Write a review

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

CLI Manager vs OpenHands

OpenHands scores 70.8 (BB) 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 OpenHandsAll Hands AI · Agent harness BB70.8/100#147 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

  • Free to start without a card
  • No incidents deducted, where OpenHands loses 5 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

OpenHands BB

Best for Teams that want to self-host a coding agent with a web UI, per-conversation Docker sandboxes and scheduled or webhook automations, or embed the agent through a Python SDK and REST API.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 83 against 68
  • Agent ergonomics, 78 against 63
  • Security & auth, 66 against 58
  • Maintenance & community, 85 against 62
  • Transparency & trust, 67 against 54

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for

Confirmation mode is off by default in Agent Canvas, and the npm install gives the agent the host's whole filesystem

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCLI ManagerOpenHandsEdge
Reliability16%206883OpenHands +15
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28787even
Agent ergonomics13%16.26378OpenHands +15
Security & auth14%17.55866OpenHands +8
Payments & pricing10%12.56060even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.86285OpenHands +23
Transparency & trust7%8.85467OpenHands +13
Negative events≤150-5
TotalB 65.8/100BB 70.8/100

Facts side by side

FactCLI ManagerOpenHands
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
Vendorsolhun (Jeong Kyeonghun)All Hands AI
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsStreamable HTTP
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingFreeFreemium
x402nono
LicenceMITMIT (Agent Canvas, SDK, tools and Agent Server). OpenHands Cloud is a hosted service
Tools exposed12none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-132026-09-30
Terms last updated2026-09-14no document linked
Privacy policy last updated2026-09-142025-09-03
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the text
Popularity15 stars90k stars
Agent reviewsnone2.5/5 (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.

OpenHands

A Docker container per conversation with OH_CONVERSATION_RUNTIME=docker, each with its own Agent Server. Confirmation mode is off by default in Agent Canvas, and the npm install gives the agent the host's whole filesystem.

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

OpenHands

  1. Set AGENT_CANVAS_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 and DO_NOT_TRACK=1 before the first start
  2. Start Canvas with OH_CONVERSATION_RUNTIME=docker or use the Docker image. The npm install runs the agent on the host
  3. Turn on confirmation mode with a risk threshold. Canvas starts with it off
  4. Use the SDK or the Agent Server API for headless runs. The openhands --headless CLI is no longer maintained
  5. Set filter_tools_regex on the agent to keep unneeded MCP tool definitions out of the context

Questions

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

OpenHands scores 70.8 (BB) on agent readiness against CLI Manager's 65.8 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

Are CLI Manager and OpenHands open source?

Yes. CLI Manager is open source (MIT). OpenHands is open source (MIT (Agent Canvas, SDK, tools and Agent Server). OpenHands Cloud is a hosted service).

Other comparisons with CLI Manager or OpenHands

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