Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

Jules vs Verdent

Jules scores 45.1 (E) on agent readiness against Verdent's 39.7 (E), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Verdent leads on reliability and maintenance & community. Both do agent harnesses.

Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 1500 harnesses comparisons

Which one, for what

Jules E

Best for Nobody starting new work, since Jules turns read-only after 11 November 2026 and ends on 31 December 2026.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 76 against 55
  • Agent ergonomics, 64 against 35
  • Security & auth, 57 against 33
  • Payments & pricing, 30 against 20

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine

Watch for

Jules turns read-only after 11 November 2026 and winds down on 31 December 2026, per the changelog of 29 October

Verdent E

Best for A person who wants a desktop app to plan and run several coding tasks at once, possibly on their own Claude Code or Codex.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 43 against 13
  • Maintenance & community, 61 against 18

Watch for

No CLI, print mode, API or SDK, so a pipeline can't start or read a run except through a paired chat bot

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Maintenance & community Verdent +43

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.

Verdent 61

Closed service. v2.18.0 on 29 October 2026, eight days before this check (30). More than three dated releases in the 90 days from 8 August, among them 2.10.0 to 2.18.0 (20). A dated public changelog, a support address, Discord and a subreddit, with no public tracker to read reply times (8). No official SDK or MCP server to keep current (0). No public packages or CI to judge (3). 30+20+8+0+3 = 61.

Reliability Verdent +30

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.

Verdent 43

Local-package reading, as for the other closed-source harnesses. The desktop app installs from verdent.ai with macOS 11 or later and 64-bit Windows 10 and 11 stated, and the extension from the editor marketplaces, but not from a package registry (15). No public CI or test suite, since the source isn't published (0). No public issue tracker, every task runs through Verdent's servers, and no status page was found, so there is no readable record (5). A dated changelog by version, with the end of Free Mode called out in v2.18.0, but no breaking-change sections (8). 2.18.0, generally available (15). 15+0+5+8+15 = 43.

Agent ergonomics Jules +29

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.

Verdent 35

Harness reading. MCP servers per project or globally, subagents, skills and rules, but no per-tool disabling or deferred loading found (10). No output-size, turn-limit or budget controls for a run were found beyond credit balances (5). No exit codes or error format, since there is no headless mode (3). Parallel workers in git worktrees and a review column make runs reviewable and reversible, with no resume by ID documented (10). No CLI, API or SDK. A pipeline can only reach Manager through a paired Telegram, Slack or Feishu bot (7). 10+5+3+10+7 = 35.

Security & auth Jules +24

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.

Verdent 33

Framework reading (telemetry defaults, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing). Conversation history and tool results go to Verdent's US servers and on to Azure, Bedrock or Vertex, with zero data retention stated for Vertex and Bedrock only. Event logging to log.verdent.ai has no documented opt-out. BYOA keys stay on the machine (10). Plan Mode is read-only, Agent Mode asks before destructive commands and edits outside scope, and workers are isolated by git worktree, but there is no sandbox or network control and the approval list isn't enumerated (9). No prompt-injection guidance found, while web search and fetch results enter the context (2). Usage history in the dashboard, no audit log found (5). A security page with a disclosure address and a five-day acknowledgement, SOC 2 and ISO/IEC 42001 being pursued rather than held, no security.txt and no bug bounty (7). 10+9+2+5+7 = 33.

Schema & documentation Jules +21

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.

Verdent 55

Framework reading for a harness. No schema for settings or output, only mcp.json examples in the standard mcpServers shape (5). Every current docs page has a Markdown twin at the same path with .md, though no llms.txt (10). The docs say when to use Agent Mode or Plan Mode and what Plan Mode can't do, but the Agent Mode page lists the actions that need approval only as "certain tool executions" and "destructive operations" (12). Modes and BYOA agent types are enumerated, permissions are not (5). Examples on the MCP, BYOA and messaging pages, and a recovery page, with no error codes (8). Version numbers and a dated public changelog (15). The archived 1.0 docs are still served beside the current ones. 5+10+12+5+8+15 = 55.

Payments & pricing Jules +10

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.

Verdent 20

Harness reading of the published rubric, scored on the Verdent subscription the agent needs. No payment protocol (0). Plan prices from $5 a month, top-up prices and the credit value of about $0.059 are public without a login (20). Free Mode and the free trial ended on 29 October 2026, so there is no free tier (0). A person signs up in a browser (0). 0+20+0+0 = 20.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runJulesVerdentEdge
Reliability16%201343Verdent +30
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27655Jules +21
Agent ergonomics13%16.26435Jules +29
Security & auth14%17.55733Jules +24
Payments & pricing10%12.53020Jules +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.81861Verdent +43
Transparency & trust7%8.85155Verdent +4
Negative events≤150-2
TotalE 45.1/100E 39.7/100

Facts side by side

FactJulesVerdent
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorGoogle LLCVerdent AI, Inc.
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
TransportsHTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumPaid
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under the Google Terms of Service. The TypeScript SDK is Apache-2.0; the CLI binary is closedProprietary. The terms of use from Verdent AI, Inc. forbid reverse engineering or copying any component, and no source is published
Tools exposed8none
Read-only variant documentedyesyes
llms.txtyesno
Last release2026-03-092026-10-29
Terms last updated2026-07-302026-05-25
Privacy policy last updated2026-10-012026-05-26
Customer content may train modelsyesyes
Terms restrict automated accessyesyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Agent reviews2.8/5 (4)none

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

Jules

Google is winding Jules down. Its changelog of 29 October 2026 says sessions turn read-only after 11 November and the service ends on 31 December 2026. Until then the v1alpha API takes only a prompt to start a session and logs every plan, command and diff, with no status page, request rate figures or idempotency key.

Verdent

A desktop and editor coding agent that splits a goal into parallel workers in git worktrees, with a read-only Plan Mode, MCP servers and the option to run workers on Claude Code or Codex. It has no CLI, API or sandbox, sends context through Verdent's servers, and has had no free tier since 29 October 2026.

Before you call either

Jules

  1. Don't start new work on Jules. Sessions turn read-only after 11 November 2026 and the service ends on 31 December 2026
  2. Export settings, memories and session history with the Jules Tools CLI before 31 December 2026, following the changelog's 29 October entry
  3. Set requirePlanApproval: true on sessions that touch shared branches, then call :approvePlan yourself. API sessions otherwise run their plan without review
  4. Session creation has no request ID. After a timeout, list sessions and match the prompt or title before creating another
  5. Poll activities with a create_time filter and cache them. Activities never change once written

Verdent

  1. Don't plan to drive Verdent headless. Hand the task to the person using the desktop app, or use a harness with a print mode
  2. Start large changes in Plan Mode and review plan.md before switching to Agent Mode
  3. Add MCP servers in the project's .mcp.json or ~/.verdent/mcp.json in the mcpServers shape
  4. Keep work under git, since rollback relies on git and there is no sandbox
  5. Budget in credits at about $0.059 each, because there is no free allowance since 29 October 2026

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Jules or Verdent?

Jules scores 45.1 (E) on agent readiness against Verdent's 39.7 (E), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Verdent leads on reliability and maintenance & community.

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