# Gemini CLI vs mini-swe-agent

> Gemini CLI scores 66.7 (B) to mini-swe-agent's 56.7 (C) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-18

Gemini CLI scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against mini-swe-agent's 56.7 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. mini-swe-agent leads on payments & pricing. Both do agent harnesses.

- Gemini CLI: grade B, 66.7/100, rank #307 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gemini-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/gemini-cli.json
- mini-swe-agent: grade C, 56.7/100, rank #698 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/mini-swe-agent.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/mini-swe-agent.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

### Gemini CLI (B)

Good for: Teams with a paid Gemini API key, Vertex AI credentials or existing Code Assist Standard or Enterprise licences that want an open-source harness with documented headless output.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 93 against 58
- Agent ergonomics, 78 against 69
- Security & auth, 67 against 56
- Maintenance & community, 88 against 49
- Transparency & trust, 89 against 51

Also in its favour:
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.5 against 3.0 out of 5

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

### mini-swe-agent (C)

Good for: Benchmark runs, research baselines and RL or fine-tuning pipelines that want a minimal, readable agent with a linear trajectory, and for people who want to read every line of their harness.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 20

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: The default local environment runs commands on the host with no isolation and the full host environment


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Gemini CLI | mini-swe-agent | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 71 | 70 | Gemini CLI +1 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 93 | 58 | Gemini CLI +35 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 69 | Gemini CLI +9 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 67 | 56 | Gemini CLI +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 60 | mini-swe-agent +40 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 88 | 49 | Gemini CLI +39 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 89 | 51 | Gemini CLI +38 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -5 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **66.7 · B** | **56.7 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Gemini CLI | mini-swe-agent |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Google | SWE-bench team (Princeton and Stanford) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-06 | 2026-07-23 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-01 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | yes |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read |  |
| Popularity | 107k stars | 8.6k stars, 4.4M PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 3/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Gemini CLI.** Apache-2.0, with 16 stable releases since 3 July and documented headless output. Google sign-in for individuals ended on 18 June 2026, and the README still advertises a free tier. Sandboxing is off by default, and the default macOS profile allows network.

**mini-swe-agent.** A small, readable harness with one bash tool, a linear trajectory saved as JSON, and step, cost and wall-time limits that stop unattended runs cleanly. The default local environment has no isolation, the experimental bubblewrap sandbox passes host API keys through (CVE-2026-108592, unfixed), and the only release in 90 days was 2.4.6 on 23 July 2026.

## Before you call either

### Gemini CLI

1. 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
2. Turn on the sandbox with `-s` or `tools.sandbox`, and pick a proxied Seatbelt profile on macOS to cut network
3. Set `privacy.usageStatisticsEnabled` to false to stop usage statistics
4. Since 0.63.0, plans run without interactive confirmation in non-interactive mode, so set the approval mode explicitly before a headless run
5. Authenticate with a paid Gemini API key or Vertex credentials. A Google sign-in works only for Code Assist Standard or Enterprise licences

### mini-swe-agent

1. Run with `-y --exit-immediately` for unattended use. Without `--exit-immediately` it waits for input when the agent finishes
2. Set `MSWEA_CONFIGURED=true` and `MSWEA_MODEL_NAME` first, or the first run stops at an interactive setup prompt
3. Read `info.exit_status` in the `-o` trajectory file. A run that hits its limits still exits normally
4. For untrusted repositories use `-c mini.yaml -c environment.environment_class=docker -c environment.image=<image>`. The local and bubblewrap environments both expose host variables
5. Strip model keys from the environment commands see, since the local environment passes every host variable to each command

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Gemini CLI or mini-swe-agent?

Gemini CLI scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against mini-swe-agent's 56.7 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. mini-swe-agent leads on payments & pricing.

### Are Gemini CLI and mini-swe-agent open source?

Yes. Gemini CLI is open source (Apache-2.0). mini-swe-agent is open source (MIT).


## For agents

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

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