Codex Security vs Ponytail

A side by side look at Codex Security and Ponytail: pricing, features and what each one is best for.

In this comparison

	Codex Security Code Generation Visit Codex Security	Ponytail Code Generation Visit Ponytail
What it costs
Pricing	Open source	Open source
Pricing details	The CLI and SDK are Apache-2.0 and free to install from npm as @openai/codex-security. Scans are billed as model usage against your own key, and OPENAI_API_KEY, Amazon Bedrock, OpenRouter and Fireworks all work as providers. Set a soft ceiling with --max-cost; the docs are explicit that it is an estimate, not a hard spending cap. Note that some cybersecurity requests and protected findings require approval through Trusted Access for Cyber.	Free and MIT licensed. There is no paid tier and no pricing page. Installs as a plugin on Claude Code, Codex, Copilot CLI, Gemini CLI and Pi, or as rule files for agents without a plugin system.
Free option	Free tier	No free option
What it is
What it does	OpenAI's application security agent. An Apache-2.0 CLI and TypeScript SDK that finds vulnerabilities, validates them before reporting, and proposes fixes.	An MIT ruleset for coding agents built around one ladder: does this need to exist, does the codebase already have it, can it be one line, and only then build.
The details
GitHub stars	10,937stars	130,423stars
Language	TypeScript	JavaScript
License	Apache License 2.0	MIT License
Last commit	30 Sept 2026	4 Sept 2026

What it costs

Pricing: Open source
Pricing details: The CLI and SDK are Apache-2.0 and free to install from npm as @openai/codex-security. Scans are billed as model usage against your own key, and OPENAI_API_KEY, Amazon Bedrock, OpenRouter and Fireworks all work as providers. Set a soft ceiling with --max-cost; the docs are explicit that it is an estimate, not a hard spending cap. Note that some cybersecurity requests and protected findings require approval through Trusted Access for Cyber.
Free option: Free tier

What it is

What it does: OpenAI's application security agent. An Apache-2.0 CLI and TypeScript SDK that finds vulnerabilities, validates them before reporting, and proposes fixes.

The details

What it costs

Pricing: Open source
Pricing details: Free and MIT licensed. There is no paid tier and no pricing page. Installs as a plugin on Claude Code, Codex, Copilot CLI, Gemini CLI and Pi, or as rule files for agents without a plugin system.
Free option: No free option

What it is

What it does: An MIT ruleset for coding agents built around one ladder: does this need to exist, does the codebase already have it, can it be one line, and only then build.

The details