# Cursor CLI vs Jules

> Jules scores 44.5 (E) to Cursor CLI's 35.3 (F) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
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- Updated: 2026-10-18

Jules scores 44.5 (E) on agent readiness against Cursor CLI's 35.3 (F), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Cursor CLI leads on reliability, maintenance & community and transparency & trust. Both do agent harnesses.

- Cursor CLI: grade F, 35.3/100, rank #1085 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cursor-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cursor-cli.json
- Jules: grade E, 44.5/100, rank #1000 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/jules.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/jules.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

### 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:
- Reliability, 27 against 13
- Maintenance & community, 62 against 18
- Transparency & trust, 59 against 44

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

Watch for: No CLI changelog, and versions are dates

### Jules (E)

Good for: A person or pipeline that wants to hand scoped GitHub tasks to a cloud agent and collect a pull request or a patch, or run a repoless job in a disposable VM.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 76 against 39
- Agent ergonomics, 64 against 42
- Security & auth, 57 against 46
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 25

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 2.8 against 1.5 out of 5
- No incidents deducted, where Cursor CLI loses 5 points for them

Watch for: The REST API has been v1alpha since 3 October 2025 and the docs say specifications and API keys may change


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cursor CLI | Jules | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 27 | 13 | Cursor CLI +14 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 39 | 76 | Jules +37 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 42 | 64 | Jules +22 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 46 | 57 | Jules +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 30 | Jules +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 18 | Cursor CLI +44 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 59 | 44 | Cursor CLI +15 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -5 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **35.3 · F** | **44.5 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cursor CLI | Jules |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Cursor | Google LLC |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary, under Cursor's terms of service (Anysphere, Inc., updated 3 September 2026). No source is published | Proprietary service under the Google Terms of Service. The TypeScript SDK is Apache-2.0; the CLI binary is closed |
| Tools exposed | none | 8 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-03-09 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-03 | 2026-07-30 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-29 | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 1.3k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 1.5/5 (2) | 2.8/5 (4) |

## 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.

**Jules.** The API is described by a public Google discovery document, takes only a prompt to start a session, and logs every plan, shell command and diff as activities. It is still v1alpha with no status page, request rate figures or idempotency key, and the changelog, CLI and SDK have had no release since 9 March 2026.

## 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

### Jules

1. Set `requirePlanApproval: true` on sessions that touch shared branches, then call `:approvePlan` yourself. API sessions otherwise run their plan without review
2. Session creation has no request ID. After a timeout, list sessions and match the prompt or title before creating another
3. Poll activities with a `create_time` filter and cache them. Activities never change once written
4. Read the request fields from the discovery document at https://jules.googleapis.com/$discovery/rest?version=v1alpha. The field tables on jules.google render empty
5. Budget against the daily task quota of 15, 100 or 300 by plan. New sessions are refused until the rolling 24 hours reset

## Questions

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

Jules scores 44.5 (E) on agent readiness against Cursor CLI's 35.3 (F), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Cursor CLI leads on reliability, maintenance & community and transparency & trust.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Cursor CLI or Jules

- [Agent Zero vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-cursor-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-jules.md)
- [Aider vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-cursor-cli.md)
- [Aider vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-jules.md)
- [Amp vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-cursor-cli.md)
- [Amp vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-jules.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-cursor-cli.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-jules.md)
- [Auggie CLI vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/auggie-vs-cursor-cli.md)
- [Auggie CLI vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/auggie-vs-jules.md)
- [Claude Code vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-cursor-cli.md)
- [Claude Code vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-jules.md)
- [Cline vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-cursor-cli.md)
- [Cline vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-jules.md)
- [Crush vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-cursor-cli.md)
- [Crush vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-jules.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs DeepSeek Harness (dsh)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-deepseek-harness.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Devin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-devin.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Droid CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-droid-cli.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Pi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-earendil-pi.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Gemini CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-gemini-cli.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs GitHub Copilot CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-github-copilot-cli.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-goose.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Harness²](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-harness2.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs HarnessRouter](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-harnessrouter.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Junie CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-junie.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Kilo Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-kilo-code-cli.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Kimi Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-kimi-code-cli.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Kiro CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-kiro-cli.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Mistral Vibe CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-mistral-vibe-cli.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-openai-codex.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-opencode.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-openhands.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Qoder CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-qoder-cli.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-qwen-code.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-rovo-dev-cli.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-warp.md)
- [DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-harness-vs-jules.md)
- [Devin vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/devin-vs-jules.md)
- [Droid CLI vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/droid-cli-vs-jules.md)
- [Pi vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/earendil-pi-vs-jules.md)
- [Gemini CLI vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-cli-vs-jules.md)
- [GitHub Copilot CLI vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/github-copilot-cli-vs-jules.md)
- [goose vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-jules.md)
- [Harness² vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harness2-vs-jules.md)
- [HarnessRouter vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harnessrouter-vs-jules.md)
- [Jules vs Junie CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-junie.md)
- [Jules vs Kilo Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-kilo-code-cli.md)
- [Jules vs Kimi Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-kimi-code-cli.md)
- [Jules vs Kiro CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-kiro-cli.md)
- [Jules vs mini-swe-agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-mini-swe-agent.md)
- [Jules vs Mistral Vibe CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-mistral-vibe-cli.md)
- [Jules vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Jules vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-openai-codex.md)
- [Jules vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-opencode.md)
- [Jules vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-openhands.md)
- [Jules vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Jules vs Qoder CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-qoder-cli.md)
- [Jules vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-qwen-code.md)
- [Jules vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Jules vs Rovo Dev CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-rovo-dev-cli.md)
- [Jules vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-warp.md)
- [CLI Manager vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-jules.md)
- [Harness vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harness-autonomous-vs-jules.md)
- [Jules vs Paperclip](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-paperclip.md)
- [Jules vs Parallax](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-parallax-agents.md)

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