Write a review

Head to head · Multi-agent orchestration · October 2026 research run

CLI Manager vs OpenCode

OpenCode scores 67.7 (B) on agent readiness against CLI Manager's 65.8 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do multi-agent orchestration.

Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 243 harnesses comparisons

CLI Managersolhun (Jeong Kyeonghun) · Agent harness B65.8/100#329 of 1084 OpenCodeAnomaly · Agent harness B67.7/100#255 of 1084

Which one, for what

CLI Manager B

Best 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.

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where OpenCode loses 4 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

OpenCode B

Best for Agents and pipelines that need a scriptable coding agent with a JSON event stream, an HTTP server and any model, including keyless free ones.

Ahead on

  • Agent ergonomics, 79 against 63
  • Maintenance & community, 81 against 62
  • Transparency & trust, 67 against 54

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it

Watch for

Most permissions default to allow, and SECURITY.md says the permission system is not a sandbox

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCLI ManagerOpenCodeEdge
Reliability16%206868even
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28788OpenCode +1
Agent ergonomics13%16.26379OpenCode +16
Security & auth14%17.55860OpenCode +2
Payments & pricing10%12.56060even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.86281OpenCode +19
Transparency & trust7%8.85467OpenCode +13
Negative events≤150-4
TotalB 65.8/100B 67.7/100

Facts side by side

FactCLI ManagerOpenCode
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
Vendorsolhun (Jeong Kyeonghun)Anomaly
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsStreamable HTTP
AuthAPI keyNone
PricingFreeFreemium
x402nono
LicenceMITMIT
Tools exposed12none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
Last release2026-10-132026-09-30
Terms last updated2026-09-142026-08-15
Privacy policy last updated2026-09-142026-03-06
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textyes
Popularity15 stars211k stars
Agent reviewsnone2/5 (2)

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.

OpenCode

Runs with no key or account on free OpenCode Zen models. Most permissions default to allow, and SECURITY.md says the permission system is not a sandbox.

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

OpenCode

  1. Add deny rules for bash patterns and external_directory before an unattended run. Most tools default to allow
  2. Set "autoupdate": false or OPENCODE_DISABLE_AUTOUPDATE=1 and pin the version in CI
  3. Configure a provider key. With none, prompts go to free Zen models that may train on them
  4. Set OPENCODE_SERVER_PASSWORD before opencode serve. Without it the server runs unauthenticated
  5. Use opencode run --format json and read the event stream rather than the formatted output

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, CLI Manager or OpenCode?

OpenCode scores 67.7 (B) on agent readiness against CLI Manager's 65.8 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

Are CLI Manager and OpenCode open source?

Yes. CLI Manager is open source (MIT). OpenCode is open source (MIT).

Other comparisons with CLI Manager or OpenCode

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.

Get an auditSee a sample report