# Droid CLI vs Harness²

> Droid CLI scores 59.1 (C) to Harness²'s 41.6 (E) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-18

Droid CLI scores 59.1 (C) on agent readiness against Harness²'s 41.6 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Harness² leads on payments & pricing. Both do agent harnesses.

- Droid CLI: grade C, 59.1/100, rank #615 of 1135. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/droid-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/droid-cli.json
- Harness²: grade E, 41.6/100, rank #1029 of 1135. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/harness2.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/harness2.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 354 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## 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.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 49 against 20
- Schema & documentation, 79 against 51
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 59
- Security & auth, 63 against 44
- Maintenance & community, 79 against 36
- Transparency & trust, 64 against 44

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

### Harness² (E)

Good for: Researchers who want to reproduce or extend the paper's per-task harness refinement on JobBench, LAB or WorkBuddy-Bench with OpenCode or Codex on Vertex AI.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 10

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Open source

Watch for: No hosted API, MCP server or tagged release. It installs from a source checkout only, and harness2 isn't on PyPI


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Droid CLI | Harness² | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 49 | 20 | Droid CLI +29 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 51 | Droid CLI +28 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 59 | Droid CLI +13 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 44 | Droid CLI +19 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 10 | 40 | Harness² +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 36 | Droid CLI +43 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 64 | 44 | Droid CLI +20 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **59.1 · C** | **41.6 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Droid CLI | Harness² |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Factory | Google (Google Research) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Paid | Free |
| 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. Bundled benchmark runners keep their upstream licences (Apache-2.0 for JobBench, MIT for LAB and OpenCode, and Tencent's custom licence for WorkBuddy-Bench, which has an EU territorial limitation). |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-10-08 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-07-14 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-20 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |
| Popularity | 49 stars, 7.8k npm/wk | 4.2k stars |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.5/5 (4) |

## 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.

**Harness².** Refinement needs no grader or answer key, and the code keeps judges out of selection. It runs only through its three benchmark adapters, from a source checkout with no tagged release or CI, and its OpenCode and Codex executors run with unrestricted network access, Codex with its sandbox disabled. The benchmark gains are the authors' claims.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Harness²

1. Don't plan to call Harness² as a service. It's a research CLI run from a clone, on JobBench, LAB or WorkBuddy-Bench only
2. Ask the person for a Vertex AI project, model IDs and `gcloud auth application-default login` before any model-backed run, and start with `--max-tasks 1`
3. Run executors behind an egress firewall and block huggingface.co and github.com after setup, as the docs advise, so rubrics can't be fetched
4. Write .env yourself with GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT, HARNESS2_SOLVER_MODEL and HARNESS2_JUDGE_MODEL, since .env.example isn't shipped, and never commit it
5. Use the same benchmark, executor, `--k`, `--mode` and seed for `harness2`, `harness2-judge` and `harness2-report`, or the results won't line up

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Droid CLI or Harness²?

Droid CLI scores 59.1 (C) on agent readiness against Harness²'s 41.6 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Harness² leads on payments & pricing.

### Are Droid CLI and Harness² open source?

No open-source release is listed for Droid CLI. Harness² is open source (Apache-2.0. Bundled benchmark runners keep their upstream licences (Apache-2.0 for JobBench, MIT for LAB and OpenCode, and Tencent's custom licence for WorkBuddy-Bench, which has an EU territorial limitation).).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/droid-cli-vs-harness2.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/droid-cli-vs-harness2.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "droid-cli", "b": "harness2"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare droid-cli harness2`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/droid-cli.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/harness2.json

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