Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

Antigravity CLI vs Kilo Code CLI

Kilo Code CLI scores 75.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Antigravity CLI's 57.7 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Antigravity CLI leads on agent ergonomics. Both do agent harnesses.

Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 186 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

  • Agent ergonomics, 78 against 72

Watch for

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

Kilo Code CLI BB

Best for Developers who want an open-source terminal agent with per-tool permission rules, an optional sandbox and a choice of provider, and the same engine in VS Code and JetBrains.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 85 against 43
  • Schema & documentation, 90 against 78
  • Security & auth, 66 against 53
  • Payments & pricing, 50 against 30
  • Maintenance & community, 87 against 68
  • Transparency & trust, 76 against 54

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • Free to start without a card
  • Open source

Watch for

Telemetry to PostHog is on by default, and the privacy policy and PRIVACY.md don't mention it

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAntigravity CLIKilo Code CLIEdge
Reliability16%204385Kilo Code CLI +42
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27890Kilo Code CLI +12
Agent ergonomics13%16.27872Antigravity CLI +6
Security & auth14%17.55366Kilo Code CLI +13
Payments & pricing10%12.53050Kilo Code CLI +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.86887Kilo Code CLI +19
Transparency & trust7%8.85476Kilo Code CLI +22
Negative events≤1500
TotalC 57.7/100BB 75.4/100

Facts side by side

FactAntigravity CLIKilo Code CLI
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorGoogleKilo Code Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
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 PolicyMIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-082026-10-07
Terms last updated2026-09-30
Privacy policy last updated2026-10-012026-05-29
Customer content may train modelsyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryes
Popularitynone28k stars, 33k npm/wk

Verdicts

Antigravity CLI

Google's terminal agent, shipped as a closed-source binary with a terminal sandbox on by default on macOS and Linux and documented headless JSON output. Interactions are used to improve Google products unless users opt out, and a headless run exits 0 when a tool is denied.

Kilo Code CLI

Shell commands ask before running by default, and an optional operating-system sandbox blocks writes outside the workspace and outbound network. Telemetry to PostHog is on by default and the sandbox is off, so an unattended kilo run --auto approves everything not denied unless both are configured first.

Before you call either

Antigravity CLI

  1. Read the status field 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 the Account settings before running on private repositories if Interactions should not be used for product improvement
  5. Set --print-timeout explicitly. The docs give a five-minute default, while agy --help shows 0s

Kilo Code CLI

  1. Set sandbox.enabled to true in the global kilo.jsonc before kilo run --auto. --auto approves every permission request not explicitly denied
  2. Set experimental.openTelemetry to false, or KILO_TELEMETRY_LEVEL to a value other than all, to stop telemetry
  3. Add needed hosts to sandbox.allowed_hosts in global config. MCP tool calls are unavailable while network restriction is on
  4. Without --auto a non-interactive run rejects every permission prompt and exits 1
  5. Put provider keys in global config or the environment. {env:VAR} in a project kilo.json is ignored

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Antigravity CLI or Kilo Code CLI?

Kilo Code CLI scores 75.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Antigravity CLI's 57.7 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Antigravity CLI leads on agent ergonomics.

Are Antigravity CLI and Kilo Code CLI open source?

No open-source release is listed for Antigravity CLI. Kilo Code CLI is open source (MIT).

Other comparisons with Antigravity CLI or Kilo Code CLI

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