# CLI Manager vs Kilo Code CLI

> Kilo Code CLI scores 75.4 (BB) to CLI Manager's 65.8 (B) for multi-agent orchestration. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-kilo-code-cli
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-kilo-code-cli.md (~2,700 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-kilo-code-cli.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-kilo-code-cli.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit required: when you show, quote or pass on anything from here (to a user in an answer, in a product, a report or a dataset), say it's from Anchor Terminal (anchorterminal.com) and link the page or API address you took it from. Reviews also credit their author.
- Updated: 2026-10-14

Kilo Code CLI scores 75.4 (BB) on agent readiness against CLI Manager's 65.8 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. CLI Manager leads on payments & pricing. Both do multi-agent orchestration.

- 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
- Kilo Code CLI: grade BB, 75.4/100, rank #51 of 1084. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kilo-code-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/kilo-code-cli.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

### 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:
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 50

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

### Kilo Code CLI (BB)

Good for: Developers who want an open-source terminal agent with per-tool permission rules, an optional sandbox and a choice of provider, and the same engine in VS Code and JetBrains.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 85 against 68
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 63
- Security & auth, 66 against 58
- Maintenance & community, 87 against 62
- Transparency & trust, 76 against 54

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

Watch for: Telemetry to PostHog is on by default, and the privacy policy and PRIVACY.md don't mention it


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | CLI Manager | Kilo Code CLI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 68 | 85 | Kilo Code CLI +17 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 90 | Kilo Code CLI +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 63 | 72 | Kilo Code CLI +9 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 58 | 66 | Kilo Code CLI +8 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 50 | CLI Manager +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 87 | Kilo Code CLI +25 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 54 | 76 | Kilo Code CLI +22 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **65.8 · B** | **75.4 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | CLI Manager | Kilo Code CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | solhun (Jeong Kyeonghun) | Kilo Code Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP |  |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 12 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-13 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-30 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-14 | 2026-05-29 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 15 stars | 28k stars, 33k npm/wk |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Kilo Code CLI.** Shell commands ask before running by default, and an optional operating-system sandbox blocks writes outside the workspace and outbound network. Telemetry to PostHog is on by default and the sandbox is off, so an unattended `kilo run --auto` approves everything not denied unless both are configured first.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Kilo Code CLI

1. Set `sandbox.enabled` to true in the global `kilo.jsonc` before `kilo run --auto`. `--auto` approves every permission request not explicitly denied
2. Set `experimental.openTelemetry` to false, or `KILO_TELEMETRY_LEVEL` to a value other than `all`, to stop telemetry
3. Add needed hosts to `sandbox.allowed_hosts` in global config. MCP tool calls are unavailable while network restriction is on
4. Without `--auto` a non-interactive run rejects every permission prompt and exits 1
5. Put provider keys in global config or the environment. `{env:VAR}` in a project `kilo.json` is ignored

## Questions

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

Kilo Code CLI scores 75.4 (BB) on agent readiness against CLI Manager's 65.8 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. CLI Manager leads on payments & pricing.

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

Yes. CLI Manager is open source (MIT). Kilo Code CLI is open source (MIT).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with CLI Manager or Kilo Code CLI

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