# Jules vs Kimi Code CLI

> Kimi Code CLI scores 62.1 (B) to Jules's 44.5 (E) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
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- Updated: 2026-10-18

Kimi Code CLI scores 62.1 (B) on agent readiness against Jules's 44.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Jules leads on security & auth. Both do agent harnesses.

- 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
- 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

### 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.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 57 against 45

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- No incidents deducted, where Kimi Code CLI loses 4 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

### 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 13
- Schema & documentation, 85 against 76
- Agent ergonomics, 71 against 64
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 72 against 18
- Transparency & trust, 62 against 44

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

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


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Jules | Kimi Code CLI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 13 | 68 | Kimi Code CLI +55 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 76 | 85 | Kimi Code CLI +9 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 71 | Kimi Code CLI +7 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 45 | Jules +12 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 60 | Kimi Code CLI +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 18 | 72 | Kimi Code CLI +54 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 44 | 62 | Kimi Code CLI +18 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **44.5 · E** | **62.1 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Jules | Kimi Code CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Google LLC | Moonshot AI |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Google Terms of Service. The TypeScript SDK is Apache-2.0; the CLI binary is closed | MIT |
| Tools exposed | 8 | none |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-03-09 | 2026-10-14 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-07-30 |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-01 |  |
| Customer content may train models | yes |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text |  |
| Popularity | 1.3k npm/wk | 37k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.8/5 (4) | 3/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**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

### 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

### 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, Jules or Kimi Code CLI?

Kimi Code CLI scores 62.1 (B) on agent readiness against Jules's 44.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Jules leads on security & auth.

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

No open-source release is listed for Jules. Kimi Code CLI is open source (MIT).


## For agents

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

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp