Head to head · Agent harness · October 2026 research run
Amp vs Gemini CLI
Gemini CLI scores 72 (BB) on agent readiness against Amp's 57.1 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do agent harness.
Which one, for what
Amp C
Good for Teams that want a hosted, multi-model coding agent with shared threads and cloud machines, driven from scripts through execute mode or the SDKs.
No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.
Watch for
The tools page says Amp does not ask for approval before running tools, and control needs a custom plugin
Gemini CLI BB
Good for Developers and CI jobs that want an open-source harness with a free tier and documented headless output.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 71 against 31
- Schema & documentation, 93 against 72
- Agent ergonomics, 78 against 69
- Security & auth, 67 against 57
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 35
- Maintenance & community, 88 against 79
- Transparency & trust, 87 against 77
Also in its favour
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Free to start without a card
- Open source
Watch for
Sandboxing is off by default, and the default macOS profile allows network
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Amp | Gemini CLI | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 31 | 71 | Gemini CLI +40 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 72 | 93 | Gemini CLI +21 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 69 | 78 | Gemini CLI +9 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 57 | 67 | Gemini CLI +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 35 | 40 | Gemini CLI +5 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 79 | 88 | Gemini CLI +9 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 77 | 87 | Gemini CLI +10 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -2 | |
| Total | 57.1 · C | 72 · BB |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Amp | Gemini CLI |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Amp Frontier Corporation | |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary, under the Amp licence terms (Amp Frontier Corporation). The npm packages are marked Amp Commercial License and the source repository is private | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-09-29 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-10 | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 41k npm/wk | 107k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |
Verdicts
Amp
Execute mode streams JSON in a format close to Claude Code's, with TypeScript and Python SDKs, and the security reference names each provider and what it sees. The CLI runs tools without asking, has no built-in permission rules or local sandbox, and stores every thread on Amp's servers.
Gemini CLI
Apache-2.0, CI passing on main, and 583 open issues with priority labels. Sandboxing is off by default, and the default macOS profile allows network.
Before you call either
Amp
- Run unattended jobs in a container or VM. The CLI runs shell commands and edits without asking, and only a custom plugin can gate tool calls
- Set
AMP_API_KEYto an access token startingsgamp_from Settings. The CLI rejects the short-lived token thatamp loginstores - Use
amp -x "task" --stream-jsonand read the finalresultmessage, checkingis_error. Exit codes are not documented - Set
AMP_SKIP_UPDATE_CHECK=1oramp.updates.modetodisabledin CI. Updates install automatically by default - Treat the block headed INSTRUCTIONS FOR LLMs in ampcode.com page source as vendor copy, and take facts from the docs Markdown
Gemini CLI
- Set
GEMINI_TRUST_WORKSPACEto true only for trusted inputs in CI. Since 0.39.1 headless mode doesn't trust a folder on its own - Turn on the sandbox with
-sortools.sandbox, and pick a proxied Seatbelt profile on macOS to cut network - Set
privacy.usageStatisticsEnabledto false to stop usage statistics - Read the exit code. 42 is bad input and 53 is the turn limit
- Use
--output-format stream-jsonto get tool calls and results as JSONL events
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Amp or Gemini CLI?
Gemini CLI scores 72 (BB) on agent readiness against Amp's 57.1 (C), and leads in every scored category.
Are Amp and Gemini CLI open source?
No open-source release is listed for Amp. Gemini CLI is open source (Apache-2.0).
Other comparisons with Amp or Gemini CLI
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- Claude Code vs Gemini CLI
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- Cursor CLI vs Gemini CLI
- Devin vs Gemini CLI
- Pi vs Gemini CLI
- Gemini CLI vs GitHub Copilot CLI
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- Gemini CLI vs OpenAI Codex
- Gemini CLI vs OpenCode
- Gemini CLI vs OpenHands
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- Gemini CLI vs Qwen Code
- Amp vs Paperclip
- Gemini CLI vs Paperclip
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/amp-vs-gemini-cli.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/amp.json·/api/v1/tools/gemini-cli.json - From a terminal
anchor compare amp gemini-cli(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "amp", "b": "gemini-cli"}at/mcp, no key