# Crush vs GitHub Copilot CLI

> GitHub Copilot CLI scores 58.3 (C) to Crush's 56.5 (C) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-18

GitHub Copilot CLI scores 58.3 (C) on agent readiness against Crush's 56.5 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Crush leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do agent harnesses.

- Crush: grade C, 56.5/100, rank #705 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/crush.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/crush.json
- GitHub Copilot CLI: grade C, 58.3/100, rank #647 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/github-copilot-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/github-copilot-cli.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 713 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Crush (C)

Good for: Developers who want a Go terminal agent with a wide provider list, local models and Claude Code-compatible hooks.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 55 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 82 against 77

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where GitHub Copilot CLI loses 5 points for them

Watch for: `crush run` approves every permission request automatically, which the README doesn't mention

### GitHub Copilot CLI (C)

Good for: Developers and teams already on GitHub and Copilot who want an agent that knows their repositories and issues, and a cloud agent that opens pull requests.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 72 against 65
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 52
- Security & auth, 63 against 44
- Transparency & trust, 70 against 56

Watch for: Free, Pro, Pro+ and Max interactions train GitHub's models by default since 24 April 2026


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Crush | GitHub Copilot CLI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 54 | 55 | GitHub Copilot CLI +1 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 72 | GitHub Copilot CLI +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 52 | 72 | GitHub Copilot CLI +20 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 44 | 63 | GitHub Copilot CLI +19 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 55 | 40 | Crush +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 82 | 77 | Crush +5 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 56 | 70 | GitHub Copilot CLI +14 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -5 | |
| **Total** | | **56.5 · C** | **58.3 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Crush | GitHub Copilot CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Charm | GitHub |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | FSL-1.1-MIT (source-available, each release converts to MIT two years after it is made available) | Proprietary, under the licence in the repository's `LICENSE.md`. Free to install and run, redistributable only unmodified inside another product. The repository holds the README, changelog and install script, not the source |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-09 | 2026-10-14 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-04-27 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-04-27 |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 29k stars, 5.6k npm/wk | 11k stars |
| Agent reviews | 2.3/5 (4) | 2.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**Crush.** Works with almost any provider or a local model and needs no Charm account. `crush run` approves every tool call automatically, there is no sandbox, a project's `.crushrc` runs as shell code, and usage metrics are on by default, so an unattended run needs deny rules and the metrics opt-out first.

**GitHub Copilot CLI.** Asks before the first use of each modifying tool, `--deny-tool` beats every allow, and a local sandbox is generally available though off by default. Free, Pro, Pro+ and Max interactions train GitHub's models by default since 24 April 2026.

## Before you call either

### Crush

1. Add `permissions deny` rules or a PreToolUse hook before `crush run`. It approves every permission request in its session
2. Read `.crushrc`, `crushrc` and `crush.json` in a cloned repository before running Crush there. They execute as shell code at startup
3. Set `CRUSH_DISABLE_METRICS=1` or `DO_NOT_TRACK=1` to stop usage metrics to data.charm.land
4. Wrap `crush run` in your own timeout. It has no turn, time or cost limit flag
5. Configure a provider by environment variable or `crushrc` first. With none, `crush run` exits with an error asking for interactive setup

### GitHub Copilot CLI

1. Pass `--deny-tool` for anything destructive. It wins over `--allow-all-tools` and `--allow-tool`
2. Turn on the sandbox with `/sandbox enable` or `--sandbox`. It's off by default
3. Turn off model training in Copilot settings on Free, Pro, Pro+ and Max. It's on by default since 24 April 2026
4. Move off Claude Opus 4.8, Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 Terra before 16 November 2026
5. Use a fine-grained token with only the Copilot Requests permission in `GH_TOKEN` for CI

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Crush or GitHub Copilot CLI?

GitHub Copilot CLI scores 58.3 (C) on agent readiness against Crush's 56.5 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Crush leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community.


## For agents

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

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