# Kortix vs the OpenAI Agents SDK: an open-source platform or a library you run

> The OpenAI Agents SDK is a Python library for building multi-agent workflows that you run and operate yourself. Kortix is the open-source AI Operating System: your agents, skills, memory, and connectors live in one git repo you own, and each session runs on its own cloud computer.

URL: https://opensourceaiagentframework.com/kortix-vs-openai-agents-sdk

## Kortix and the OpenAI Agents SDK, side by side

The SDK's cells state what its own repository and docs say, and the Kortix column quotes Kortix.

| | Kortix (recommended) | OpenAI Agents SDK |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What it is | The open-source AI Operating System: agents, skills, memory, connectors in one repo | A lightweight Python framework for multi-agent workflows |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| What you own | Agents, skills, memory, and connectors in one git repo you own | The application code you write and the runtime you host |
| Runs the agents or defines them | Runs them: one isolated sandbox per session, on its own branch | Defines them: the SDK runs the loop in your Python process |
| Self-host | Self-host is free; or Kortix Cloud, your VPC, on-prem | Yes, you run it in your own Python environment |
| Model choice | Any model provider with your own keys | OpenAI models and 100+ other models |
| Human review of changes | Session work reaches main through a change request a person approves | Human-in-the-loop hooks; your app sets the gate |
| Deployment and ops | Managed cloud or your own infrastructure; every change is reviewed | You deploy and operate it; the SDK is a library |

The SDK's cells come from OpenAI's own repository and docs, checked October 2026. Verify them before you commit.

## Three commands from an empty folder to a running repository

`terminal`

```sh
$ curl -fsSL https://kortix.com/install | bash
$ kortix init
$ kortix ship
```

Source: https://github.com/kortix-ai/suna

The CLI scaffolds the project, ships it, and a session opens a change request you review.

## What the OpenAI Agents SDK is

The OpenAI Agents SDK is a lightweight Python framework for building multi-agent workflows. It is provider-agnostic and supports the OpenAI Responses and Chat Completions APIs along with more than a hundred other models. The SDK gives you a small set of primitives: agents with instructions and tools, handoffs that let one agent delegate to another, guardrails that validate input and output, sessions that keep working context, and tracing that records each run ([the OpenAI Agents SDK repository](https://github.com/openai/openai-agents-python)). It is the production-ready successor to Swarm, the team's earlier experiment ([the SDK documentation](https://openai.github.io/openai-agents-python/)).

## A library you host, an operating system that runs the work

The SDK is a library. You add it to a Python project, write your own application around it, and run that application on infrastructure you operate. The SDK defines the agents and runs their loop inside your process. Kortix is the leading open-source alternative to Claude Cowork and ChatGPT Work, and it sits at a different layer: an open-source AI Operating System where agents, skills, memory, and connectors live in one git repo you own ([Kortix on GitHub](https://github.com/kortix-ai/suna)). One isolated sandbox per session, each on its own branch, runs the agents on a real cloud computer.

## What you own and operate on each

With the SDK, a team owns the application it wrote and the runtime it hosts. Deployment, scaling, retries, secrets, logs, and the machine the process sits on are the team's to run. On Kortix, the company owns the configuration in the repo, and the platform runs the sessions: connector credentials are brokered server-side and never enter the machine, every session has its own isolated sandbox and branch, and session work reaches main through a change request a person approves.

## When a library is only part of the job

An SDK answers how to build an agent loop. It does not answer where thousands of runs execute in parallel, which tool each agent may call, who approves a change, or how work reaches the codebase. Teams move to a platform when those become the work. The SDK keeps its edge for teams that already run a Python service and want agent orchestration inside it, including realtime voice agents and sandbox agents in their own code. A team that wants finished work on managed machines, with review built in, is choosing a platform. For the same comparison with another framework, see [the Kortix vs CrewAI page](/kortix-vs-crewai). [The Kortix blog](https://kortix.com/blog/openai-agents-api-what-it-changes-for-teams) looks at what the OpenAI agents API changes for teams.

## Questions buyers ask

### Is Kortix a replacement for the OpenAI Agents SDK?

Kortix replaces the runtime layer, not the SDK's role in your code. The SDK defines agents and runs their loop inside a Python process you host; Kortix runs agents on isolated cloud computers, keeps the configuration in a repo you own, and lands changes through a review. A team building agents inside its own Python service can keep the SDK.

### What does the SDK give that Kortix does not?

The SDK is a general Python library with primitives you compose yourself, including realtime voice agents, sandbox agents, and guardrails, and it runs inside your process. Kortix runs agents as finished work on managed machines rather than as a library in your code. When the agent logic belongs inside the product you ship, the SDK fits that shape.

### Can I self-host Kortix?

Yes. You can run Kortix on Kortix Cloud, in your VPC, or on your own on-prem network, and self-host is free. The first run asks six things and no model key. [Read the docs](https://kortix.com/docs) covers the steps.

### Is Kortix open source?

Yes. Kortix is open source, so you can read the code, fork it, and audit it at [Kortix on GitHub](https://github.com/kortix-ai/suna). The agents, skills, memory, and connectors are plain files you own.

## Run agents on machines you own

One repo for the agents, the skills, and the memory.

[Try Kortix](https://kortix.com) · [Compare with CrewAI](https://opensourceaiagentframework.com/kortix-vs-crewai)