# GitHub Copilot CLI vs Jules

> GitHub Copilot CLI scores 58.3 (C) to Jules's 44.5 (E) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-18

GitHub Copilot CLI scores 58.3 (C) on agent readiness against Jules's 44.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent harnesses.

- GitHub Copilot CLI: grade C, 58.3/100, rank #647 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/github-copilot-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/github-copilot-cli.json
- Jules: grade E, 44.5/100, rank #1000 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/jules.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/jules.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

### GitHub Copilot CLI (C)

Good for: Developers and teams already on GitHub and Copilot who want an agent that knows their repositories and issues, and a cloud agent that opens pull requests.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 55 against 13
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 64
- Security & auth, 63 against 57
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 77 against 18
- Transparency & trust, 70 against 44

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

Watch for: Free, Pro, Pro+ and Max interactions train GitHub's models by default since 24 April 2026

### Jules (E)

Good for: A person or pipeline that wants to hand scoped GitHub tasks to a cloud agent and collect a pull request or a patch, or run a repoless job in a disposable VM.

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- No incidents deducted, where GitHub Copilot CLI loses 5 points for them

Watch for: The REST API has been v1alpha since 3 October 2025 and the docs say specifications and API keys may change


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | GitHub Copilot CLI | Jules | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 13 | GitHub Copilot CLI +42 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 76 | Jules +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 64 | GitHub Copilot CLI +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 57 | GitHub Copilot CLI +6 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 30 | GitHub Copilot CLI +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 18 | GitHub Copilot CLI +59 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 44 | GitHub Copilot CLI +26 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -5 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **58.3 · C** | **44.5 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | GitHub Copilot CLI | Jules |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | GitHub | Google LLC |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary, under the licence in the repository's `LICENSE.md`. Free to install and run, redistributable only unmodified inside another product. The repository holds the README, changelog and install script, not the source | Proprietary service under the Google Terms of Service. The TypeScript SDK is Apache-2.0; the CLI binary is closed |
| Tools exposed | none | 8 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-14 | 2026-03-09 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-04-27 | 2026-07-30 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-04-27 | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 11k stars | 1.3k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | 2.8/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**GitHub Copilot CLI.** Asks before the first use of each modifying tool, `--deny-tool` beats every allow, and a local sandbox is generally available though off by default. Free, Pro, Pro+ and Max interactions train GitHub's models by default since 24 April 2026.

**Jules.** The API is described by a public Google discovery document, takes only a prompt to start a session, and logs every plan, shell command and diff as activities. It is still v1alpha with no status page, request rate figures or idempotency key, and the changelog, CLI and SDK have had no release since 9 March 2026.

## Before you call either

### GitHub Copilot CLI

1. Pass `--deny-tool` for anything destructive. It wins over `--allow-all-tools` and `--allow-tool`
2. Turn on the sandbox with `/sandbox enable` or `--sandbox`. It's off by default
3. Turn off model training in Copilot settings on Free, Pro, Pro+ and Max. It's on by default since 24 April 2026
4. Move off Claude Opus 4.8, Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 Terra before 16 November 2026
5. Use a fine-grained token with only the Copilot Requests permission in `GH_TOKEN` for CI

### Jules

1. Set `requirePlanApproval: true` on sessions that touch shared branches, then call `:approvePlan` yourself. API sessions otherwise run their plan without review
2. Session creation has no request ID. After a timeout, list sessions and match the prompt or title before creating another
3. Poll activities with a `create_time` filter and cache them. Activities never change once written
4. Read the request fields from the discovery document at https://jules.googleapis.com/$discovery/rest?version=v1alpha. The field tables on jules.google render empty
5. Budget against the daily task quota of 15, 100 or 300 by plan. New sessions are refused until the rolling 24 hours reset

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, GitHub Copilot CLI or Jules?

GitHub Copilot CLI scores 58.3 (C) on agent readiness against Jules's 44.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with GitHub Copilot CLI or Jules

- [Agent Zero vs GitHub Copilot CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-github-copilot-cli.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-jules.md)
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