# CLI Manager vs OpenCode

> OpenCode scores 67.7 (B) 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-opencode
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-opencode.md (~2,550 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-opencode.min.md (~580 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-opencode.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

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.

- 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
- OpenCode: grade B, 67.7/100, rank #255 of 1084. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/opencode.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/opencode.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.

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)

Good 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

| Category | Weight | CLI Manager | OpenCode | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 68 | 68 | even |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 88 | OpenCode +1 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 63 | 79 | OpenCode +16 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 58 | 60 | OpenCode +2 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 81 | OpenCode +19 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 54 | 67 | OpenCode +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **65.8 · B** | **67.7 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | CLI Manager | OpenCode |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | solhun (Jeong Kyeonghun) | Anomaly |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP |  |
| Auth | API key | None |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 12 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-13 | 2026-09-30 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-14 | 2026-08-15 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-14 | 2026-03-06 |
| 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 | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 15 stars | 211k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (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).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with CLI Manager or OpenCode

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