# AXLR vs Gemini CLI (slim)

> AXLR scores 70.6 (BB) to Gemini CLI's 66.8 (B) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axlr-vs-gemini-cli.md (~6,950 tokens) · this version ~3,630 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axlr-vs-gemini-cli.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/axlr-vs-gemini-cli
- 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
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

AXLR scores 70.6 (BB) on agent readiness against Gemini CLI's 66.8 (B), and leads in 2 of 7 scored categories. Gemini CLI leads on schema & documentation, security & auth, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do agent harnesses.

- AXLR: BB 70.6, rank #168 of 1253 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/axlr.min.md
- Gemini CLI: B 66.8, rank #268 of 1253 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gemini-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 Agent ergonomics, 83 against 78; Payments & pricing, 60 against 20. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; Free to start without a card; No incidents deducted, where Gemini CLI loses 5 points for them.
- Gemini CLI, good for Teams with a paid Gemini API key, Vertex AI credentials or existing Code Assist Standard or Enterprise licences that want an open-source harness with documented headless output. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 93 against 80; Security & auth, 67 against 62; Maintenance & community, 88 against 79; Transparency & trust, 90 against 55.

| Category | AXLR | Gemini CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 70 | 71 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 80 | 93 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 83 | 78 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 62 | 67 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 20 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 79 | 88 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 55 | 90 |

| Fact (where they differ) | AXLR | Gemini CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Underpass AI | Google |
| Pricing | Free | Pay per use |
| Licence | Apache-2.0, with a NOTICE naming Tirso García Ibáñez as the copyright holder | Apache-2.0 |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-25 | 2026-10-06 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 0 stars | 107k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |

Why the edge:
- Payments & pricing, AXLR +40: 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.); Gemini CLI 20 (Harness reading of the published rubric. No payment protocol (0). Token prices and plan prices are public without a login (20). The 1,000 requests a day Google sign-in tier ended on 18 June 2026, so its 20 goes. Whether an unpaid API key still gets 250 Flash requests a day is unclear, because the quota page lists it under a notice that Gemini CLI was replaced and the 19 May blog names only paid keys (0). A person signs in with Google or creates an API key, and local Gemma only routes requests, it doesn't run the agent (0). Total 20, down from 40 on 1 October.)
- Transparency & trust, Gemini CLI +35: 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.); Gemini CLI 90 (Apache-2.0 (30). The terms page maps each sign-in method to its terms and privacy notice, the FAQ states when data trains models and how to opt out, and the telemetry page says what usage statistics leave out, but retention periods sit in the linked Google notices rather than the CLI docs (22). Dated deprecation notices now exist. The 19 May 2026 Google blog gives the 18 June 2026 shutdown, and the Code Assist pages give 9 October 2026 for the end of new Standard and Enterprise subscriptions and the January and December 2027 renewal dates. A written release policy, and the Google Cloud terms set the deprecation policy for Gemini products sold there (the Cloud deprecations page cites section 1). The CLI's docs carry a banner dating the replacement to 18 June 2026, but the pages beneath it still advertise the ended tier (15). Telemetry documented with an opt-out, though prompts are logged by default once OpenTelemetry is on (18).)
- Schema & documentation, Gemini CLI +13: 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.); Gemini CLI 93 (Framework reading. settings.schema.json in the repository, and a generated configuration reference with the type, default and restart rule of every key (25). llms.txt at geminicli.com serving the documentation as Markdown (10). Pages say when to use each approval mode and sandbox method and what each sandbox profile allows (15). Approval modes, sandbox commands and Seatbelt profiles are enums (13). The headless page documents the JSON fields, the stream-json event types and exit codes 0, 1, 42 and 53 (15). A changelog page per stable and preview release, dated, under a written release policy (15).)
- Maintenance & community, Gemini CLI +9: 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.); Gemini CLI 88 (0.63.0 on 2026-10-06 (30). 16 stable releases since 3 July, plus weekly previews and nightlies (20). 583 open issues with priority labels and bot triage, and 252 open pull requests, though some P1 security reports sat unassigned (18). A TypeScript SDK in the repository and the run-gemini-cli GitHub Action, both current, but no SDK in a second language (10). CI, nightly evals and an Allstar policy (10).)
- Agent ergonomics, AXLR +5: 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.); Gemini CLI 78 (Framework reading, adapted to a harness driven by a pipeline. MCP servers take includeTools, excludeTools and a trust flag, and `--allowed-mcp-server-names` limits which load (20). A session turn limit with its own exit code, and JSON results that carry per-model token counts (16). Documented exit codes and an error object in JSON output (18). `--resume` and checkpointing (14). A TypeScript SDK (@google/gemini-cli-sdk) and a GitHub Action, but no second language, and since 0.39.1 a CI run has to set `GEMINI_TRUST_WORKSPACE` to work in its own checkout (10).)
- Security & auth, Gemini CLI +5: AXLR 62 (Harness reading of the framework checklist, as for the other four harnesses. 30 for what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. No product telemetry in the console source (the outbound hosts are openrouter.ai, api.anthropic.com, api.openai.com, a configured local server, api.github.com and github.com for engine downloads, and registry.underpassai.com for the signed catalog index) or in the docs; payload capture is off by default since 9 October 2026, traces omit prompts and credentials, model keys are never given to commands or plugins, and Jev sends requests and answers to TypeSafe only when on, which the setup assistant does when `TYPESAFE_API_KEY` is set, with a notice on stderr (27). Approval cards, a destructive list that always asks, four work modes, a policy level per execution, a bubblewrap or container sandbox with an enforced egress allow list, and a service that approves nothing but reads. Against that, the setup assistant writes `autonomous: true`, `exec_sandbox` is off by default, forged tools run with the person's rights, and the README says the console and worker are not sandboxes (13). Forged tools are refused when a file changes since the forge, a policy forbids calls outside the model, and the docs say MCP tools keep their own side effects, but no prompt-injection guidance was found and MCP results reach the model unmarked (6). The service keeps an event journal, audit records, a receipt with the SHA-256 of every call's arguments and outcome, and correlation ids on every event; the console keeps session records, a redacted app log and `/session` (14). No SECURITY.md, no security.txt on either host, no advisories, no bug bounty; release checksums and a minisign-signed catalog are integrity, not a programme (2). 27+13+6+14+2 = 62.); Gemini CLI 67 (Framework reading (telemetry defaults, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing), five lines. Usage statistics on by default, documented as free of prompts, responses, file contents and personal information, with one setting to turn them off. Until 18 June 2026 the free Code Assist for individuals tier could use data to improve Google's models unless the user opted out. Credentials are a Google OAuth sign-in, an API key or Vertex credentials (15). Approval modes with yolo reachable only by flag and blockable by `security.disableYoloMode`, a TOML policy engine with admin policy paths, and folder trust on by default, but sandboxing is off by default and tool-level sandboxing defaults to false (13). Environment-variable redaction, and 0.61.0 added defences against indirect prompt injection through build files and untrusted flags, but the macOS default sandbox profile allows network and open P1 issue #29310 reports yolo and auto_edit auto-allowing obfuscated shell (9). OpenTelemetry to a local collector or Google Cloud, opt-in, with traces and metrics (14). SECURITY.md routes reports to g.co/vulnz with a five-working-day response and google.com has a valid security.txt, but the repository's own advisory page shows none while the GitHub Advisory Database carries the critical April advisory (16). SOC 2 isn't scored on the framework reading.)