> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.yambr.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Comparison > Open Computer Use vs open-terminal vs Claude.ai vs OpenAI Operator. A trade-off map, not a ranking. Open Computer Use and [open-terminal](https://github.com/open-webui/open-terminal) solve the same core problem — give an LLM a place to run code — with fundamentally different architectures. This is not a ranking; it's a map of trade-offs. We respect the open-terminal team. If you spot an inaccuracy, [open an issue](https://github.com/Yambr/open-computer-use/issues) — we want this fair and factual. Claude.ai and OpenAI Operator are cloud-only, not self-hosted — the overview table has them for reference. ## Overview | Feature | Open Computer Use | open-terminal | Claude.ai | OpenAI Operator | | ------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------- | ---------------- | | Self-hosted | Yes | Yes | No | No | | Any LLM | Yes (OpenAI-compatible) | Any (via Open WebUI) | Claude only | GPT only | | Code execution | Full Linux sandbox | Sandbox / bare metal | Sandbox | No | | Live browser | CDP streaming (shared, interactive) | No | Screenshot-based | Screenshot-based | | Terminal | ttyd + tmux (persistent, side panel) | PTY + WebSocket | IDE + terminal | N/A | | Sub-agent | Claude Code CLI, interactive TTY + MCP | N/A | Built-in | N/A | | Skills system | 13 built-in (auto-injected) + custom | Open WebUI native (text-only) | Custom instructions | N/A | | Document creation | PPTX/DOCX/XLSX/PDF via skills | No | Via code | N/A | | File preview | Server-side (docx/pdf/pptx/xlsx/code) | Client-side (via Open WebUI) | IDE | N/A | | Container isolation | Docker (runc), per chat | Shared container (OS-level users) | Docker (gVisor) | N/A | | MCP server | Streamable HTTP | FastMCP (stdio + streamable-http) | N/A | N/A | | Image size | \~11 GB (full stack) | \~2 GB / \~200 MB / \~100 MB | N/A | N/A | | Setup complexity | Docker Compose + reverse proxy + env config | Single `docker run` or `pip install` | N/A | N/A | | Jupyter notebooks | No | Yes (per-session kernels via nbclient) | No | No | | Bare metal | No (Docker required) | Yes (`pip install open-terminal`) | No | No | | Port proxy | No | Yes (HTTP reverse-proxy to localhost services) | No | No | | Ecosystem | Multi-client MCP (Open WebUI, n8n, OpenAI Agents SDK, LiteLLM) | Native Open WebUI integration + [Terminals](https://github.com/open-webui/terminals) orchestrator | N/A | N/A | ## Architecture and isolation **Open Computer Use** creates a fresh Docker container per chat session. If the AI breaks something — installs wrong packages, corrupts files, fills disk — only that chat is affected. Next chat starts clean. Containers are GC'd after idle timeout; per-container limits (2 GB RAM, 1 CPU default) are enforced. **open-terminal** runs a single container (or bare-metal process) shared across sessions. Multi-user mode creates OS-level accounts with isolated home directories, file-ownership enforcement, and path validation. For container-per-user, the separate [Terminals](https://github.com/open-webui/terminals) project orchestrates dedicated containers. **Why it matters.** Non-technical users + agent executing arbitrary code is the worst case for a shared env. Container-per-chat makes every session disposable. **Trade-off.** 2 GB per container is a ceiling, not an allocation — idle or light tasks use very little. Chromium and LibreOffice can push the ceiling. open-terminal is lighter but shares kernel and network between users. ## MCP tools — different design philosophies **Open Computer Use** — 5 high-level tools: | Tool | Role | | ------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `bash_tool` | Run commands with progress streaming, 15s heartbeats, 30K output cap | | `view` | Read files/dirs with line numbers, base64 images, binary detection | | `create_file` | Create files with auto-parent-dir | | `str_replace` | Find-and-replace with uniqueness validation | | `sub_agent` | Delegate to Claude Code (model selection, session resume, MCP auto-config, cost tracking) | **open-terminal** — 15+ fine-grained tools across files, processes, and notebooks. **Trade-off.** Few powerful primitives (the AI uses `bash_tool` for search, process mgmt, everything) vs. fine-grained operations that don't require shell knowledge. ## Security | Aspect | Open Computer Use | open-terminal | | -------------------- | ------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | | Isolation | Docker containers | OS accounts (chmod 2770 + group membership) | | Privilege escalation | Non-root + passwordless sudo; `no-new-privileges` | Non-root + passwordless sudo (full image); no sudo in slim/alpine | | Resource limits | Per-container | OS-level only | | Egress firewall | Docker network policies | Built-in DNS whitelist (dnsmasq + iptables + ipset) | | API auth | Bearer token (`MCP_API_KEY`) | Bearer token (`hmac.compare_digest`) | | Path traversal | Sanitized `chat_id` + `safe_path` | `resolve_path` + `is_path_allowed` | ## What Open Computer Use offers that open-terminal doesn't * Document creation skills — 13 built-in with scripts and templates for pptx/docx/xlsx/pdf * Skill auto-injection — structured instructions in the system prompt + per-user skills via Settings Wrapper * Live shared browser — Playwright + CDP, AI automates via CDP, user watches/interacts in the same Chromium * Claude Code sub-agent — model selection, session resume, cost tracking, auto-configured MCP servers * Server-side file preview — renders from any MCP client, not tied to Open WebUI * Container-per-chat isolation * Persistent terminal via ttyd + tmux; full escape hatch * Pre-installed stack (\~180 packages: LibreOffice, Playwright, Tesseract, OpenCV, ImageMagick, GitLab CLI, fonts, ML libs) * Vision AI skill * Multi-client MCP tested with Open WebUI, n8n, OpenAI Agents SDK, LiteLLM * Container resurrection — saved metadata recreates GC'd containers with same volumes/env * Smart tool output — bash\_tool streams with heartbeats, caps output, semantic exit codes ## What open-terminal offers that we don't * Jupyter notebooks — per-session kernels * Bare-metal mode — `pip install`, no Docker * Port proxy — HTTP reverse-proxy to localhost services * Lightweight image variants (slim \~200 MB, alpine \~100 MB) * Document text extraction as API endpoint (11 formats) * Process stdin — send input to running processes * Session CWD tracking * Runtime package install via env vars * Docker-in-Docker — Docker CLI + Compose + Buildx pre-installed * TOML config files * Per-process JSONL logs with retention * Simpler setup — single `docker run` ## When to choose what **Open Computer Use** — workflows that need browser automation, document creation, or Claude Code sub-agent. Container-per-chat isolation. Multi-client MCP. **open-terminal** — terminal-first workflows, especially in Open WebUI. Native integration, minimal setup, Jupyter, port proxy, image variants from \~100 MB. **Both together.** Open WebUI supports connecting to both — pick per task.