# Kane CLI vs Steel (slim)

> Steel scores 71.5 (BB) to Kane CLI's 55.3 (C) for browser automation. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kane-cli-vs-steel.md (~5,850 tokens) · this version ~3,730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kane-cli-vs-steel.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kane-cli-vs-steel
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-01
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Steel scores 71.5 (BB) on agent readiness against Kane CLI's 55.3 (C), and leads in every scored category. Both do browser automation. Steel accepts x402. Kane CLI doesn't.

- Kane CLI: C 55.3, rank #805 of 1260 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kane-cli.min.md
- Steel: BB 71.5, rank #133 of 1260 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/steel.min.md
- Kane CLI, good for Coding agents and CI that need to check a web or mobile app in a real browser or device and keep replayable Markdown tests with evidence.
- Steel, good for Agents that need a real cloud browser with persistent profiles, stored logins, CAPTCHA solving and a human takeover path, and teams that want an open-source runtime they can also self-host. Ahead on Reliability, 63 against 50; Schema & documentation, 86 against 77; Agent ergonomics, 79 against 65; Payments & pricing, 75 against 20; Maintenance & community, 82 against 77; Transparency & trust, 65 against 38. Also Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better; An agent can pay per call over x402, with no account; A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install; Runs on your own machine; Free to start without a card.

| Category | Kane CLI | Steel |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 50 | 63 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 77 | 86 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 65 | 79 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 55 | 56 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 20 | 75 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 77 | 82 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 38 | 65 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Kane CLI | Steel |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | TestMu AI (formerly LambdaTest) | Nen Labs, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.steel.dev` |
| Transports |  | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| x402 | no | yes, from $0.01/call |
| Licence | The npm wrapper, skill and repository are Apache-2.0. The runner, assurance and pinned Node binaries it installs are labelled Apache-2.0 on npm, but their source isn't in the linked repository. TestMu AI's service terms weren't read | Proprietary cloud service under Steel's terms. steel-browser and the Node and Python SDKs are Apache-2.0. The MCP server and the CLI are MIT |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-28 | 2026-10-31 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2025-02-05 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-02-05 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | yes |
| Popularity | 2.1k npm/wk | 47k npm/wk, 63k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 2/5 (4) |

Why the edge:
- Payments & pricing, Steel +55: Kane CLI 20 (No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices are public per the listing check of 1 November 2026 (Starter $17 a month billed annually, Pro $89), and `run_end` reports credits per run, but the credit price per run isn't published, so plan-only pricing (10). The release says "free to start" and the check found a 10,000-credit, 30-day trial; whether it needs a card couldn't be read today. Judgement call (10 of 20). A person signs up and approves OAuth in a browser, or copies an access key from the dashboard, before any run (0).); Steel 75 (x402 version 2 at x402.steel.dev for scrape, screenshot and PDF, in USDC on Base or Solana. An unpaid request on 1 November 2026 again returned 402 asking 10000 base units, with the resource named as api.paysponge.com. Browser sessions, the main product, aren't covered, so partial (20). Per-hour, per-GB and per-1,000-call prices published without login, on a pricing page last edited 23 October 2026 with the same rates (20). Launch plan with $30 of one-time credit valid 90 days, and the quickstart says no card is required (20). An agent with a wallet gets a scrape, screenshot or PDF with no account, but a browser session needs a person to sign up or run the Stripe CLI, so we award 15 of 20.)
- Transparency & trust, Steel +27: Kane CLI 38 (The editorial half. The wrapper, skill and docs are Apache-2.0. The runner, assurance and pinned Node binaries are labelled Apache-2.0 on npm with no source in the linked repository, and the service terms couldn't be read (12 of 30). The repository says what leaves the machine. Every run uploads to Test Manager with screenshots and an evidence pack recording the user's name and email, secrets are masked, credentials are stored with mode 0600, and the evidence viewer reads packs locally. The privacy policy, DPA and retention periods are on testmuai.com and weren't read (10 of 30). The changelog calls out breaking changes, such as the removal of the bare-objective shortcut in 0.4.1, but there's no deprecation policy or dated notice period (5 of 20). The changelog describes telemetry (a remote log, support ids, errors spooled and sent at exit) and a daily npm update check. The opt-out `KANE_TELEMETRY=0` appears only in a skill reference, not the user guide (8 of 20).); Steel 65 (Graded on the cloud service, which is closed with published terms. The browser runtime steel-browser and the SDKs are Apache-2.0, and the MCP server and CLI are MIT (24). The privacy notice (last updated 9 October 2026, re-read on 1 November) keeps data while an account exists, the pricing page gives 7 and 14 days of data retention, recordings can be turned off per session, and a DPA is linked as a Google Drive file. The terms date from 5 February 2025, the docs Legal page links to Google Docs copies, and the FAQ still describes pricing by concurrent sessions (14). No deprecation policy. Legacy plans stay available after the pricing change, and one docs note says a playback mode will be deprecated without a date (4). The privacy notice names Anthropic, OpenAI and Google Cloud AI as AI processors and says servers are in the United States, and the docs name one region, us-east. No subprocessor list was found outside the trust centre, which did not render for us (10).)
- Agent ergonomics, Steel +14: Kane CLI 65 (Graded on the CLI as an agent drives it. `run_end` carries `summary`, `one_liner` and only the values asked for with "store as" in `final_state`, and `--max-steps` and `--timeout` bound a run. The skill an agent loads is about 40 KB with 25 reference files (15 of 25). `testrun` selects by paths, `--match` and `--tags`, `explore list` and `explore sessions` filter by run, and `--json` on design and review commands; few size controls beyond that (14 of 20). Exit codes separate pass, fail, setup error and timeout, failure reasons are named, and refusals name the command to run next (18 of 20). Replays of saved tests come from cache, reconcile resumes rather than re-billing, and Exploration allows one run at a time. A one-shot `run` has no idempotency key and Exploration's default can change data (10 of 20). One required argument for `run`; Exploration's `mutating` default isn't a safe one; no SDKs, only the CLI from npm, Homebrew and a shell script (8 of 15).); Steel 79 (Scrape returns only the formats asked for (HTML, cleaned HTML, Markdown or readability text), lists take `limit`, and the MCP server holds its 16 tool definitions to a 17,000 byte budget checked in CI, with a three-tool scrape profile (20). Sessions list by cursor with a `status` filter and a default page of 50, other lists take `limit` and `offset`, and traces filter by time and event type (17). Errors return `message`, `linkToDocs` and validation `context`, with documented 401 messages. No stable machine-readable error codes were found (15). No idempotency keys. A caller-chosen `sessionId`, `inactivityTimeout` and release-all help with retries and clean-up, and every MCP tool carries read-only, destructive or idempotent annotations (12). Session creation needs no parameters, and there are SDKs for Node and Python, with Rust and Go per Steel's blog (15).)
- Reliability, Steel +13: Kane CLI 50 (Graded with the hosted lines, because every run, exploration and design job goes through TestMu AI's service and spends credits, and Exploration runs on HyperExecute. status.lambdatest.io (Statusfy) lists Kane CLI and KaneAI as their own components with incident history and an Atom feed (20). From 3 August to 1 November 2026 no incident names Kane CLI or KaneAI. The platform under it had test creation timeouts from 09:00 to 13:30 UTC on 28 September with slow Automation and HyperExecute starts, six hours of partial macOS HyperExecute degradation on 25 September, and real-device partial outages on 21 August and 22 October (57 minutes). Judgement call, 10 for multi-hour degradation of the service runs depend on. No request rate limit is published; the only numbers are Exploration's built-in limits (an hour, 400 actions or 800 model calls), 20 cloud browsers and a 15-minute real-device queue (5 of 15). No 429 or Retry-After guidance. `maintain reconcile` is documented as idempotent, Exploration refuses a second run with `RUN_ACTIVE`, and the skill says never to rerun a paid command just to get a support id (5 of 15). No SLA found; the terms weren't readable (0). Nothing in the repository labels Kane CLI or Exploration beta or preview (10).); Steel 63 (Graded as a hosted service, on Steel Cloud. status.steel.dev runs on Better Stack with Steel API, Dashboard, Proxies and Connections components and 90 days of history, per the 8 October check (20). On 1 November its robots.txt disallows every path, so the history wasn't re-read. Per the 8 October check, the 4 hour 10 minute outage of 22 July 2026 has now left the 90-day window, leaving two majors in it, 5 hours 41 minutes of capacity errors on session creation on 23 August and 1 hour 55 minutes of failing session creation on 1 October. Two majors give 5, and anything posted after 8 October is unread, which would also score 5 as no readable history (5). Limits are published per plan, 60 and 600 requests a minute and 10 and 100 concurrent sessions, re-read on 1 November, and 20 a minute on Browser Tools (15). Browser Tools document 429 and a 503 marked safe to retry, the Agent Traces API says to wait for `Retry-After`, and the SDKs retry 408, 409, 429 and 5xx twice with backoff. No idempotency keys, though session creation accepts a caller-chosen `sessionId` (10). Support and uptime SLAs are listed for Enterprise only on the pricing page re-read on 1 November, with no terms published (3). The sessions API is not marked beta (10).)
- Schema & documentation, Steel +9: Kane CLI 77 (No OpenAPI or JSON Schema file. The NDJSON events are documented in typed Markdown tables, `run_end` is declared stable across versions, and each command family has its event list (10 of 25). Markdown docs in the repository, an agent skill and a context7.json for agents. The agents.md guide on testmuai.com wasn't readable and no llms.txt was checked (10). The user guide and skill say when to use `run`, `testmd`, `testrun`, assurance or Exploration, and when not (Exploration when there are no written requirements, `read_only` for data you care about) (17 of 20). Flag tables give defaults and allowed values for `--mode`, `--target`, `--policy` and `--bug-detection`; `--variables` and `--session-context` take free-form JSON (12 of 15). Examples throughout, exit-code tables and troubleshooting tables with named failures such as `failed:setup_failed` and `RUN_ACTIVE`. The README's `run_end` example names `credits` while the skill names `credits_consumed` (13 of 15). Semantic versions with a dated Keep a Changelog file and git tags (15).); Steel 86 (OpenAPI 3.0.3 at docs.steel.dev/openapi.json with 51 paths and 75 operations and the `steel-api-key` header scheme (25). llms.txt, llms-full.txt and a Markdown twin of every docs page (10). 65 of 75 operations carry a description, and the MCP server's tool descriptions say when to use each tool and when to pick another (16). Inputs are typed with enums, UUID formats and list limits of 1 to 100, but `timeout` and `concurrency` carry no real bounds and `useProxy` and `region` have no stated type (11). One shared error schema is attached to most operations and the docs have error tables for Browser Tools and Agent Traces. The spec holds one example, and 429 is declared on session creation only (11). Paths are versioned under /v1 and the changelog is public and numbered, with dates in page metadata. The spec's own version reads 0.0.1 (13).)
- Maintenance & community, Steel +5: Kane CLI 77 (0.10.0 on npm on 28 October 2026, 4 days ago (30). 28 releases from 3 August to 1 November 2026, 0.8.4 to 0.10.0, each in the changelog (20). The repository has 337 commits, pull requests up to #222 merged within days by LambdaTest staff, a Discord and an issue tracker. GitHub's API wasn't reachable from this session, so open issues and reply times weren't counted (12 of 25). Not an MCP server. The CLI and skill are current on npm and a Homebrew tap, with no SDK (10 of 15). CI runs the skill installer's tests on Linux, macOS and Windows with Node 18 and 22. The CLI's own source and tests aren't public, and the main package carries no npm provenance attestation while the skill package does (5 of 10). Kane CLI is six and a half months old by its first npm release.); Steel 82 (steel-browser v0.5.5-beta was tagged on 31 October 2026 and changelog 038 is dated 2 October (30). In the 90 days from 3 August, changelog entries on 18 and 25 September and 2 October, steel-browser v0.5.4-beta (25 August) and v0.5.5-beta (31 October), and the MCP server's 3.0.0 on main (9 September). The 24 July entry has left the window and no changelog entry has followed 038 (20). Public changelog, Discord and email support, and steel-browser merged 32 commits between v0.5.4-beta and v0.5.5-beta, among them fixes for session-ID validation in casting, `file://` blocking and a Node CVE. GitHub issue reply times were not read (15). Official SDKs exist, but the newest tags are steel-node v0.20.0 and steel-python v0.19.0 from 23 June, with no commit after 11 September, npm and PyPI didn't resolve from our shell on 1 November, and the MCP server is not in the MCP registry, per the 8 October check (9). CI workflows in steel-browser and a test, byte-budget and conformance suite in the MCP server. Whether they pass was not read (8).)