# Jules vs Paperclip

> Paperclip scores 59 (C) to Jules's 44.5 (E) for multi-agent orchestration. 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
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- Updated: 2026-10-19

Paperclip scores 59 (C) on agent readiness against Jules's 44.5 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do multi-agent orchestration.

- Jules: grade E, 44.5/100, rank #1014 of 1175. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/jules.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/jules.json
- Paperclip: grade C, 59/100, rank #630 of 1175. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/paperclip.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/paperclip.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 752 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.

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- No incidents deducted, where Paperclip loses 10 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

### Paperclip (C)

Good for: Someone running several coding or operations agents who wants one place for tasks, budgets, approvals and history across harnesses.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 66 against 13
- Schema & documentation, 81 against 76
- Agent ergonomics, 70 against 64
- Security & auth, 64 against 57
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 30
- Maintenance & community, 78 against 18
- Transparency & trust, 65 against 44

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

Watch for: `claude_local` defaults `dangerouslySkipPermissions` to true and `codex_local` defaults to bypassing approvals and the sandbox, with agents running on the host


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Jules | Paperclip | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 13 | 66 | Paperclip +53 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 76 | 81 | Paperclip +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 70 | Paperclip +6 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 64 | Paperclip +7 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 60 | Paperclip +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 18 | 78 | Paperclip +60 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 44 | 65 | Paperclip +21 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -10 | |
| **Total** | | **44.5 · E** | **59 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Jules | Paperclip |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Google LLC | Paperclip Labs, Inc. |
| 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 | 2026-10-05 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-07-30 | 2026-07-23 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-01 | 2026-07-23 |
| Customer content may train models | yes | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 1.3k npm/wk | 99k stars, 60k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.8/5 (4) | none |

## 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.

**Paperclip.** Board approvals, budgets with a hard stop and an activity log sit above whichever harnesses do the work, and eleven stable versions shipped in 90 days. The Claude Code and Codex adapters skip permission prompts and the sandbox by default, and twelve security advisories, five of them critical, have been published since April 2026.

## 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

### Paperclip

1. Set `PAPERCLIP_TELEMETRY_DISABLED=1` or `DO_NOT_TRACK=1` before the first start. Telemetry is on by default
2. Set `dangerouslySkipPermissions` and `dangerouslyBypassApprovalsAndSandbox` to false on agents that read untrusted input, or run them in a sandbox provider
3. Install with Node.js 24.11 or newer, and install and sign in to each harness CLI on the host first. Paperclip assumes they are there
4. Use `--bind lan` or `--bind tailnet` at onboarding for anything beyond one machine. The default `local_trusted` mode treats every request as the board admin
5. Treat 409 on task checkout as owned by another agent and pick different work. The API docs say not to retry

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Jules or Paperclip?

Paperclip scores 59 (C) on agent readiness against Jules's 44.5 (E), and leads in every scored category.

### Are Jules and Paperclip open source?

No open-source release is listed for Jules. Paperclip is open source (MIT).


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Jules or Paperclip

- [Agent Zero vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-jules.md)
- [Aider vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-jules.md)
- [Amp vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-jules.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-jules.md)
- [Auggie CLI vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/auggie-vs-jules.md)
- [Claude Code vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-jules.md)
- [Cline vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-jules.md)
- [Crush vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crush-vs-jules.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-jules.md)
- [DeepSeek Harness (dsh) vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-harness-vs-jules.md)
- [Devin vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/devin-vs-jules.md)
- [Droid CLI vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/droid-cli-vs-jules.md)
- [Pi vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/earendil-pi-vs-jules.md)
- [Gemini CLI vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-cli-vs-jules.md)
- [GitHub Copilot CLI vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/github-copilot-cli-vs-jules.md)
- [goose vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-jules.md)
- [Harness² vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harness2-vs-jules.md)
- [HarnessRouter vs Jules](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harnessrouter-vs-jules.md)
- [Jules vs Junie CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-junie.md)
- [Jules vs Kilo Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-kilo-code-cli.md)
- [Jules vs Kimi Code CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-kimi-code-cli.md)
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- [Jules vs MiniMax Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-minimax-code.md)
- [Jules vs Mistral Vibe CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-mistral-vibe-cli.md)
- [Jules vs Muse Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-muse-code.md)
- [Jules vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-openai-codex.md)
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- [Jules vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-openhands.md)
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- [Jules vs Qoder CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-qoder-cli.md)
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- [Jules vs Rovo Dev CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-rovo-dev-cli.md)
- [Jules vs Warp (Warp Agent CLI and the Oz Agent API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/jules-vs-warp.md)
- [Amp vs Paperclip](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-paperclip.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs Paperclip](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-paperclip.md)
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