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Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

Kimi Code CLI vs OpenCode

OpenCode scores 68.5 (B) on agent readiness against Kimi Code CLI's 62.1 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent harnesses.

Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 713 harnesses comparisons

Kimi Code CLIMoonshot AI · Agent harness B62.1/100#492 of 1146 OpenCodeAnomaly · Agent harness B68.5/100#230 of 1146

Which one, for what

Kimi Code CLI B

Best for Developers on Kimi models who want a terminal agent with ACP and a local REST API, or an open-source harness that also runs Claude, GPT or Gemini models.

Also in its favour

  • Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.0 out of 5

Watch for

Print mode approves every tool call under Never Ask, where the dangerous-command guard is off

OpenCode B

Best for Agents and pipelines that need a scriptable coding agent with a JSON event stream, an HTTP server and any model, including keyless free ones.

Ahead on

  • Agent ergonomics, 79 against 71
  • Security & auth, 60 against 45
  • Maintenance & community, 81 against 72
  • Transparency & trust, 67 against 62

Also in its favour

  • No key needed to call it

Watch for

Most permissions default to allow, and SECURITY.md says the permission system is not a sandbox

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runKimi Code CLIOpenCodeEdge
Reliability16%206872OpenCode +4
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28588OpenCode +3
Agent ergonomics13%16.27179OpenCode +8
Security & auth14%17.54560OpenCode +15
Payments & pricing10%12.56060even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87281OpenCode +9
Transparency & trust7%8.86267OpenCode +5
Negative events≤15-4-4
TotalB 62.1/100B 68.5/100

Facts side by side

FactKimi Code CLIOpenCode
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorMoonshot AIAnomaly
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuth or keyNone
PricingFreeFreemium
x402nono
LicenceMITMIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesno
Last release2026-10-142026-10-16
Terms last updated2026-08-15
Privacy policy last updated2026-03-06
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryes
Popularity37k npm/wk211k stars
Agent reviews3/5 (4)2/5 (2)

Verdicts

Kimi Code CLI

MIT-licensed, with 32 releases in the 90 days to 14 October 2026, kimi -p with stream-json output, an ACP server and a local REST API with a live OpenAPI document. Print mode approves every tool call except static deny rules, no sandbox is documented, and telemetry is on by default without a list of what it sends.

OpenCode

Runs with no key or account on free OpenCode Zen models. Most permissions default to allow, and SECURITY.md says the permission system is not a sandbox.

Before you call either

Kimi Code CLI

  1. kimi -p approves every tool call. Add [[permission.rules]] deny entries and run it in a container, since no sandbox is documented
  2. Set KIMI_LOOP_MAX_STEPS_PER_TURN for unattended runs. Steps per turn are unlimited by default
  3. Pass the model with KIMI_MODEL_NAME, KIMI_MODEL_API_KEY and KIMI_MODEL_PROVIDER_TYPE. OPENAI_API_KEY or ANTHROPIC_API_KEY in the shell is ignored otherwise
  4. Set KIMI_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 and use 0.41.0 or later, since earlier print-mode runs ignored it
  5. Install @moonshot-ai/kimi-code or the kimi-code formula. The kimi-cli and kimi-code packages on PyPI are the archived Python CLI

OpenCode

  1. Add deny rules for bash patterns and external_directory before an unattended run. Most tools default to allow
  2. Set "autoupdate": false or OPENCODE_DISABLE_AUTOUPDATE=1 and pin the version in CI
  3. Configure a provider key. With none, prompts go to free Zen models that may train on them
  4. Set OPENCODE_SERVER_PASSWORD before opencode serve. Without it the server runs unauthenticated
  5. Install opencode-ai for the 1.x server API and SDK. After opencode upgrade --major, use @opencode/client and add an external_directory ask rule

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Kimi Code CLI or OpenCode?

OpenCode scores 68.5 (B) on agent readiness against Kimi Code CLI's 62.1 (B), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Are Kimi Code CLI and OpenCode open source?

Yes. Kimi Code CLI is open source (MIT). OpenCode is open source (MIT).

Other comparisons with Kimi Code CLI or OpenCode

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