Head to head · Multi-agent orchestration · October 2026 research run
Clawboo vs Kimi Code CLI
Kimi Code CLI and Clawboo score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 62.1 (B) and 61.4 (C). Clawboo leads on security & auth. Both do multi-agent orchestration.
Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 955 harnesses comparisons
Which one, for what
Clawboo C
Best for One person on one computer who wants several coding and general agents on one board, with shared memory and a lead agent that routes work.
Ahead on
- Security & auth, 70 against 45
Also in its favour
- No key needed to call it
Watch for
Claude Code runs in bypassPermissions, Codex with danger-full-access and Hermes with --yolo, with no setting to change it and no sandbox
Best for Developers on Kimi models who want a terminal agent with ACP and a local REST API, or an open-source harness that also runs Claude, GPT or Gemini models.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 68 against 52
- Maintenance & community, 72 against 51
Watch for
Print mode approves every tool call under Never Ask, where the dangerous-command guard is off
Why the edge
Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.
Security & auth Clawboo +25
Clawboo 70
Harness reading of the framework checklist, as for the other 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. The docs say Clawboo sends no telemetry and list the GitHub catalogue fetch, the npm version check, OpenRouter's public model list, Google Fonts and the GitHub star count, of which only the catalogue address can be changed (27). Clawboo Native shell commands are off by default and asked one at a time, and connector grants are per agent with approval on writes. Claude Code, Codex and Hermes run with their prompts and sandboxes off and no setting to change it, they can read Clawboo's database and key vault, and with no access token by default any local program can answer approval cards (8). Images in agent text don't load on their own, peer posts are marked as evidence, and a run that has read private data and untrusted content asks before any outbound connector call (11). An audit log of budget, breaker, approval, verification, tool-call and install events, with secrets masked (13). SECURITY.md with private reporting, CodeQL, Dependabot and npm provenance. No security.txt or bug bounty, OSV lists no advisory for clawboo, and the proxy advisory is on the docs with a workaround while its fix is unreleased (11).
Kimi Code CLI 45
Harness reading of the framework checklist. 30 for credentials and 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. OAuth tokens sit in 0600 files and shell keys aren't read unless named. Telemetry is on by default and, in the 2.2.0 package, sends events with a device ID, session ID and model name to telemetry-logs.kimi.com. Auto-update is on by default (14). Interactive sessions ask before edits and commands, and a dangerous-command guard covers rm -rf and similar, but kimi -p runs under Never Ask, where everything is approved and the guard is off, with only static deny rules left. No sandbox found, and hooks fail open (7). The MCP page warns about untrusted servers and project .kimi-code/mcp.json entries, and since 2.1.0 project config waits for workspace trust, but no prompt-injection guidance was found for fetched web pages (6). Sessions on disk, kimi export, the kimi vis session visualiser, a diagnostic log and hooks for auditing (11). SECURITY.md names private GitHub advisories and an email, supports only the latest version and gives no response time. No security.txt was found on kimi.com, kimi.ai or moonshot.ai, and OSV, the public mirror of the GitHub Advisory Database, lists no advisories for the package, though 2.1.0 shipped security fixes (7).
Maintenance & community Kimi Code CLI +21
Clawboo 51
0.5.0 was published to npm on 21 October 2026 (30). Two releases in the 90 days to 1 November 2026, 0.4.0 on 28 September and 0.5.0, below the three the line asks for (0). github.com was unreachable, so replies to issues, pull requests and Discussions are unchecked. The CI file cites issue #140 as fixed (3). One public npm package, current, with no entry in the official MCP registry for its four servers (10). CI, CodeQL, weekly Dependabot and SLSA provenance on 0.4.0 and 0.5.0, with @composio/client pinned to an alpha (8).
Kimi Code CLI 72
2.2.0 on 14 October 2026 (30). 32 releases on npm in the 90 days to 14 October (20). Pull requests are closed at pace, 2.3k closed against 467 open, and the changelog credits merged pull requests up to #4159 from many contributors, with 742 commits in the 90 days to 18 October. Issues lag, with 1.1k open against 391 closed, and reply times couldn't be read (11). No SDK packages. The ACP server and REST API ship inside the CLI, and Homebrew core is current at 2.2.0 (5). CI with a frozen lockfile, lint and a dependency check (sherif), with no Dependabot file found and the pass state unchecked (6).
Reliability Kimi Code CLI +16
Clawboo 52
Read as local software. The official npm package clawboo states Node.js 22.12 or newer, and the README says macOS, Linux and Windows are supported (20). ci.yml runs lint, typecheck, Vitest and a real-concurrency suite on Linux and platform suites on Windows and macOS, and publish.yml reruns build, lint, typecheck, tests and a clean-install boot before it publishes. 0.5.0 carries provenance from that workflow on main, so its checks passed at that commit, but run results on main couldn't be read (15). github.com was unreachable, so open crash and regression issues are unchecked. A known-issues page lists 25 entries with a status each, three of them fixed on main (5). Changesets write a changelog entry per release, and removals and the 0.2.0 database reset are called out, though breaking changes arrive in minor versions before 1.0 (12). Version 0.5.0, and SECURITY.md says pre-1.0 (0).
Kimi Code CLI 68
Local-package reading. An install script that verifies a checksum, npm @moonshot-ai/kimi-code with Node 22.19.0 or newer stated, and Homebrew core at 2.2.0, for macOS, Linux and Windows (20). A public CI workflow runs the build, a smoke test, sharded tests on Linux, tests on Windows, lint and typecheck. GitHub refused our requests, so whether it passes on main wasn't checked (15). Read on 18 October through shields.io counts, 1.1k issues are open against 391 closed and 467 pull requests open against 2.3k closed, in a repository whose first commit was on 22 May 2026. Which of the open issues are crashes or regressions, and how fast they are answered, couldn't be read, so the line scores the backlog alone (8). Changesets changelog with Major, Minor and Patch headings and a Breaking note in 0.28.0, but 2.0.0's only major change was a new slash command, and 2.2.0 made configs with executor = "kaos" fail validation in a minor release (10). 2.2.0, past 1.0 (15).
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Clawboo | Kimi Code CLI | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 52 | 68 | Kimi Code CLI +16 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 83 | 85 | Kimi Code CLI +2 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 75 | 71 | Clawboo +4 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 70 | 45 | Clawboo +25 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 51 | 72 | Kimi Code CLI +21 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 58 | 62 | Kimi Code CLI +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -4 | -4 | |
| Total | C 61.4/100 | B 62.1/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Clawboo | Kimi Code CLI |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Sanreds | Moonshot AI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-21 | 2026-10-14 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-08-13 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-08-13 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | yes |
| 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 | yes |
| Popularity | 100 npm/wk | 37k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3/5 (4) |
How the scores have moved
Clawboo
No score change since it was listed.
Verdicts
Clawboo
Tasks, memory, team chat and connectors are shared across five runtimes through four MCP servers, with documentation that states each default and limit. Claude Code, Codex and Hermes run with their sandboxes and approval prompts off and no setting to change it, and a reverse-proxy exposure of the MCP servers is fixed only on the unreleased main branch.
Kimi Code CLI
MIT-licensed, with 32 releases in the 90 days to 14 October 2026, kimi -p with stream-json output, an ACP server and a local REST API with a live OpenAPI document. Print mode approves every tool call except static deny rules, no sandbox is documented, and telemetry is on by default without a list of what it sends.
Before you call either
Clawboo
- Run
npx clawboo@latest, not a barenpx clawboo, which can reuse an older cached build. Node.js 22.12 or newer is required - On 0.5.0 behind nginx, Caddy or a Cloudflare Tunnel, deny
/api/mcp/at the proxy and setSTUDIO_ACCESS_TOKENfromopenssl rand -hex 24 - Give Claude Code, Codex and Hermes teammates only work you would let run unattended, or run Clawboo under a separate user account or VM
- Create a hard-cap budget in Settings > Insights > Governance before long runs. A fresh install has no budget and new budgets only warn
- Install
@anthropic-ai/claude-agent-sdkglobally beside Clawboo for Claude Code teammates. A one-offnpxrun cannot load it
Kimi Code CLI
kimi -papproves every tool call. Add[[permission.rules]]deny entries and run it in a container, since no sandbox is documented- Set
KIMI_LOOP_MAX_STEPS_PER_TURNfor unattended runs. Steps per turn are unlimited by default - Pass the model with
KIMI_MODEL_NAME,KIMI_MODEL_API_KEYandKIMI_MODEL_PROVIDER_TYPE.OPENAI_API_KEYorANTHROPIC_API_KEYin the shell is ignored otherwise - Set
KIMI_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1and use 0.41.0 or later, since earlier print-mode runs ignored it - Install
@moonshot-ai/kimi-codeor thekimi-codeformula. Thekimi-cliandkimi-codepackages on PyPI are the archived Python CLI
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Clawboo or Kimi Code CLI?
Kimi Code CLI and Clawboo score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 62.1 (B) and 61.4 (C). Clawboo leads on security & auth.
Are Clawboo and Kimi Code CLI open source?
Yes. Clawboo is open source (MIT). Kimi Code CLI is open source (MIT).
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- Amp vs Clawboo
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- Auggie CLI vs Clawboo
- Claude Code vs Clawboo
- Clawboo vs CLI Manager
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- Clawboo vs Crush
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- Clawboo vs OpenHands
- Clawboo vs OpenMausBot
- Clawboo vs Paperclip
- Clawboo vs Parallax
- Clawboo vs Prime Agent
- Clawboo vs Qoder CLI
- Clawboo vs Qwen Code
- Clawboo vs Mirror CLI
- Clawboo vs Rovo Dev CLI
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- Clawboo vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)
- CLI Manager vs Kimi Code CLI
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- Kimi Code CLI vs Paperclip
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/clawboo-vs-kimi-code-cli.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/clawboo.json·/api/v1/tools/kimi-code-cli.json - From a terminal
anchor compare clawboo kimi-code-cli(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "clawboo", "b": "kimi-code-cli"}at/mcp, no key