Comparison
Poly vs qm, YC's open-source multiplayer agent harness
qm gives a whole company an agent it runs itself. Poly gives a small group a room with one.
qm and Poly are both multiplayer agent products, built for different scales. qm, open-sourced by YC Software in July 2026 under the MIT license, is "a multiplayer agent harness for work" in Slack and on the web: a company agent you deploy on your own cloud, where every person and channel gets its own memory, files, sandbox and scheduled jobs, used for accounting, legal and engineering alike. Poly (usepoly.co) is a hosted room where a small group steers one AI coding agent together: every member prompts in one timeline, approves each change before it happens and gets a receipt per turn. qm suits a company with a platform engineer that wants its own in-house agent. Poly suits a group that wants to start building in a browser today.
| Poly | qm | |
|---|---|---|
| Built for | A small group building software | A whole company's agent |
| Where it runs | Hosted by Poly | Your cloud (Fly or AWS) |
| Several people work with one agent | Yes, live in one timeline | Yes, in Slack channels and on the web |
| Who can approve an action | Any member, per change | The requester only, in Strict mode |
| Agents | Claude Code and Codex | Pi, OpenCode, Codex, Claude Code |
| Models | Included | Any, on your own keys |
| Setup | None | Deploy and run it yourself |
| Price | Free start; $20 or $50 per AI user | Free software; you pay hosting and models |
What qm does
qm runs Pi, OpenCode, Codex and Claude Code harnesses, with any model through a gateway, and people work with the shared agent in Slack channels and on the web. You host it yourself on Fly or AWS with Postgres. Approvals exist only in its optional Strict setting, which pauses every tool call, and only the person who asked can approve or deny; the default setting blocks private-network access only. Session sharing is a read-only snapshot, and actions are audited. The software is free; you pay for hosting and model keys. Its first release came on July 31, 2026, and it had more than 15,000 GitHub stars by October.
Where qm is stronger
- The whole company. Slack-native, so anyone can use it, for any kind of work, not only code.
- Background work. Scheduled jobs, webhooks and internal web apps.
- Your cloud, your data. Self-hosted, with admin controls over security settings.
- Free and open source.
Where Poly is stronger
- Nothing to deploy. Poly is hosted. qm needs you to run it, and YC suggests having a platform engineer.
- Any member approves. In Poly anyone in the room can approve or reject a change. In qm only the requester can, and only in Strict mode.
- A live room. One timeline everyone watches, plain-language cards and a live preview of the app.
- Models included, with receipts. No keys to manage, and a receipt per turn showing who ran it and what it cost.
Which should you pick?
- A company of tens to hundreds of people that wants its own agent in Slack, with someone to run it: qm.
- A small group that wants to build software together today, in a browser, with approvals from anyone in the room: Poly.
More options are in Multiplayer AI tools.
Common questions
Is qm a coding tool?
Not only. qm is a general company agent; YC uses it for accounting, legal and engineering, and it can drive Claude Code or Codex. Poly is built around building software together.
Who can approve qm's actions?
Approvals happen only in qm's optional Strict mode, which pauses every tool call, and only the person who asked can approve or deny. In Poly, any member of the room can approve or reject a change.
Do I need to host qm myself?
Yes, on your own cloud with Postgres; YC suggests having a platform engineer. Poly is hosted.