Sakana Fugu by Sakana AI
Medley vs. Sakana Fugu
Sakana Fugu routes complex work through a managed cloud API with strong benchmarks. Medley shows you the plan, runs locally with BYOK, and attributes cost to every finished task.
Free · Mac OS
Sakana Fugu is a managed multi-agent cloud service — a 7B Conductor model plus TRINITY routing across a frontier model pool. It targets enterprise users and researchers tackling multi-step problems with an OpenAI-compatible API.
Medley represents the opposite architectural bet: local execution, visible DAG decomposition, full BYOK, per-task cost receipts, and a human attention queue — no black-box routing, no managed billing layer.
What Sakana Fugu does well
Fugu delivers strong software engineering benchmark results and handles code review plus research-style tasks through a drop-in API. For teams that want managed infrastructure and minimal integration work, the serverless model is attractive.
Pricing tiers (Standard $20/mo, PAYG, Max $200/mo) package access without operating your own orchestration layer. Multi-agent parallelism happens in the cloud without local setup.
Where Sakana Fugu stops
Routing is opaque — you cannot see which model handled which sub-task, edit the execution plan, or interrupt mid-run with full audit trail. There is no BYOK; you pay Sakana’s managed rates, not your negotiated provider pricing.
Fully autonomous by design — no centralized attention queue for human sign-offs. Regional access has been limited (EU/EEA blocked as of research date). Data passes through Sakana’s cloud, not your Mac.
What Medley does differently
Medley runs on your Mac with your keys. Every sub-task is visible in an editable DAG before and during execution. Humans enter through an attention queue — not excluded from the loop.
Cost per completed task, decision memory, and cross-domain missions (code + GTM + content) address the gaps left by a black-box API optimized for benchmark scores.
Key differences
Transparency
Medley shows the DAG and routing decisions. Fugu routes invisibly through managed infrastructure.
BYOK and local
Medley is local-first with your keys. Fugu is cloud-only with no BYOK.
Human-in-the-loop
Medley queues decisions that need you. Fugu runs fully autonomous.
Cost model
Medley: per-task receipts to your providers. Fugu: per-token through Sakana.
Full product comparison
| Medley | Sakana Fugu | |
|---|---|---|
| Product type | Project orchestrator | Managed multi-agent cloud API |
| Coding vs. non-coding work | Both — coding + GTM, content, ads, CRO | Both — code review + research tasks |
| Project layer | Project-level — task decomposition across the project | Session-level — black-box API, no DAG |
| Attention queue / human-in-the-loop | Centralized queue — humans pulled in only when needed | Fully autonomous — no human intervention |
| BYOK (bring your own key) | Yes — fully BYOK | No — managed service, no BYOK |
| Local vs. cloud | Local — desktop app | Cloud-only — serverless API |
| Model support | Claude Code, Codex — dynamic routing | 7B Conductor + 0.6B TRINITY routing frontier pool |
| Platform / OS | Mac — desktop app | Platform-agnostic API (web console + OpenRouter) |
| Pricing & business model | Free — BYOK, pay your own API costs | Standard $20/mo or PAYG ($5/1M tokens); Max $200/mo |
| Target user / ICP | Founders & power users of Claude Code / Codex | Enterprise users, researchers, multi-step problem solving |
| Open source | No | No |
Data as of June 2026. Sources: web research, medley.sh.
Which should you choose?
Choose Sakana Fugu if
- You want a managed OpenAI-compatible API with no local setup
- Opaque routing is acceptable for your compliance and trust model
- You are outside restricted regions and can access the service
- Benchmark-optimized coding agents are your primary workload
Choose Medley if
- You need local execution, BYOK, and data on your Mac
- You want visible decomposition and per-task cost attribution
- Human sign-off gates and an attention queue are required
- You orchestrate Claude Code and Codex across code and business work
Medley vs. Sakana Fugu FAQ
- Is Fugu easier to integrate?
- Fugu’s OpenAI-compatible API is drop-in simple. Medley is a desktop orchestration product — different integration model, different control tradeoff.
- Is Fugu available in the EU?
- As of June 2026 research, Fugu was blocked in the EU/EEA. Medley is available globally as a free Mac download.
- Does Fugu have better coding benchmarks?
- Fugu reports very strong SWE-bench results. Medley optimizes for founder workflows — cross-domain missions, transparency, and cost per task — not benchmark leaderboard position.
Transparent orchestration on your Mac.
Join the waitlist for Medley — no black box, no managed markup, full BYOK.
Join the waitlistW