Jules vs MiniMax Code

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.

MiniMax Code

An MIT-licensed terminal coding agent with a headless mode that returns versioned JSON, documented exit codes and an ACP server, and telemetry off by default. It's pre-1.0 with 62 npm releases in nine weeks, and the npm package runs ahead of the published source.

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

MiniMax Code

1. Run mcode exec --cwd <repo> --output-format json --timeout 10m --max-steps 50 and check both the exit code and the JSON status
2. Keep --permission full and off for a container or throwaway workspace. The default smart fails when it would need a person
3. Set MCODE_PROVIDER_API_KEY and add a provider for BYOK. M Plan models need a browser sign-in with mcode login --region global
4. Set MINIMAX_DATA_DIR per CI runner. Keys and sessions live in ~/.minimax by default
5. Pin a version. npm published 62 releases in nine weeks and the public source trails it