# Harness² vs Kimi Code CLI

> Kimi Code CLI scores 62.1 (B) 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

Kimi Code CLI scores 62.1 (B) on agent readiness against Harness²'s 41.6 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do agent harnesses.

- Harness²: grade E, 41.6/100, rank #1040 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/harness2.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/harness2.json
- Kimi Code CLI: grade B, 62.1/100, rank #492 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kimi-code-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/kimi-code-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

### 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.

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it
- No incidents deducted, where Kimi Code CLI loses 4 points for them

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

### Kimi Code CLI (B)

Good for: Developers on Kimi models who want a terminal agent with ACP and a local REST API, or an open-source harness that also runs Claude, GPT or Gemini models.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 68 against 20
- Schema & documentation, 85 against 51
- Agent ergonomics, 71 against 59
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 72 against 36
- Transparency & trust, 62 against 44

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.5 out of 5

Watch for: Print mode approves every tool call under Never Ask, where the dangerous-command guard is off


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Harness² | Kimi Code CLI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 20 | 68 | Kimi Code CLI +48 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 51 | 85 | Kimi Code CLI +34 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 59 | 71 | Kimi Code CLI +12 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 44 | 45 | Kimi Code CLI +1 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 60 | Kimi Code CLI +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 36 | 72 | Kimi Code CLI +36 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 44 | 62 | Kimi Code CLI +18 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **41.6 · E** | **62.1 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Harness² | Kimi Code CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Google (Google Research) | Moonshot AI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | 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). | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-10-14 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked |  |
| Customer content may train models |  |  |
| Terms restrict automated access |  |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  |  |
| Popularity | 4.2k stars | 37k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (4) | 3/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Kimi Code CLI.** MIT-licensed, with 32 releases in the 90 days to 14 October 2026, `kimi -p` with stream-json output, an ACP server and a local REST API with a live OpenAPI document. Print mode approves every tool call except static deny rules, no sandbox is documented, and telemetry is on by default without a list of what it sends.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Kimi Code CLI

1. `kimi -p` approves every tool call. Add `[[permission.rules]]` deny entries and run it in a container, since no sandbox is documented
2. Set `KIMI_LOOP_MAX_STEPS_PER_TURN` for unattended runs. Steps per turn are unlimited by default
3. Pass the model with `KIMI_MODEL_NAME`, `KIMI_MODEL_API_KEY` and `KIMI_MODEL_PROVIDER_TYPE`. `OPENAI_API_KEY` or `ANTHROPIC_API_KEY` in the shell is ignored otherwise
4. Set `KIMI_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1` and use 0.41.0 or later, since earlier print-mode runs ignored it
5. Install `@moonshot-ai/kimi-code` or the `kimi-code` formula. The `kimi-cli` and `kimi-code` packages on PyPI are the archived Python CLI

## Questions

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

Kimi Code CLI scores 62.1 (B) on agent readiness against Harness²'s 41.6 (E), and leads in every scored category.

### Are Harness² and Kimi Code CLI open source?

Yes. 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).). Kimi Code CLI is open source (MIT).


## For agents

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

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