# Claude Code vs CLI Manager

> CLI Manager scores 65.8 (B) to Claude Code's 61.9 (C) for multi-agent orchestration. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-14

CLI Manager scores 65.8 (B) on agent readiness against Claude Code's 61.9 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Claude Code leads on agent ergonomics, security & auth, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do multi-agent orchestration.

- Claude Code: grade C, 61.9/100, rank #482 of 1084. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/claude-code.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/claude-code.json
- CLI Manager: grade B, 65.8/100, rank #329 of 1084. 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 243 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Claude Code (C)

Good for: A developer or a pipeline that wants Claude doing repository work with fine-grained, centrally managed permissions and an SDK for the same loop.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 87 against 63
- Security & auth, 80 against 58
- Maintenance & community, 82 against 62
- Transparency & trust, 81 against 54

Watch for: The sandbox is off by default and native Windows has none

### 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:
- Reliability, 68 against 50
- Schema & documentation, 87 against 80
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card
- Open source
- No incidents deducted, where Claude Code loses 6 points for them

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


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Claude Code | CLI Manager | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 50 | 68 | CLI Manager +18 |
| 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) | 87 | 63 | Claude Code +24 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 80 | 58 | Claude Code +22 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 60 | CLI Manager +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 62 | Claude Code +20 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 81 | 54 | Claude Code +27 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -6 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **61.9 · C** | **65.8 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Claude Code | CLI Manager |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Anthropic | solhun (Jeong Kyeonghun) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  | Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary. `LICENSE.md` says All rights reserved, with use under Anthropic's Commercial Terms. The GitHub repository holds the changelog, plugins and examples, not the source | MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | 12 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-13 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-09-14 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-09-14 |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 141k stars | 15 stars |

## Verdicts

**Claude Code.** Six permission modes, allow, ask and deny rules down to command arguments, PreToolUse hooks, and managed settings that can disable bypass and auto mode. The sandbox is off by default and native Windows has none.

**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

### Claude Code

1. Pass `--permission-mode` on every `claude -p` run. An unset mode can start in auto mode, depending on version, plan, provider and telemetry
2. Turn on the sandbox with `sandbox.enabled` and set `allowUnsandboxedCommands` to false, or Claude can retry a blocked command outside it
3. Set `CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC=1` on a Claude login to stop metrics and error reports in one go
4. Set `autoUpdatesChannel` to stable or `DISABLE_AUTOUPDATER=1` in CI. Native installs update themselves about once a day
5. Cap pipeline runs with `--max-turns` and `--max-budget-usd`

### 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, Claude Code or CLI Manager?

CLI Manager scores 65.8 (B) on agent readiness against Claude Code's 61.9 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Claude Code leads on agent ergonomics, security & auth, maintenance & community and transparency & trust.

### Are Claude Code and CLI Manager open source?

No open-source release is listed for Claude Code. CLI Manager is open source (MIT).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Claude Code or CLI Manager

- [Agent Zero vs Claude Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-claude-code.md)
- [Aider vs Claude Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-claude-code.md)
- [Amp vs Claude Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-claude-code.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs Claude Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-claude-code.md)
- [Claude Code vs Cline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-cline.md)
- [Claude Code vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-cursor-cli.md)
- [Claude Code vs Devin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-devin.md)
- [Claude Code vs Droid CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-droid-cli.md)
- [Claude Code vs Pi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-earendil-pi.md)
- [Claude Code vs Gemini CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-gemini-cli.md)
- [Claude Code vs GitHub Copilot CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-github-copilot-cli.md)
- [Claude Code vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-goose.md)
- [Claude Code vs Kilo Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-kilo-code-cli.md)
- [Claude Code vs Kiro CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-kiro-cli.md)
- [Claude Code vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Claude Code vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-openai-codex.md)
- [Claude Code vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-opencode.md)
- [Claude Code vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-openhands.md)
- [Claude Code vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Claude Code vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-qwen-code.md)
- [Amp vs CLI Manager](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-cli-manager.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs CLI Manager](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-cli-manager.md)
- [Claude Code vs Paperclip](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-paperclip.md)
- [CLI Manager vs Cline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-cline.md)
- [CLI Manager vs Devin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-devin.md)
- [CLI Manager vs Droid CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-droid-cli.md)
- [CLI Manager vs Gemini CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-gemini-cli.md)
- [CLI Manager vs GitHub Copilot CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-github-copilot-cli.md)
- [CLI Manager vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-goose.md)
- [CLI Manager vs Kilo Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-kilo-code-cli.md)
- [CLI Manager vs Kiro CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-kiro-cli.md)
- [CLI Manager vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-muse-code.md)
- [CLI Manager vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-opencode.md)
- [CLI Manager vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-openhands.md)
- [CLI Manager vs Paperclip](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-paperclip.md)
- [CLI Manager vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [CLI Manager vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-qwen-code.md)

## Disclosure

- Anthropic makes the models this research run and the review panel run on. This listing was graded by agents running on Claude, by the same published checklist as every other listing, and the panel doesn't review it, because every reviewer runs on Claude too.