AgentLoop vs Darkmoon: Features, Pricing & Which Is Better (2026)
A side-by-side comparison of AgentLoop and Darkmoon — features, pricing, and ideal use cases — to help you decide which AI tool fits your workflow.
AgentLoop
Edward Yi
AgentLoop turns a single ChatGPT plan into unattended Codex worker + independent-critic cycles that build against your local rubric until the work passes.
Key features
- Fresh Worker Per Cycle: Each build cycle spawns a clean Codex worker with fresh context so long-running loops do not accumulate stale state or memory drift.
- Independent Critic Process: A separate fresh process grades every result against your rubric so passing tests never become permission to stop looking.
- Rubric in GUIDELINES.md: Definition-of-done lives as plain Markdown in your repo and is read on every cycle, so standards persist while prompts do not.
- Evidence Carried in Files: Worker output, critic verdicts, and fixes are written to project files so the next cycle inherits the actual state of the work.
- Bounded Goal + Cycle Budget: You cap the loop with a goal.md and cycle budget so unattended runs stop at a predictable ceiling.
- MCP Status Interface: Ask ChatGPT for status through MCP so you can monitor cycles, verdicts, transcripts, and cost without opening the dashboard.
- Local-first Install: git clone the pinned v1.1.0 release and run node src/daemon.js — no npm install, no hosted workspace, MIT licensed.
Best for
- Shipping a bounded feature: Add a CSV export across UI, API, and regression suite while the critic enforces end-to-end behavior and edge cases.
- Migration work: Run an unattended migration where fresh workers apply the change and the critic verifies each step against a rubric.
- Hardening pass: Give AgentLoop a hardening goal so it iterates on defects the existing test suite misses, like malformed input handling.
- Product polish loop: Point AgentLoop at a polish goal with clear acceptance criteria and let it converge to VERDICT: PASS.
- Unattended overnight runs: Kick off a long loop, monitor cycle verdicts, and cancel from the dashboard or via MCP when the receipt looks right.
- Enforcing team standards: Codify team engineering standards in GUIDELINES.md so every worker builds against the same definition of done.
Darkmoon
Darkmoon Project
Open-source autonomous penetration testing platform with 18 AI agents, 80+ integrated tools, live dashboard and publication-ready reports.
Key features
- Multi-Agent Orchestration: Coordinates 18 specialized AI agents that perform distinct pentesting tasks (reconnaissance, exploitation, post-exploitation) to run distributed, autonomous assessments.
- Extensive Tool Integration: Integrates 80+ security tools into a unified workflow, allowing automatic use of scanners, exploitation frameworks, and enumeration utilities without manual tool chaining.
- Live Dashboard Monitoring: Provides a real-time dashboard to observe agent activities, progress, findings, and task status, enabling live oversight and interaction during engagements.
- Evidence Collection & Reproducibility: Captures verifiable evidence (logs, screenshots, commands) for each finding and produces reproducible artifacts that support validation and remediation.
- Publication-Ready Reporting: Automatically generates structured, professional reports summarizing vulnerabilities, impact, steps to reproduce, and remediation guidance suitable for stakeholders.
- Extensibility & Open Source: Distributed under GPLv3 with modular architecture to add custom agents, integrate additional tools, or adapt workflows for specific environments.
- Autonomous Workflow Automation: Chains reconnaissance, exploitation, and validation steps without continuous human intervention to scale routine testing and free analysts for higher-value tasks.
- Autonomous attack orchestration across multiple stages
- 18 specialized agents for different testing tasks
- 80+ integrated security tools
- Live dashboard for monitoring runs
- Publication-ready, evidentiary reports
- Open-source codebase (GPLv3)
- Autonomous multi-agent penetration testing with 18 specialized AI agents
- Integration with 80+ security tools for scanning, exploitation, and analysis
- Live dashboard for real-time monitoring of test progress and agent activity
- Publication-ready, evidence-backed reports for findings and remediation
- Open-source distribution under GPLv3 enabling self-hosting and auditability
- Automated evidence collection and validation of exploits
- Extensible workflows and tool integrations for customizable testing
Best for
- Automated Red Teaming: Run continuous or scheduled autonomous red-team style assessments across an environment to uncover attack paths and validate defenses with minimal human supervision.
- Vulnerability Discovery at Scale: Perform large-scale reconnaissance and automated scanning across many targets using integrated tools to surface emerging vulnerabilities quickly.
- Compliance & Audit Reporting: Generate detailed, reproducible reports for compliance audits that include evidence and remediation steps to demonstrate security posture improvements.
- Security Research & Tooling Integration: Rapidly prototype and evaluate new exploitation techniques by integrating custom tools and agents into Darkmoon’s orchestration framework.
- Continuous Security Testing: Integrate into CI/CD or periodic security workflows to automatically re-assess applications and infrastructure after changes or deployments.
- Incident Reproduction & Forensics: Reproduce exploitation steps and collect verifiable evidence to support incident investigations and post-incident analysis.
- Automated red team / penetration testing
- Continuous security assessments in CI/CD
- Security research and tool evaluation
- Generating evidence-backed reports for compliance
- Integrating multiple pentest tools into automated workflows
- Automated internal and external vulnerability assessments
- Autonomous red-team style engagements and continuous security testing
- Evidence-backed reporting for compliance and remediation tracking
- Proof-of-concept exploit validation and penetration test automation
- Self-hosted security testing pipelines for DevSecOps teams