# GitHub Copilot CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI

> GitHub Copilot CLI scores 58.3 (C) to Rovo Dev CLI's 43.9 (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 Rovo Dev CLI's 43.9 (E), and leads in every scored category. 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
- Rovo Dev CLI: grade E, 43.9/100, rank #1010 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/rovo-dev-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/rovo-dev-cli.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 35
- Schema & documentation, 72 against 45
- Agent ergonomics, 72 against 53
- Security & auth, 63 against 48
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 15
- Maintenance & community, 77 against 61
- Transparency & trust, 70 against 61

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 2.5 against 2.0 out of 5

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

### Rovo Dev CLI (E)

Good for: Teams already on Jira, Confluence and Bitbucket who want the agent to read and update work items and pages from the terminal or a pipeline.

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where GitHub Copilot CLI loses 5 points for them

Watch for: Atlassian has announced end of life for standalone Rovo Dev, with the CLI moving to the Rovo CLI and no dates set


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | GitHub Copilot CLI | Rovo Dev CLI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 55 | 35 | GitHub Copilot CLI +20 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 45 | GitHub Copilot CLI +27 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 72 | 53 | GitHub Copilot CLI +19 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 63 | 48 | GitHub Copilot CLI +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 15 | GitHub Copilot CLI +25 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 77 | 61 | GitHub Copilot CLI +16 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 70 | 61 | GitHub Copilot CLI +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -5 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **58.3 · C** | **43.9 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | GitHub Copilot CLI | Rovo Dev CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | GitHub | Atlassian |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| 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, under the Atlassian Customer Agreement (effective 1 October 2026) and the Atlassian AI Terms (effective 17 August 2026). No source is published |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-14 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-04-27 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-04-27 | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| 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 | none |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | 2/5 (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.

**Rovo Dev CLI.** Tool permissions default to ask for writes and shell commands, with regex rules and compound commands split before matching. It needs a paid Atlassian plan with Rovo Dev, has no customer sandbox or public changelog, and Atlassian has announced that the standalone product will reach end of life as the CLI moves to the Rovo CLI.

## 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

### Rovo Dev CLI

1. Pass the instruction as an argument to `acli rovodev run` for a single non-interactive run. No JSON output flag or exit codes are documented
2. Use `acli rovodev serve <port>` and stream `/v3/stream_chat?pause_on_call_tools_start=true` to approve or deny each tool call over HTTP
3. Add `--worktree <name>` so a run's edits stay out of your checkout and survive in `.rovodev/worktrees/<name>`
4. Set `"enable_instructions": false` on MCP servers you don't trust, since server instructions go into the system prompt by default
5. Check `/usage` before long runs. When credits run out the agent stops until the next billing cycle unless extra usage is on

## Questions

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

GitHub Copilot CLI scores 58.3 (C) on agent readiness against Rovo Dev CLI's 43.9 (E), and leads in every scored category.


## For agents

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

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