# Droid CLI vs Junie CLI

> Droid CLI scores 59.1 (C) to Junie CLI's 53.2 (D) 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 Junie CLI's 53.2 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Junie CLI leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do agent harnesses.

- Droid CLI: grade C, 59.1/100, rank #619 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/droid-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/droid-cli.json
- Junie CLI: grade D, 53.2/100, rank #804 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/junie.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/junie.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

### 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:
- Schema & documentation, 79 against 62
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 55
- Security & auth, 63 against 56
- Maintenance & community, 79 against 72

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Junie CLI loses 3 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

### Junie CLI (D)

Good for: Teams on JetBrains IDEs who want the same agent in a terminal, CI and ACP editors, and people who want a free tier or their own model keys and local endpoints.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 42 against 10
- Transparency & trust, 78 against 64

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

Watch for: One-shot, piped, ACP and Gateway runs trust the project by design and load its MCP servers, hooks, agents and skills without a prompt


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Droid CLI | Junie CLI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 49 | 45 | Droid CLI +4 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 62 | Droid CLI +17 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 55 | Droid CLI +17 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 56 | Droid CLI +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 10 | 42 | Junie CLI +32 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 72 | Droid CLI +7 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 64 | 78 | Junie CLI +14 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **59.1 · C** | **53.2 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Droid CLI | Junie CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Factory | JetBrains |
| 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 | Proprietary, JetBrains s.r.o., all rights reserved, under the JetBrains AI Terms of Service. The GitHub repository holds the README, release binaries and the issue tracker, not source |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-07-14 |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-20 | 2026-06-12 |
| 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 | 487 stars, 3.2k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.8/5 (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.

**Junie CLI.** Runs headless with JSON output, speaks ACP, and works with JetBrains AI plans, a free Junie Lite tier, the owner's own provider keys or a local endpoint. Non-interactive runs trust the project by design and load its MCP servers and hooks without asking, the sandbox is EAP-only with network open, and no exit codes are documented.

## 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

### Junie CLI

1. Run headless only in repositories you trust. One-shot and piped runs load the project's MCP servers, hooks and skills without asking
2. Set `JUNIE_API_KEY` (from junie.jetbrains.com/cli) or a provider key such as `JUNIE_ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` in CI. The default sign-in opens a browser
3. Add `--output-format json` or `--json-output-file` to parse results. Check the output, since exit codes aren't documented
4. Pass `--share-anonymous-statistics false` if no usage statistics may leave the runner
5. Pin a build with `--use-version` and `--skip-update-check`. The CLI updates itself on start by default

## Questions

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

Droid CLI scores 59.1 (C) on agent readiness against Junie CLI's 53.2 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Junie CLI leads on payments & pricing and transparency & trust.


## For agents

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

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