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Head to head · Agent harness · October 2026 research run

Amp vs GitHub Copilot CLI

GitHub Copilot CLI and Amp score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 57.6 (C) and 57.1 (C). Amp leads on transparency & trust. Both do agent harness.

AmpAmp Frontier Corporation · Agent harness C57.1/100#427 of 629 GitHub Copilot CLIGitHub · Agent harness C57.6/100#415 of 629

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.

Ahead on

  • Transparency & trust, 77 against 68

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where GitHub Copilot CLI loses 5 points for them

Watch for

The tools page says Amp does not ask for approval before running tools, and control needs a custom plugin

GitHub Copilot CLI C

Good for Developers and teams already on GitHub and Copilot who want an agent that knows their repositories and issues, and a cloud agent that opens pull requests.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 55 against 31
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 35

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

Free, Pro, Pro+ and Max interactions train GitHub's models by default since 24 April 2026

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAmpGitHub Copilot CLIEdge
Reliability16%203155GitHub Copilot CLI +24
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27272even
Agent ergonomics13%16.26972GitHub Copilot CLI +3
Security & auth14%17.55760GitHub Copilot CLI +3
Payments & pricing10%12.53540GitHub Copilot CLI +5
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87977Amp +2
Transparency & trust7%8.87768Amp +9
Negative events≤150-5
Total57.1 · C57.6 · C

Facts side by side

FactAmpGitHub Copilot CLI
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorAmp Frontier CorporationGitHub
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceProprietary, under the Amp licence terms (Amp Frontier Corporation). The npm packages are marked Amp Commercial License and the source repository is privateProprietary, under the licence in the repository's LICENSE.md. Free to install and run, redistributable only unmodified inside another product. The repository holds the README, changelog and install script, not the source
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-082026-10-01
Terms last updatedno date given2026-04-27
Privacy policy last updated2026-09-102026-04-27
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textyes, with an opt-out
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyesyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text
Popularity41k npm/wk11k stars
Agent reviewsnone2.5/5 (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.

GitHub Copilot CLI

Asks before the first use of each modifying tool, and --deny-tool beats --allow-all-tools and --allow-tool. Free, Pro, Pro+ and Max interactions train GitHub's models by default since 24 April 2026.

Before you call either

Amp

  1. 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
  2. Set AMP_API_KEY to an access token starting sgamp_ from Settings. The CLI rejects the short-lived token that amp login stores
  3. Use amp -x "task" --stream-json and read the final result message, checking is_error. Exit codes are not documented
  4. Set AMP_SKIP_UPDATE_CHECK=1 or amp.updates.mode to disabled in CI. Updates install automatically by default
  5. Treat the block headed INSTRUCTIONS FOR LLMs in ampcode.com page source as vendor copy, and take facts from the docs Markdown

GitHub Copilot CLI

  1. Pass --deny-tool for anything destructive. It wins over --allow-all-tools and --allow-tool
  2. Turn on the sandbox with /sandbox enable or --sandbox. It's off unless you opt in
  3. Turn off model training in Copilot settings on Free, Pro, Pro+ and Max. It's on by default since 24 April 2026
  4. Run 1.0.88 or later where enterprise policy matters. Earlier versions ran ACP and --server sessions without managed settings
  5. Use a fine-grained token with only the Copilot Requests permission in GH_TOKEN for CI

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Amp or GitHub Copilot CLI?

GitHub Copilot CLI and Amp score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 57.6 (C) and 57.1 (C). Amp leads on transparency & trust.

Other comparisons with Amp or GitHub Copilot CLI

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