Jules vs Orca

Jules 18

Closed service. The newest API or product change is the changelog entry of 9 March 2026, 241 days before 5 November (0). The changelog's 29 October 2026 entry announces the wind-down and an export route through the CLI, which is a notice, not an API change. No package releases, commits or tags in the 90 days, and the jules-sdk repository's last commit is 18 March 2026 (0). A public changelog and a Discord channel. The 18 October issue and pull request counts came from shields.io badges and are struck (8 of 15, a partial held). The official TypeScript SDK and MCP packages last published 0.2.0 on 9 March 2026, per the 18 October registry reading, and no official MCP registry entry could be read (5). The SDK has a CI workflow on pull requests whose results couldn't be read, and two runtime dependencies. The CLI wrapper downloads a closed binary on install and declares no licence (5). 0 + 0 + 8 + 5 + 5 = 18.

Orca 75

Tags to v1.4.251 and commits on 6 November 2026 (30). Many releases in 90 days (20). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Current builds (15). Extensive CI (10). 30 + 20 + 0 + 15 + 10 = 75.

Jules 13

Hosted reading. No status page for Jules was found (0). With no page there is no incident history to read (5, the score for no readable history). The plans page, re-read on 5 November, publishes task quotas with numbers, 15, 100 and 300 tasks a rolling 24 hours and 3, 15 and 60 concurrent, and list pageSize is capped at 100, but no request rate figures were found (8 of 15). 429 is listed as a status and the auth page says a quota error may mean rate limits, with no Retry-After or backoff guidance, and session creation has no request ID (0). No SLA found (0). The API is v1alpha and labelled experimental, and the changelog of 29 October 2026 says Jules turns read-only after 11 November (0). 0 + 5 + 8 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 13.

Orca 58

Local software. Desktop and mobile builds and a Homebrew cask (20). Unit, end-to-end and platform test workflows; pass state not read (15). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). Tags to v1.4.251, no changelog file (8). Version 1.4 (15). 20 + 15 + 0 + 8 + 15 = 58.

Jules 57

Hosted reading. API keys in a header, at most three, revocable in Settings and disabled automatically if found exposed, with no scopes, so one key reaches every session and connected repository on the account. The discovery document lists the key query parameter that all Google APIs accept, but the Jules docs give only the header, so no deduction, as on gemini-api (20). Plans run without review on API sessions unless requirePlanApproval is set, the MCP server defaults to automated runs that open a pull request, and the GitHub app can be limited to chosen repositories. No read-only key (10). Each VM has internet access and the FAQ puts the burden on the user. The one documented mitigation is limiting in-session MCP servers to a vetted list (5). Activities log every plan, message, bash command and patch per session. No account audit log of key use found (8). www.google.com security.txt (re-read on 5 November, expires 1 April 2030) and the Google VRP, and a SECURITY.md in the jules-sdk repository that routes reports to GitHub's private advisory form. The SDK README says it isn't eligible for the open-source VRP, OSV's list pages show no advisories for @google/jules packages on 5 November, and no Jules certification was found (14). 20 + 10 + 5 + 8 + 14 = 57.

Orca 43

Harness reading. Anonymous usage data with an opt-out, per the README's link to its telemetry docs (15 of 30). Worktrees per agent and a sandboxed Linux build (12 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance (5). No audit log (5). A dependency-security workflow (6 of 20). 15 + 12 + 5 + 5 + 6 = 43.

Jules 76

API reading. A public Google discovery document for v1alpha, revision 20261015, with 13 methods and 33 typed schemas, per the 18 October check. It sits on the API's own host and wasn't requested again (25). docs/llms.txt and a Markdown twin of every docs page (10). Discovery descriptions are one line per method, the field tables on the jules.google reference pages render empty, and the MCP tool descriptions say when to use each tool but two name tools that don't exist (jules_sync, jules_select) (8). Enums for automationMode and state, fields marked Required, Optional, Output only or Input only, and pageSize bounded 1 to 100 (11). curl examples on every endpoint page and an error table with the JSON body, without a catalogue of reasons (12). A versioned path and a dated public changelog, but archive and unarchive are in the discovery document without docs or a changelog entry (10). 25 + 10 + 8 + 11 + 12 + 10 = 76.

Orca 65

Harness reading. A docs site with CLI orchestration and native chat pages (65).

Jules 30

Published rubric. No payment protocol (0). Plans and their Jules limits are public without a login, and Jules sits inside the Google AI plans. The prices render per locale and weren't read, and there's no per-task price (10). A free plan of 15 tasks a day with a Google account, and no card step in the sign-up docs, until new tasks stop after 11 November 2026 (20). A person signs in, accepts the privacy notice, installs the GitHub app and creates the key in the web app (0). 0 + 10 + 20 + 0 = 30.

Orca 40

Scored on the cloud option. No protocol (0). The cloud price wasn't found on the pages read (0). The desktop app is free and MIT with no card (20). The local app needs no sign-up that we found (20). 0 + 0 + 20 + 20 = 40.

Jules 64

API and MCP reading, per the 18 October check. Responses can be sized with pageSize, the standard fields parameter and a create_time filter that fetches only new activities. The MCP server has 8 tools, and query_cache takes a token budget (20). Token pagination on every list and filters on sessions, activities and sources (16). Google's error JSON with status and an ErrorInfo reason, plus a documented status table (14). No idempotency key on session creation and no readOnlyHint or destructiveHint annotations on the MCP tools, with requirePlanApproval as the only gate before work starts (4). Only prompt is required and a session without a source runs repoless. One official SDK, in TypeScript, plus the MCP server and CLI (10). 20 + 16 + 14 + 4 + 10 = 64.

Orca 70

Harness reading. An orchestrator agent that splits work across workers in their own workspaces, chat or raw CLI, a browser and a CLI in one app (70).