# AXLR vs CLI Manager

> AXLR scores 70.6 (BB) to CLI Manager's 66.1 (B) for multi-agent orchestration. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axlr-vs-cli-manager
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axlr-vs-cli-manager.md (~5,250 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-01

AXLR scores 70.6 (BB) on agent readiness against CLI Manager's 66.1 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. CLI Manager leads on schema & documentation. Both do multi-agent orchestration.

- AXLR: grade BB, 70.6/100, rank #168 of 1253. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/axlr.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/axlr.json
- CLI Manager: grade B, 66.1/100, rank #310 of 1253. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cli-manager.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cli-manager.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 1000 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### AXLR (BB)

Good for: A program or bot that needs one governed execution at a time, with a policy, a budget, a sandbox profile and correlation ids it sets itself and a result object it reads back, on a machine it controls, with the model on OpenRouter, a local server or a native Anthropic or OpenAI key.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 83 against 63
- Maintenance & community, 79 against 62

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for: The setup assistant turns autonomy on and leaves the exec sandbox off, so after setup the model's commands run with the person's rights, bar the destructive list

### CLI Manager (B)

Good for: A developer on macOS who runs several coding agents and wants another agent to start and watch sessions where the person can see and step in.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 80

Watch for: Once switched on, the API can read, type into and close every session in the app, including the user's own


## Why the edge

### Agent ergonomics: AXLR +20

- AXLR (83): Harness reading of the framework line, scored on what a program driving it has to supply. Six local tools plus the host's bookkeeping tools; work modes and an execution policy hide the tools a run may not use, `axlr_catalog` searches the catalog instead of loading it, forged tools keep the request prefix for the prompt cache, and a context cap of 75,000 prompt tokens opens a successor session (20). `local_read`, `local_search` and `local_list` page with `offset`, `next_offset` and `max_bytes`; `StreamEvents` takes `after`, `max_events` (1 to 256) and `wait_ms`; a budget per execution in seconds, requests, tool calls and dollars; 32 tool calls a turn and `max_session_usd` (20). The `--exec` run ends in one `result` line with a status, the pending call, every call's outcome and the usage, and exits 0, 3 or 1; service errors carry codes an agent can act on; a budget stop says which limit (`budget: requests 20 reached`) and leaves the session resumable (16). `Idempotency-Key` on every turn, approval and direct call with cross-transport replay, `expected_revision` on decisions, `expected_sha256` on worker writes, and an interrupted effectful call left `uncertain` for an operator rather than retried (19). One command runs a task, but the first launch needs an OpenRouter key or a local server, the service needs a CA, a principals file and remote KMP and MADE before a first session, and the only SDK is the Go library (8). 20+20+16+19+8 = 83.
- CLI Manager (63): 12 compact tools (15). `query` filters on workspaces and sessions, `scope` ai or all, and `lines` and `mode` screen or tail on reads, but no pagination on lists (16). Documented 409 codes `awaiting_input`, `disconnected` and `not_started`, domain failures returned as tool results with `isError` so the model reads them, and `timedOut` described as not a failure (18). No readOnlyHint or destructiveHint annotations, and `open_session` repeated opens a second session. Typing is refused while a question is on screen, which makes a blind retry safer (6). Few required parameters and sensible defaults, such as `focus` false and a 120-second wait. No SDK, only the `climanager-session` agent skill with a Node script (8).

### Maintenance & community: AXLR +17

- AXLR (79): v0.15.0 on 2026-10-25, with commits on main to 2026-11-01 (30). 21 releases between 4 and 25 October 2026 (20). One maintainer (368 of 399 commits, the rest by two agent accounts), 10 open issues that are his own trackers with no comments, about 100 merged pull requests and no outside report to measure a reply against (15). Not in the MCP registry; the Go module and a proto to generate clients from are the only client code, beside the GHCR image and Helm chart (5). Go 1.26 toolchain pinned, release actions pinned by commit SHA, a go-licenses check that the third-party bundle matches the dependency graph, and CI passing on main (9). 30+20+15+5+9 = 79.
- CLI Manager (62): v1.13.1 on 13 October 2026 (30). Twelve releases since 17 August 2026 (20). No issues have been filed. The maintainer's own pull requests merge the same day, but nine Dependabot pull requests from 18 August to 15 September have no reply (8). Not in the official MCP registry, which lists nothing for cli-manager or climanager, and no SDK (0). Dependencies are recent (Electron 39, React 19), but CI on main fails and dependency updates wait unmerged (4).

### Schema & documentation: CLI Manager +7

- AXLR (80): An OpenAPI 3.1 file for the service (15 paths, 23 schemas, `mutualTLS` security scheme, `additionalProperties: false` on request bodies), a checked proto for the gRPC service, and the 19 MCP tools built from the same shared schemas (25). No llms.txt on either site (404), and the docs site renders HTML; the Markdown sources are in the repository (5). The product contract tables what each of the four interfaces can and cannot do, the work-mode table states each mode's purpose and tool policy, the transport parity ledger names every verb's arguments and behaviour, and `axlr_tools` tells the model to look for a tool before forging one (15). Typed inputs throughout, `Idempotency-Key` 16 to 128 safe ASCII characters, `expected_revision` a positive integer, policy levels, sandbox profiles and egress values enumerated, budgets as four integers, and the service rejects unknown fields, invalid types and bodies over 4 MiB (14). Examples in every guide, an error shape of `code`, `message` and `request_id`, named codes (`409 idempotency_conflict`, `400 invalid_cursor`, `422 invalid_policy`, `invalid_budget`, `sandbox_unavailable`, `not_ready`, `invalid_id`), a gRPC status mapping, and the worker's five statuses and three exit codes; no single error reference page (14). `/v1` routes and an OpenAPI version of 0.1.0 against a 0.15.0 release, and no changelog beyond the dated notes inside the docs (7). 25+5+15+14+14+7 = 80.
- CLI Manager (87): The MCP server lists 12 tools, each with a typed JSON Schema input and required fields marked. `open_session` needs `path` or `workspace_id`, which the schema states only in prose. No OpenAPI for the REST side (22). llms.txt at climanager.solhun.com (10). Tool descriptions and the server instructions state purpose and when not to act, for example focus only when the user asked and close only sessions the agent opened (18). Enums on `scope` and `mode`. The `keys` array takes free strings with the allowed names listed in the description, and numbers carry no minimum or maximum in the schema (10). curl examples, a status code table with what to do for each, and one `{ error: { code, message } }` shape (12). REST lives under `/v1`, with release notes and a site changelog (15).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | AXLR | CLI Manager | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 70 | 68 | AXLR +2 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 80 | 87 | CLI Manager +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 83 | 63 | AXLR +20 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 62 | 58 | AXLR +4 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 62 | AXLR +17 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 55 | 58 | CLI Manager +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **70.6 · BB** | **66.1 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | AXLR | CLI Manager |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Underpass AI | solhun (Jeong Kyeonghun) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  | Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0, with a NOTICE naming Tirso García Ibáñez as the copyright holder | MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | 12 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-25 | 2026-10-13 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-09-14 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-09-14 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 0 stars | 15 stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.5/5 (4) |

## How the scores have moved

### AXLR

No score change since it was listed.

### CLI Manager

- +0.2 on 28 October 2026: new evidence
- +0.1 on 27 October 2026: new evidence

## Verdicts

**AXLR.** A pre-1.0 Go harness with an unusually complete service contract, mutual TLS with principal roles, required idempotency keys, a policy, budget and sandbox per execution, and a result object a program can read. The console's defaults after setup are autonomy on and no sandbox, the project has one maintainer and no outside users yet, and releases carry no notes.

**CLI Manager.** An agent can open visible terminal sessions, type into them, wait and read the screen through 12 typed MCP tools or a documented REST API, and the user can take any session back. The API reaches every open session once enabled, the app runs only on macOS, and none of the last 35 CI runs on the main branch passed.

## Before you call either

### AXLR

1. Before the first prompt, set `approvals.autonomous` to false or run with `--approve none`, and turn `exec_sandbox.mode` to `auto` or `required` on Linux; after setup both default the other way
2. Drive a run with `axlr-tui --exec --json --policy <file> --budget <file> --sandbox <file>` and read only the last `result` line; exit 3 means a call waits for `--decide approve|deny` with `--session <id>`
3. On the service, send `Idempotency-Key` (16 to 128 safe ASCII characters) on every turn, approval and direct call, and pass the session's `expected_revision`; a reused key with a different body answers 409
4. A local model must return native tool calls (llama.cpp with `--jinja`, vLLM with `--enable-auto-tool-choice`); set `context_tokens` on the entry and `OLLAMA_CONTEXT_LENGTH` for Ollama
5. Leave `TYPESAFE_API_KEY` unset unless you want the setup assistant to switch Jev on, which sends requests and final answers to TypeSafe

### CLI Manager

1. Ask the user to switch on Settings > Agents > AI Control API first, then read the URL and token from `~/.climanager/control-api.json`
2. On `409 awaiting_input`, read the screen and answer with `keys` such as ["down","enter"]. Leave folder-trust and permission choices to the user
3. Stop using a session on `409 disconnected`. The user took it back
4. Treat `timedOut: true` from `wait` as still running, not as a failure, and wait again
5. Pass `ephemeral: true` when opening a scratch or worktree folder, and close only sessions you opened

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, AXLR or CLI Manager?

AXLR scores 70.6 (BB) on agent readiness against CLI Manager's 66.1 (B), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. CLI Manager leads on schema & documentation.

### Are AXLR and CLI Manager open source?

Yes. AXLR is open source (Apache-2.0, with a NOTICE naming Tirso García Ibáñez as the copyright holder). CLI Manager is open source (MIT).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axlr-vs-cli-manager.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axlr-vs-cli-manager.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "axlr", "b": "cli-manager"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare axlr cli-manager`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/axlr.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cli-manager.json

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp