Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

Antigravity CLI vs Emdash

Antigravity CLI and Emdash score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 54.7 (C) and 53.9 (D). Emdash leads on reliability and payments & pricing. Both do agent harnesses.

Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 1500 harnesses comparisons

Which one, for what

Antigravity CLI C

Best for Developers on Google AI plans or Gemini Enterprise who want a terminal agent with a sandbox on by default and access to several model families, depending on plan.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 78 against 55
  • Agent ergonomics, 78 against 55
  • Security & auth, 53 against 38

Watch for

Closed source. The repository holds the README, changelog and examples, with no source and no licence file

Emdash D

Best for Developers who want parallel agents in worktrees, fed from their issue tracker, locally or over SSH.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 55 against 43
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 30

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it
  • Open source
  • No incidents deducted, where Antigravity CLI loses 3 points for them

Watch for

Telemetry on unless turned off in Settings or with TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Payments & pricing Emdash +30

Antigravity CLI 30

Harness reading of the published rubric. No payment protocol in the docs, the pricing page or the plans page (0). Plan prices are public without a login, with a $0 individual plan and Gemini Enterprise Standard or Plus from $30 a seat a month, and Google AI Pro at $20 and Ultra at $100 or $200 a month per Google's 19 May 2026 post. Overages draw on AI credits at Gemini Enterprise consumption rates, which were not read, so this is plan-level pricing (10). The pricing page lists the $0 plan as needing no subscription, and none of the pages read asks for a payment method, but the account flow was not tested (20). Sign-in is a browser flow with a Google account, or a Gemini API key set by hand, and the CLI won't start unauthenticated (0). 0+10+20+0 = 30.

Emdash 60

Free self-hosted software with nothing to buy, so 0 for a protocol and 20 each for public pricing, a free tier and onboarding with no sign-up, 60.

Schema & documentation Antigravity CLI +23

Antigravity CLI 78

Framework reading. No published JSON Schema for settings.json, mcp_config.json or hooks.json was found, although the docs type each key (10). llms.txt at antigravity.google/llms.txt, and every docs page has a Markdown copy (10). Pages say when to use each permission preset and execution mode, what each allows and when the sandbox applies (15). Presets, modes, output formats, status values and effort levels are enumerated (13). The headless page documents the output envelope, the status values and exit codes, with a jq example (15). A dated changelog on the docs site and versioned release notes and tags in the repository (15). 10+10+15+13+15+15 = 78.

Emdash 55

Harness reading. Docs site and a workspace server package (55).

Agent ergonomics Antigravity CLI +23

Antigravity CLI 78

Framework reading, adapted to a harness driven by a pipeline. MCP tools can be allowed or refused by server and tool, and a 20,000-token budget for user rules stops large rule sets from crowding out skills and MCP tools (16). No turn or spend cap appears in the flag reference, and --print-timeout sets a wall-clock limit only, with no limit by default (10). The JSON envelope carries a status field and token usage, and since 1.4.11 a finished_reason field says why a turn ended early (16). Exit codes are documented, but a tool soft-denied in headless mode still exits 0 (14). --continue and --conversation resume earlier runs (14). A Python SDK on PyPI, which is a separate package, and no second SDK language for the CLI (8). 16+10+16+14+14+8 = 78.

Emdash 55

Harness reading. Issue intake from Linear, GitHub, Jira and others, diff review, pull requests and CI checks in one place, local or over SSH (55).

Security & auth Antigravity CLI +15

Antigravity CLI 53

Framework reading (credentials and telemetry defaults, approvals and sandboxing, guardrails, audit, security programme), five lines. Credentials are a Google account sign-in kept in the operating system keyring, or a Gemini API key in settings.json. The README says using the CLI allows Google to collect Interactions until the user opts out (10). Since 1.3.5 on macOS and Linux and 1.4.4 on Windows 11 24H2 the default for personal accounts is Auto mode, which runs commands in the terminal sandbox, hides ~/.ssh, .env and, since 1.4.6, ~/.docker and ~/.kube, blocks network access outside approved domains, and has a separate agent review commands that leave the sandbox. Auto approves file edits and safe commands without asking, Turbo turns the sandbox off, and business accounts start in Default (18). Hooks run before and after tool calls and can block one, and since 1.4.11 a PreInvocation hook can stop a turn. No documented defence against prompt injection in fetched content was found (7). The CLI log records model resolution, and approvals show in the conversation, but no exportable audit log was found (10). google.com has a valid security.txt with reports to g.co/vulnz (per the 10 October check), antigravity.google serves none, no CLI advisory appears in the changelog, and NVD returns no CVE for Antigravity on 4 November. The repository's advisory page couldn't be read (8). 10+18+7+10+8 = 53.

Emdash 38

Harness reading. Telemetry is described as optional and disabled in Settings or with TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false, which reads as on by default (15 of 30). Worktree per task and remote machines over SSH (10 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance (5). No audit log (5). No security policy file found (3). 15 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 3 = 38.

Reliability Emdash +12

Antigravity CLI 43

Local-package reading. An official installer for macOS, Linux and Windows, with an Android build for Termux, that checks a SHA-512 checksum from Google's release manifest before it installs (install.sh re-read on 4 November) (20). No public CI or test suite, since the repository holds no source and no workflows, only issue templates (0). Open issues and pull requests could not be read, so the crash and regression line is unchecked (0). Behaviour changes ship in patch releases as Changed or Improved bullets with no breaking-change heading, such as 1.4.6 (23 October) closing ~/.docker and ~/.kube to sandboxed commands, and 1.2.10's exit-code change (8). Version 1.x, so stable under the rule (15). 20+0+0+8+15 = 43.

Emdash 55

Local software. Homebrew cask and installers for macOS, Windows and Linux (20). A code-consistency check and release workflows; no test workflow found (10). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Stable tags to v1.2.11, release notes on GitHub (10). Version 1.2.11 (15). 20 + 10 + 0 + 10 + 15 = 55.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAntigravity CLIEmdashEdge
Reliability16%204355Emdash +12
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27855Antigravity CLI +23
Agent ergonomics13%16.27855Antigravity CLI +23
Security & auth14%17.55338Antigravity CLI +15
Payments & pricing10%12.53060Emdash +30
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.86870Emdash +2
Transparency & trust7%8.85554Antigravity CLI +1
Negative events≤15-30
TotalC 54.7/100D 53.9/100

Facts side by side

FactAntigravity CLIEmdash
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorGoogleGeneral Action, Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuth or keyNone
PricingFreemiumFree
x402nono
LicenceProprietary. The repository holds the README, changelog and examples, with no source and no licence file. Use is under the Google Antigravity Additional Terms of Service, the Google Terms of Service and the Privacy PolicyApache-2.0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
Last release2026-10-302026-11-06
Terms last updatedno date givenno document linked
Privacy policy last updated2026-10-01no document linked
Customer content may train modelsyes, with an opt-outnot read yet
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot read yet
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot read yet
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot read yet
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot read yet

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

Antigravity CLI

Google's terminal agent, a closed-source binary whose default Auto mode runs commands in a terminal sandbox on macOS, Linux and Windows 11, with documented headless JSON output. Interactions are collected for Google product improvement unless users opt out, a headless run exits 0 when a tool is denied, and 1.4.7 fixed a cross-user token flaw without an advisory.

Emdash

A mature open-source app for parallel coding agents in Git worktrees, with issue intake from a dozen trackers and remote machines over SSH. Telemetry is on unless you turn it off, and no test workflow was found in the repository.

Before you call either

Antigravity CLI

  1. Read the status and finished_reason fields from --output-format json and read stderr too. A tool refused for lack of approval still exits 0
  2. Pre-approve each shell command and tool a headless run needs with action(target) rules under permissions.allow in ~/.gemini/antigravity-cli/settings.json, because headless runs cannot ask
  3. Export GEMINI_API_KEY after setting modelProvider to gemini. The CLI won't start when the key is missing, and setting the variable alone has no effect
  4. Turn off Enable Telemetry in /config before running on private repositories if Interactions should not be used for product improvement
  5. Grant sandbox access to ~/.docker or ~/.kube explicitly since 1.4.6 if a task needs Docker or Kubernetes credentials

Emdash

  1. Launch with TELEMETRY_ENABLED=false if you don't want telemetry
  2. Use the SSH mode to keep agents on a remote machine

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Antigravity CLI or Emdash?

Antigravity CLI and Emdash score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 54.7 (C) and 53.9 (D). Emdash leads on reliability and payments & pricing.

Are Antigravity CLI and Emdash open source?

No open-source release is listed for Antigravity CLI. Emdash is open source (Apache-2.0).

Other comparisons with Antigravity CLI or Emdash

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