# AXLR vs Droid CLI (slim)

> AXLR scores 70.6 (BB) to Droid CLI's 59.2 (C) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-01
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AXLR scores 70.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Droid CLI's 59.2 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Droid CLI leads on transparency & trust. Both do agent harnesses.

- AXLR: BB 70.6, rank #168 of 1253 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/axlr.min.md
- Droid CLI: C 59.2, rank #653 of 1253 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/droid-cli.min.md
- AXLR, 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 Reliability, 70 against 49; Agent ergonomics, 83 against 72; Payments & pricing, 60 against 10. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; Free to start without a card; Open source.
- Droid CLI, good for Teams that want a terminal coding agent with tiered autonomy, command rules and an optional sandbox, and that will pay for a Factory plan. Ahead on Transparency & trust, 65 against 55.

| Category | AXLR | Droid CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 70 | 49 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 80 | 79 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 83 | 72 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 62 | 63 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 10 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 79 | 79 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 55 | 65 |

| Fact (where they differ) | AXLR | Droid CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Underpass AI | Factory |
| Pricing | Free | Paid |
| Licence | Apache-2.0, with a NOTICE naming Tirso García Ibáñez as the copyright holder | Proprietary, under Factory's Terms and Conditions. The `droid` npm package is marked `UNLICENSED` and the public repository holds documentation only. The Python SDK is Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-25 | 2026-10-08 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-07-14 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-08-20 |
| 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 | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | yes |
| Popularity | 0 stars | 49 stars, 7.8k npm/wk |

Why the edge:
- Payments & pricing, AXLR +50: AXLR 60 (No payment protocol (0). Free and Apache-2.0 with nothing to buy, so 20, 20 and 20 on the last three lines by the self-hosted rule, since the docs say what you pay your model provider, the free route needs no card, and it runs local models with no signup at all, the JSON worker without any model. 0+20+20+20 = 60.); Droid CLI 10 (Harness reading of the published rubric. This is paid, closed software tied to a subscription, so the self-hosted rule does not apply. No payment protocol (0). Plan prices are public, $20, $100 and $200 a month for individuals and $60 a team plus $40 a seat for Teams, but included usage is given only as rolling rate limits and multiples of Pro (10). No free tier or trial was found on the pricing pages. Using your own model key is free up to an allowance, but only on a paid plan (0). A person signs in through a browser to subscribe and to create the API key. The Service Accounts API can issue keys only inside an existing organisation (0).)
- Reliability, AXLR +21: AXLR 70 (Read as a local package, as claude-code, goose, opencode and openhands were. Release archives for Linux, macOS and Windows on amd64 and arm64 with a `.sha256` beside each, a GHCR image, an OCI Helm chart and source builds with Go 1.26, all stated in the docs; no Homebrew, npm or apt route (20). CI on main runs vet, race tests and a coverage gate above 80 per cent for both modules, with the sandbox tests required under bubblewrap, and the last ten runs on main to 1 November 2026 all passed; the release workflow tests on six native runners (25). 10 open issues, all opened by the founder on 19 and 21 October 2026 as trackers for service work (work modes, plugins, the sandbox setting, cost limits), none from an outside user and none a crash report, 0 open pull requests and about 100 merged; with 0 stars there is nobody else to report, so the handling of outside reports is untested (20). Tags are semver 0.x and the docs date each behaviour change inline ("until 14 October 2026…"), but the 21 releases have empty notes, there is no CHANGELOG.md, and the product contract records one retirement (the seven 1.0 skill definitions on 5 October 2026) without a notice period (5). Pre-1.0, which the README calls an evolving project (0). 20+25+20+5+0 = 70.); Droid CLI 49 (Local-package reading, as for the other closed-source harnesses. An install script that verifies a SHA-256 checksum, a PowerShell installer, a Homebrew cask and the `droid` npm package (Node 20 or later) with prebuilt binaries for Linux, macOS and Windows on x64 and arm64 (20). The source is not published. The public repository holds documentation only, so there is no public CI or test suite for the CLI (0). Bugs are tracked in the open at Factory-AI/factory, a repository created on 29 July 2026. On 9 October 2026 it had 33 open issues that are not pull requests, most with no reply, and three closed in the previous week with replies. Runs depend on Factory's servers, and we found no status page (10). Every release has a dated, versioned changelog entry and deprecations get their own section, but the line is 0.x with a minor version almost daily, so the version number does not signal a breaking change (9). The version is 0.237.0. The Feature Maturity page says a feature with no tag is generally available and stable, and the CLI pages carry no tag in the Markdown we read. Judgement call (10). The 99 per cent availability target on factory.com/sla is not scored on this reading.)
- Agent ergonomics, AXLR +11: 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.); Droid CLI 72 (Harness reading of the framework line. `--restrict-tools`, `--disabled-tools`, `--additional-tools` and `--list-tools` control built-in tools per run, and `disabledTools` in `mcp.json` keeps named MCP tools out of context. We found nothing on deferred tool loading (18). Output is text, json, stream-json or stream-jsonrpc, and the JSON result carries turns and duration. The `droid exec` help lists no flag for a turn or spend limit (10). Exit codes 0, 1 and 2 are documented, and a run that exceeds its autonomy level stops with a non-zero code and no partial changes, per the docs (15). `--session-id` continues a session, `--fork` branches one, and `--worktree` isolates parallel runs (16). Headless runs are read-only without flags, and TypeScript and Python SDKs wrap the CLI. A run needs a paid Factory account and an API key (13).)
- Transparency & trust, Droid CLI +10: AXLR 55 (Apache-2.0 with a NOTICE (30). No privacy policy or terms on underpassai.com or axlr.underpassai.com; the docs' 'Where data goes' and 'Diagnostics and privacy' sections say that model requests go to OpenRouter, the local server or the native API, that Jev sends text to TypeSafe only when on, that sessions live under `$XDG_STATE_HOME/axlr`, that payload capture is off by default and redacted when on, and that traces are deleted after 30 days; nothing covers the engine downloads' or the catalog registry's handling of a client's requests (15). No deprecation policy; pre-1.0 changes are dated inline in the docs and the product contract records the 5 October 2026 retirement of the first skill catalogue after the fact (6). No telemetry to disclose, and the docs say in two places what leaves the machine and how to stop payload capture, though no single page says there is no telemetry (17). 30+15+6+17 = 68.); Droid CLI 65 (Closed source under terms from The San Francisco AI Factory, Inc., last updated 14 July 2026. The npm package is marked `UNLICENSED` and the Python SDK is Apache-2.0 (15). The Data Flows page says where code, prompts and telemetry go in each deployment pattern, and the privacy policy (20 August 2026) lists service providers with the place of processing and keeps personal data up to 10 years after last use. Retention of Factory's operational logs is left to the trust centre, which we could not read, and whether session transcripts are stored in Factory's cloud on individual plans was not established (17). The terms promise commercially reasonable efforts to give 60 days' notice of major changes, the changelog has Deprecations sections, and the old command lists are deprecated but still honoured. A model retirement appeared in the changelog on the day it took effect, 11 August 2026 (12). The telemetry reference documents each metric and what reaches Factory, and `telemetry.granularity` can strip user identity. Metrics to Factory are on by default, with no opt-out found outside an airgapped deployment (11).)