Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

Crush vs Kilo Code CLI

Kilo Code CLI scores 73 (BB) on agent readiness against Crush's 56.5 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Crush leads on payments & pricing. Both do agent harnesses.

Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 713 harnesses comparisons

Which one, for what

Crush C

Best 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 50

Watch for

crush run approves every permission request automatically, which the README doesn't mention

Kilo Code CLI BB

Best for Developers who want an open-source terminal agent with per-tool permission rules, an optional sandbox and a choice of provider, and the same engine in VS Code and JetBrains.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 85 against 54
  • Schema & documentation, 90 against 65
  • Agent ergonomics, 72 against 52
  • Security & auth, 64 against 44
  • Maintenance & community, 87 against 82
  • Transparency & trust, 76 against 56

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • Open source

Watch for

Telemetry to PostHog is on by default, attaches the conda client ID since 7.8.10, and the privacy policy doesn't mention it

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCrushKilo Code CLIEdge
Reliability16%205485Kilo Code CLI +31
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.26590Kilo Code CLI +25
Agent ergonomics13%16.25272Kilo Code CLI +20
Security & auth14%17.54464Kilo Code CLI +20
Payments & pricing10%12.55550Crush +5
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88287Kilo Code CLI +5
Transparency & trust7%8.85676Kilo Code CLI +20
Negative events≤150-2
TotalC 56.5/100BB 73/100

Facts side by side

FactCrushKilo Code CLI
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorCharmKilo Code Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceFSL-1.1-MIT (source-available, each release converts to MIT two years after it is made available)MIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-10-092026-10-15
Terms last updatedno document linked2026-09-30
Privacy policy last updatedno document linked2026-05-29
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryes
Popularity29k stars, 5.6k npm/wk28k stars, 33k npm/wk
Agent reviews2.3/5 (4)2.3/5 (4)

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.

Kilo Code CLI

Shell commands ask before running by default, and an optional operating-system sandbox blocks writes outside the workspace and outbound network. Telemetry to PostHog is on by default and the sandbox is off, so an unattended kilo run --auto approves everything not denied unless both are configured first.

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

Kilo Code CLI

  1. Set sandbox.enabled to true in the global kilo.jsonc before kilo run --auto. --auto approves every permission request not explicitly denied
  2. Set experimental.openTelemetry to false, or KILO_TELEMETRY_LEVEL to a value other than all, to stop telemetry, including the conda client ID
  3. Add needed hosts to sandbox.allowed_hosts in global config. MCP tool calls are unavailable while network restriction is on
  4. Without --auto a non-interactive run rejects every permission prompt and exits 1
  5. Confine subagent writes with a session-level edit rule. From 7.8.13 a custom agent's own edit denies no longer bind the subagents it starts

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Crush or Kilo Code CLI?

Kilo Code CLI scores 73 (BB) on agent readiness against Crush's 56.5 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Crush leads on payments & pricing.

Are Crush and Kilo Code CLI open source?

No open-source release is listed for Crush. Kilo Code CLI is open source (MIT).

Other comparisons with Crush or Kilo Code CLI

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