_file`, `edit_file`	✅ Read, write, edit	✅ Read, write, edit
Shell Execution	✅ `execute`	✅ bash	✅ `exec`
Glob/Grep	✅ `glob`, `grep`	✅ glob, grep	✅ Built-in
Web Search	✅ Support for third-party and provider-native	✅ WebSearch, WebFetch	✅ `web_search`
Planning/Todos	✅ `write_todos`	✅ Todo lists	✅ Plan before changes
Subagents	✅ Subagents	✅ Subagents	✅ Multi-agent workflows (experimental) via MCP + Agents SDK
MCP Client	✅	✅ MCP	✅ MCP client
Human-in-the-Loop	✅ Approve/edit/reject	✅ Permission modes	✅ Approval modes (Full Access, Read-only, Auto)
Skills System	✅ Skills	✅ Skills	✅ Skills
Additional instructions	✅ Memory	✅ CLAUDE.md files	✅ AGENTS.md
Long-term memory	✅ Memory Store	❌	❌
Streaming	✅ Streaming	✅ Streaming	✅ Streaming

Sandboxing and architecture

Feature	Deep Agents	Claude Agent SDK	Codex SDK
Agent runs in sandbox	✅ Can run in sandbox	✅ Can run in sandbox	✅ Can run in sandbox
Agent runs operations in sandboxes	✅ Uses sandboxes as tools	❌	❌
OS-level sandbox modes	❌	❌	✅ `read-only`, `workspace-write`, and `danger-full-access`
Composable Middleware	✅	✅ Hooks	❌
Virtual Filesystems	✅ Virtual filesystem with pluggable backends	❌	❌

Deployment and production

Feature	Deep Agents	Claude Agent SDK	Codex SDK
Production hosting	✅ LangSmith Deployment, `deepagents deploy`, self-hosted, or standalone	Build your own HTTP/WebSocket layer; run SDK in containers	❌
Multi-tenant deployment	✅ One deployment with custom auth and scoped user data, plus RBAC	⚠️ Possible, but you must build auth, tenancy, and per-user isolation yourself	❌
Local execution environment	✅	✅	✅
Cloud execution environment	❌	❌	✅

Need user-level isolation in one shared deployment? Deep Agents support multi-tenant deployments with scoped threads, runs, and conversation history. For a walkthrough, watch the custom auth video.

Protocols and state

Feature	Deep Agents	Claude Agent SDK	Codex SDK
ACP server (IDE integration)	✅ ACP server	✅ (third-party)	✅ (third-party)
MCP server mode	✅ MCP endpoint through Agent Server	❌	✅ `codex mcp-server`
A2A endpoint	✅ A2A endpoint in Agent Server	✅	❌
Session Resume	✅ Reconnect and load thread history	✅ Session management	✅ Resume threads; SDK `resumeThread()`
File Checkpointing	✅ Backends and checkpoints	✅ File checkpointing	✅ Git checkpoints
Time Travel (state branching)	✅	✅	✅

Observability

Feature	Deep Agents	Claude Agent SDK	Codex SDK
Native Tracing	✅ LangSmith	❌	✅ OpenAI Traces
Evaluations	✅ LangSmith	❌	Evals patterns (command-line with `codex exec --json`)

Notice a mistake?We drafted this comparison on March 4th, 2026. If you notice mistakes or changes in products, please file an issue.

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Deployment

Core capabilities

Frontend

Protocols

Command line interface

Comparison with Claude Agent SDK and Codex

Overview

Summary

Feature comparison

Agent capabilities

Sandboxing and architecture

Deployment and production

Protocols and state

Observability

​Overview

​Summary

​Feature comparison

​Agent capabilities

​Sandboxing and architecture

​Deployment and production

​Protocols and state

​Observability

Overview

Summary

Feature comparison

Agent capabilities

Sandboxing and architecture

Deployment and production

Protocols and state

Observability