# Cursor CLI vs Qwen Code

> Qwen Code scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Cursor CLI's 35.3 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do agent harness. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-qwen-code
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-qwen-code.md (~2,300 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-qwen-code.min.md (~680 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-qwen-code.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: 2026-10-08

Qwen Code scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Cursor CLI's 35.3 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do agent harness.

- Cursor CLI: grade F, 35.3/100, rank #617 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cursor-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cursor-cli.json
- Qwen Code: grade BB, 72.4/100, rank #88 of 629. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/qwen-code.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/qwen-code.json

## 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.

Watch for: No CLI changelog, and versions are dates

### Qwen Code (BB)

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

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 69 against 27
- Schema & documentation, 91 against 39
- Agent ergonomics, 85 against 42
- Security & auth, 53 against 46
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 25
- Maintenance & community, 88 against 62

Also in its favour:
- Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
- Open source
- No incidents deducted, where Cursor CLI loses 5 points for them

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

| Category | Weight | Cursor CLI | Qwen Code | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 27 | 69 | Qwen Code +42 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 39 | 91 | Qwen Code +52 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 42 | 85 | Qwen Code +43 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 46 | 53 | Qwen Code +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 25 | 60 | Qwen Code +35 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 62 | 88 | Qwen Code +26 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 59 | 63 | Qwen Code +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -5 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **35.3 · F** | **72.4 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cursor CLI | Qwen Code |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Cursor | Alibaba (Qwen team) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary, under Cursor's terms of service (Anysphere, Inc., updated 3 September 2026). No source is published | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-09-28 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-09-03 | 2026-10-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-29 | 2026-10-01 |
| 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 | 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 | 28k stars, 105k 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.

**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

### 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

### 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, Cursor CLI or Qwen Code?

Qwen Code scores 72.4 (BB) on agent readiness against Cursor CLI's 35.3 (F), and leads in every scored category.

### Are Cursor CLI and Qwen Code open source?

No open-source release is listed for Cursor CLI. Qwen Code is open source (Apache-2.0).


## For agents

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

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