CAIN-42 CAIN StudioHow CAIN-42 compares · Platform agent governance
CAIN-42 vs OpenAI Agents SDK + AgentKit
The Agents SDK provides agents, handoffs, input/output guardrails with tripwires, sessions and tracing. AgentKit added Agent Builder and Evals; OpenAI announced they wind down from 2026-11-30 in favour of the SDK and Workspace Agents.
What OpenAI Agents SDK + AgentKit does well
- The default SDK for building agents on OpenAI models.
- Guardrails with tripwires and built-in tracing.
- Enormous developer reach and model ecosystem.
What CAIN-42 does differently
- Enforces at the tool-call boundary, before anything runs.
- Orders authorization through a Byzantine quorum (3-of-4): one "yes" is never enough.
- Leaves a per-action signed receipt you can verify offline with a clean-room verifier.
- Authority continuity: a change to the model, tool, memory, skill or delegation forces a re-check.
- Self-serve from $19.75/mo; runs hosted, self-hosted or air-gapped.
Capability difference
| Capability | CAIN-42 | OpenAI Agents SDK + AgentKit | Source (verified 2026-10-14) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary focus | Runtime governance in the execution path | Agent framework and guardrails for OpenAI models | OpenAI source page verified 2026-10-14 |
| Blocks the tool call at the boundary | Yes — MCPGate halts before the tool runs | Partial (in-app guardrails + tripwires) | |
| Byzantine-ordered authorization (quorum cert) | Yes — 3-of-4 PBFT quorum certificate | No* | |
| Per-action signed receipt, offline-verifiable | Yes — Ed25519, hash-chained, offline-verifiable | Tracing spans | |
| Enterprise agent identity / registry | Partial (agent/passport libraries) | No* | |
| Vendor-neutral | Hosted, self-hosted or air-gapped | Tied to the OpenAI stack | |
| Public entry price | $19.75/mo self-serve | Free SDK; model usage billed |
When to pick which
Pick the OpenAI Agents SDK to build quickly on OpenAI models. Pick CAIN-42 as the enforcement and evidence layer when the same agent must be governed across models and clouds.
Based on each vendor's public homepage and product pages, last reviewed 2026-10-14. No affiliation and no claim about their internals. "No*" means we found no public documentation of that capability, not that the vendor cannot do it.