Write a review

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

CLI Manager vs Qwen Code

Qwen Code scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against CLI Manager's 65.8 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. CLI Manager leads on security & auth. 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 Qwen CodeAlibaba (Qwen team) · Agent harness BB72.4/100#111 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.

Ahead on

  • Security & auth, 58 against 53

Watch for

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

Qwen Code BB

Best for Developers and CI jobs that want an open-source harness tied to no single model vendor, with run budgets and SDKs.

Ahead on

  • Agent ergonomics, 85 against 63
  • Maintenance & community, 88 against 62
  • Transparency & trust, 63 against 54

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for

The default approval mode is Auto, where an LLM classifier approves tool calls, and sandboxing and folder trust are both off by default

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCLI ManagerQwen CodeEdge
Reliability16%206869Qwen Code +1
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28791Qwen Code +4
Agent ergonomics13%16.26385Qwen Code +22
Security & auth14%17.55853CLI Manager +5
Payments & pricing10%12.56060even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.86288Qwen Code +26
Transparency & trust7%8.85463Qwen Code +9
Negative events≤1500
TotalB 65.8/100BB 72.4/100

Facts side by side

FactCLI ManagerQwen Code
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
Vendorsolhun (Jeong Kyeonghun)Alibaba (Qwen team)
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsStreamable HTTP
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreeFree
x402nono
LicenceMITApache-2.0
Tools exposed12none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-132026-10-05
Terms last updated2026-09-142026-10-01
Privacy policy last updated2026-09-142026-10-01
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Popularity15 stars28k stars, 105k 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.

Qwen Code

Apache-2.0 with no account of its own, any OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini-compatible endpoint, and headless runs bounded by turn, tool-call and wall-time budgets with distinct exit codes. Out of the box, Auto mode lets an LLM classifier approve tool calls, with the sandbox and folder trust both off. Usage statistics are on by default.

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

Qwen Code

  1. Pass --approval-mode on every run. The settings default is auto, and one docs page says headless runs default to asking, so don't rely on either
  2. Add --max-session-turns, --max-wall-time and --max-tool-calls. All three are unlimited by default. Exit 53 is the turn limit and 55 a budget
  3. --yolo doesn't turn on a sandbox. Add --sandbox, or on Linux set tools.executionSandbox with network set to closed
  4. Set QWEN_USAGE_STATISTICS_ENABLED=false to stop usage statistics
  5. Authenticate with OPENAI_API_KEY, OPENAI_BASE_URL and OPENAI_MODEL in CI. The browser sign-in is discontinued

Questions

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

Qwen Code scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against CLI Manager's 65.8 (B), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. CLI Manager leads on security & auth.

Are CLI Manager and Qwen Code open source?

Yes. CLI Manager is open source (MIT). Qwen Code is open source (Apache-2.0).

Other comparisons with CLI Manager or Qwen Code

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