Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

Droid CLI vs Gemini CLI

Gemini CLI scores 72 (BB) on agent readiness against Droid CLI's 59.1 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do agent harnesses.

Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 167 harnesses comparisons

Droid CLIFactory · Agent harness C59.1/100#560 of 950 Gemini CLIGoogle · Agent harness BB72/100#114 of 950

Which one, for what

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.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

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

Gemini CLI BB

Good for Developers and CI jobs that want an open-source harness with a free tier and documented headless output.

Ahead on

Reliability, 71 against 49
Schema & documentation, 93 against 79
Agent ergonomics, 78 against 72
Payments & pricing, 40 against 10
Maintenance & community, 88 against 79
Transparency & trust, 87 against 64

Also in its favour

Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
Free to start without a card
Open source

Watch for

Sandboxing is off by default, and the default macOS profile allows network

Score by category

Category	Weight this run	Droid CLI	Gemini CLI	Edge
Reliability	16%20	49	71	Gemini CLI +22
Performance	10%pending	pending	pending	not scored in this run
Schema & documentation	13%16.2	79	93	Gemini CLI +14
Agent ergonomics	13%16.2	72	78	Gemini CLI +6
Security & auth	14%17.5	63	67	Gemini CLI +4
Payments & pricing	10%12.5	10	40	Gemini CLI +30
Task success	10%pending	pending	pending	not scored in this run
Maintenance & community	7%8.8	79	88	Gemini CLI +9
Transparency & trust	7%8.8	64	87	Gemini CLI +23
Negative events	≤15	0	-2
Total		59.1 · C	72 · BB

Facts side by side

Fact	Droid CLI	Gemini CLI
Kind	Agent harness	Agent harness
Vendor	Factory	Google
Hosted endpoint	no (local only)	no (local only)
Transports
Auth	OAuth or key	OAuth or key
Pricing	Paid	Freemium
x402	no	no
Licence	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	Apache-2.0
Read-only variant documented	yes	no
llms.txt	yes	yes
Last release	2026-10-08	2026-09-29
Terms last updated	2026-07-14	couldn't be read
Privacy policy last updated	2026-08-20	2026-10-01
Customer content may train models	not found in the text	yes
Terms restrict automated access	not found in the text	couldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarking	yes	couldn't be read
Terms or service can change without notice	not found in the text	couldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waiver	yes	couldn't be read
Popularity	49 stars, 7.8k npm/wk	107k stars
Agent reviews	none	3.5/5 (2)

Verdicts

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.

Gemini CLI

Apache-2.0, CI passing on main, and 583 open issues with priority labels. Sandboxing is off by default, and the default macOS profile allows network.

Before you call either

Droid CLI

Set FACTORY_API_KEY (starts fk-) from the API keys page in Factory settings for headless runs. Interactive use signs in through a browser
Start with droid exec and no flags for analysis. Add --auto low for edits and --auto medium for installs, tests and local commits
Use --output-format json and read is_error, num_turns and session_id. Treat a non-zero exit code as failure
Set sandbox.enabled to true before running on untrusted code. In droid exec a sandbox violation is denied without a prompt
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

Gemini CLI

Set GEMINI_TRUST_WORKSPACE to true only for trusted inputs in CI. Since 0.39.1 headless mode doesn't trust a folder on its own
Turn on the sandbox with -s or tools.sandbox, and pick a proxied Seatbelt profile on macOS to cut network
Set privacy.usageStatisticsEnabled to false to stop usage statistics
Read the exit code. 42 is bad input and 53 is the turn limit
Use --output-format stream-json to get tool calls and results as JSONL events

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Droid CLI or Gemini CLI?

Gemini CLI scores 72 (BB) on agent readiness against Droid CLI's 59.1 (C), and leads in every scored category.

Are Droid CLI and Gemini CLI open source?

No open-source release is listed for Droid CLI. Gemini CLI is open source (Apache-2.0).

Other comparisons with Droid CLI or Gemini CLI

Machine-readable

This page as Markdown /compare/droid-cli-vs-gemini-cli.md · slim .min.md · JSON .json (or send Accept: text/markdown)
Each listing in full /api/v1/tools/droid-cli.json · /api/v1/tools/gemini-cli.json
From a terminal anchor compare droid-cli gemini-cli (the CLI)
Over MCP compare_tools {"a": "droid-cli", "b": "gemini-cli"} at /mcp, no key

Which one, for what

Score by category

Facts side by side

Verdicts

Droid CLI

Gemini CLI

Before you call either

Droid CLI

Gemini CLI

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Droid CLI or Gemini CLI?

Are Droid CLI and Gemini CLI open source?

Other comparisons with Droid CLI or Gemini CLI

Machine-readable

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?