# Cursor CLI vs Droid CLI

> Droid CLI scores 59.1 (C) to Cursor CLI's 35.3 (F) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-droid-cli
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-droid-cli.md (~2,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-droid-cli.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-droid-cli.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
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Droid CLI scores 59.1 (C) on agent readiness against Cursor CLI's 35.3 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Cursor CLI leads on payments & pricing. Both do agent harnesses.

- Cursor CLI: grade F, 35.3/100, rank #935 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cursor-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cursor-cli.json
- Droid CLI: grade C, 59.1/100, rank #560 of 950. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/droid-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/droid-cli.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 167 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Cursor CLI (F)

Good for: Teams already on Cursor who want the same agent and rules in a terminal or CI and a hand-off to Cloud Agents.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 25 against 10

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No CLI changelog, and versions are dates

### Droid CLI (C)

Good for: Teams that want a terminal coding agent with tiered autonomy, command rules and an optional sandbox, and that will pay for a Factory plan.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 49 against 27
- Schema & documentation, 79 against 39
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 42
- Security & auth, 63 against 46
- Maintenance & community, 79 against 62
- Transparency & trust, 64 against 59

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

Watch for: No free tier or trial was found. Plans start at $20 a month and included usage is stated only as rolling rate limits without numbers


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cursor CLI | Droid CLI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 27 | 49 | Droid CLI +22 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 39 | 79 | Droid CLI +40 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 42 | 72 | Droid CLI +30 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 46 | 63 | Droid CLI +17 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 10 | Cursor CLI +15 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 79 | Droid CLI +17 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 59 | 64 | Droid CLI +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -5 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **35.3 · F** | **59.1 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cursor CLI | Droid CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Cursor | Factory |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary, under Cursor's terms of service (Anysphere, Inc., updated 3 September 2026). No source is published | Proprietary, under Factory's Terms and Conditions. The `droid` npm package is marked `UNLICENSED` and the public repository holds documentation only. The Python SDK is Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-10-08 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-03 | 2026-07-14 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-29 | 2026-08-20 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | none | 49 stars, 7.8k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 1.5/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**Cursor CLI.** Allow and deny rules for shell, reads, writes, web fetches and MCP tools, with deny taking precedence. No CLI changelog, and versions are dates.

**Droid CLI.** `droid exec` is read-only unless `--auto` raises the autonomy level, with command rules, an optional kernel-enforced sandbox, JSON output and documented exit codes. No free tier, status page or security.txt was found, the source is closed, and usage metrics go to Factory by default.

## Before you call either

### Cursor CLI

1. Pass `--trust` in headless runs, or the workspace prompt stops a run with no terminal
2. Write deny rules in .cursor/cli.json before using `--force`. It runs any command they don't match
3. Don't use `--approve-mcps` in repositories you didn't write. Two 2025 CLI advisories came through MCP
4. Set `CURSOR_API_KEY` in CI. `agent login` opens a browser
5. Record `agent --version` with each run. Versions are dates and there's no CLI changelog to compare against

### Droid CLI

1. Set `FACTORY_API_KEY` (starts `fk-`) from the API keys page in Factory settings for headless runs. Interactive use signs in through a browser
2. Start with `droid exec` and no flags for analysis. Add `--auto low` for edits and `--auto medium` for installs, tests and local commits
3. Use `--output-format json` and read `is_error`, `num_turns` and `session_id`. Treat a non-zero exit code as failure
4. Set `sandbox.enabled` to true before running on untrusted code. In `droid exec` a sandbox violation is denied without a prompt
5. Pin the version in CI with `npm install -g droid@<version>`, or set `FACTORY_DROID_AUTO_UPDATE_ENABLED=false` on standalone installs, which update themselves

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Cursor CLI or Droid CLI?

Droid CLI scores 59.1 (C) on agent readiness against Cursor CLI's 35.3 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Cursor CLI leads on payments & pricing.


## For agents

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

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