Jules vs Qoder CLI

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.

Qoder CLI

A closed-source terminal agent with a documented headless mode, an ACP server, typed TypeScript and Python SDKs and near-daily releases. Permission rules and modes are detailed, but no local sandbox is documented, usage statistics are on by default, and security fixes appear only as one-line release notes with no advisories or disclosure policy.

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

Qoder CLI

1. Set QODER_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKEN in CI. The browser sign-in can't complete in a headless run
2. Pass --permission-mode with --allowed-tools in headless runs. Every ask is denied, and --yolo removes all checks
3. Set --max-turns on unattended runs, and branch on exit codes 41 (authentication) and 53 (turn limit)
4. Set privacy.usageStatisticsEnabled and aiCodeStatistics.enabled to false in ~/.qoder/settings.json if usage data must stay local
5. Don't pass --model lite. The Lite tier was removed on 18 September 2026 and headless requests naming it fail