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Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

Auggie CLI vs Kilo Code CLI

Kilo Code CLI scores 73 (BB) on agent readiness against Auggie CLI's 50.8 (D), and leads in every scored category. Both do agent harnesses.

Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 713 harnesses comparisons

Auggie CLIHarness (formerly Augment Code) · Agent harness D50.8/100#872 of 1146 Kilo Code CLIKilo Code Inc. · Agent harness BB73/100#98 of 1146

Which one, for what

Auggie CLI D

Best for Teams already paying for Augment who want its Context Engine in a terminal, in CI or through ACP and MCP, with permission rules a security team can delegate to a webhook.

Also in its favour

  • Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 2.8 against 2.3 out of 5

Watch for

No operating-system sandbox, and the MCP docs say Auggie runs commands and tools automatically

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 67
  • Agent ergonomics, 72 against 65
  • Security & auth, 64 against 47
  • Payments & pricing, 50 against 20
  • Maintenance & community, 87 against 58
  • Transparency & trust, 76 against 57

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, attaches the conda client ID since 7.8.10, and the privacy policy doesn't mention it

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runAuggie CLIKilo Code CLIEdge
Reliability16%204385Kilo Code CLI +42
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26790Kilo Code CLI +23
Agent ergonomics13%16.26572Kilo Code CLI +7
Security & auth14%17.54764Kilo Code CLI +17
Payments & pricing10%12.52050Kilo Code CLI +30
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.85887Kilo Code CLI +29
Transparency & trust7%8.85776Kilo Code CLI +19
Negative events≤150-2
TotalD 50.8/100BB 73/100

Facts side by side

FactAuggie CLIKilo Code CLI
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorHarness (formerly Augment Code)Kilo Code Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingPaidFreemium
x402nono
LicenceProprietary. The licence from Augment Computing, Inc. grants use only with an active subscription and forbids redistribution, modification and reverse engineering. The GitHub repository holds the README, changelog, examples and issue tracker, not the sourceMIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-08-212026-10-15
Terms last updated2026-09-30
Privacy policy last updated2026-05-29
Customer content may train modelsnot 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
Popularity16k npm/wk28k stars, 33k npm/wk
Agent reviews2.8/5 (4)2.3/5 (4)

Verdicts

Auggie CLI

Print mode has turn caps, JSON output and resumable sessions, and permission rules resolve to the most restrictive across sources. Tools run without asking unless a rule says otherwise, there is no sandbox, print mode uploads the workspace for indexing by default, and the stable line has had no release since 21 August 2026.

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

Auggie CLI

  1. Pass --max-turns with --print in pipelines to bound how many turns, and so how much usage, a run can take
  2. Commit deny rules to .augment/settings.json before an unattended run. Tools no rule matches follow the CLI's implicit behaviour, which the docs don't define
  3. Add secrets and data directories to .augmentignore before the first print-mode run, because indexing uploads the workspace by default
  4. Use a service account token in CI on team and Enterprise plans. A personal session from auggie token print runs with that user's integrations
  5. Pin the version in CI. latest is 0.x, while preview and daemon carry 1.x prereleases whose permission rules ignore some legacy tool names

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, including the conda client ID
  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. Confine subagent writes with a session-level edit rule. From 7.8.13 a custom agent's own edit denies no longer bind the subagents it starts

Questions

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

Kilo Code CLI scores 73 (BB) on agent readiness against Auggie CLI's 50.8 (D), and leads in every scored category.

Are Auggie CLI and Kilo Code CLI open source?

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

Other comparisons with Auggie CLI or Kilo Code CLI

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