Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run
Kimi Code CLI vs Paseo
Paseo scores 62.1 (B) on agent readiness against Kimi Code CLI's 58.1 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Kimi Code CLI leads on reliability and schema & documentation. Both do agent harnesses.
Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 1500 harnesses comparisons
Which one, for what
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.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 68 against 50
- Schema & documentation, 85 against 65
Also in its favour
- Free to start without a card
Watch for
Print mode approves every tool call under Never Ask, where the dangerous-command guard is off
Paseo B
Best for Developers who want parallel coding agents on their own machines with no telemetry, reachable from anywhere.
Ahead on
- Security & auth, 58 against 45
- Transparency & trust, 68 against 62
Also in its favour
- No key needed to call it
- No incidents deducted, where Kimi Code CLI loses 8 points for them
Watch for
Pre-1.0, at 0.15.3
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.
Schema & documentation Kimi Code CLI +20
Kimi Code CLI 85
Framework reading. The kimi web server serves /openapi.json and /asyncapi.json, generated from its runtime validation schemas, but only from a running server behind auth, and the API is marked experimental. The ACP server's methods and capabilities are tabled (20). llms.txt indexes every page and each page is served as Markdown (10). The permission-mode, goal-mode and MCP pages say when to use each mode and what to avoid (16). The config reference gives type and default for each key, with enums for permission modes, output formats and rule decisions (13). Many examples, the server's error-code bands and ACP error codes are documented, but print-mode exit codes are documented only for goal runs (11). A dated changelog in the docs plus the technical changelog in the repository (15). Unchanged on 2 November; llms.txt now indexes 60 pages in two languages.
Paseo 65
Harness reading. Public docs, a CLI and plugin examples in the repository (65).
Reliability Kimi Code CLI +18
Kimi Code CLI 68
Local-package reading. An install script that verifies a checksum, npm @moonshot-ai/kimi-code with Node 22.19.0 or newer stated, and Homebrew core at 2.4.1, for macOS, Linux and Windows (20). A public CI workflow runs the build, a smoke test, sharded tests on Linux, tests on Windows, lint and typecheck. GitHub's pages answer 403 in this session, so whether it passes on main wasn't checked (15). The 18 October issue and pull-request counts came from shields.io badges, a third-party copy of GitHub data this run bars, so they are struck. The clone shows 95 commits from 13 authors since 18 October and a changelog that credits merged pull requests up to #4553 in 2.4.1, but which open issues are crashes or regressions, and how fast they're answered, couldn't be read (8). Changesets changelog with Major, Minor and Patch headings and no breaking-change label since 0.28.0. 2.2.0 made executor = "kaos" configs fail validation, 2.3.0 stopped bare-name plugin skill calls and 2.3.2, a patch, removed swarms from kimi -p and ACP (10). 2.4.1, past 1.0 (15). 20 + 15 + 8 + 10 + 15 = 68.
Paseo 50
Local software. Desktop builds, an Android APK, a Docker image and a Nix package (20). ci.yml on the repository; pass state not read (15). GitHub issues and pull requests weren't read (GitHub's pages refuse these sessions), so that line is scored absent (0). CHANGELOG.md (15). Version 0.15.3 (0). 20 + 15 + 0 + 15 + 0 = 50.
Security & auth Paseo +13
Kimi Code CLI 45
Harness reading of the framework checklist. 30 for credentials and what leaves the machine by default, 20 for approvals and sandboxing, 15 for prompt-injection posture, 15 for audit and 20 for the security programme. OAuth tokens sit in 0600 files and shell keys aren't read unless named. Telemetry is on by default and, in the 2.2.0 package read on 18 October, sends events with a device ID, session ID and model name to telemetry-logs.kimi.com. Auto-update is on by default (14). Interactive sessions ask before edits and commands, and a dangerous-command guard covers rm -rf and similar, but kimi -p runs under Never Ask, where everything is approved and the guard is off, with only static deny rules left. No sandbox found, and hooks fail open (7). The MCP page warns about untrusted servers and project .kimi-code/mcp.json entries, and since 2.1.0 project config waits for workspace trust, but no prompt-injection guidance was found for fetched web pages (6). Sessions on disk, kimi export, the kimi vis session visualiser, a diagnostic log and hooks for auditing (11). SECURITY.md names private GitHub advisories and an email, supports only the latest version and gives no response time. No security.txt was found on kimi.com, kimi.ai or moonshot.ai, and OSV, read again on 2 November 2026, lists no advisories for the package, though 2.1.0 shipped security fixes (7).
Paseo 58
Harness reading. The README says no telemetry, tracking or forced log-ins (30 of 30). Worktree per agent, on your own machine (10 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance (5). No audit log (5). SECURITY.md (8). 30 + 10 + 5 + 5 + 8 = 58.
Transparency & trust Paseo +6
Kimi Code CLI 62
MIT (30). The docs have no privacy page for the CLI. The Kimi terms (effective 13 August 2026, NOVASCENT PRIVATE LIMITED, Singapore) let Moonshot use content to train its services unless the user opts out by email, prospectively only, and the Kimi privacy policy says content is used for training. The Kimi Platform privacy policy keeps inputs while the account is active. Neither says which applies to CLI sessions (12). The kimi server tree prints a deprecation notice until the next major version, a table names each deprecated config key and the version that replaced it, and the Python Kimi CLI was archived with a migration guide, though its notice gives no date for when old installations stop working (13). Telemetry is documented as on, with a config key and an environment variable to turn it off, but what it collects isn't listed, and print mode ignored the opt-out until 0.41.0 (9).
Paseo 68
Apache 2.0 for everything but third-party components (30). No telemetry and agents run on your machine (22 of 30). CHANGELOG.md, no deprecation policy (10). States no telemetry (20). 30 + 22 + 10 + 20 = 82.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Kimi Code CLI | Paseo | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 68 | 50 | Kimi Code CLI +18 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 85 | 65 | Kimi Code CLI +20 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 71 | 70 | Kimi Code CLI +1 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 45 | 58 | Paseo +13 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 72 | 75 | Paseo +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 62 | 68 | Paseo +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -8 | 0 | |
| Total | C 58.1/100 | B 62.1/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Kimi Code CLI | Paseo |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Moonshot AI | Mohamed Boudra |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-30 | 2026-11-07 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-13 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-13 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | yes, with an opt-out | not read yet |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not read yet |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not read yet |
| Popularity | 37k npm/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (4) | none |
How the scores have moved
Verdicts
Kimi Code CLI
MIT-licensed, with 30 releases from 4 August to 30 October 2026, kimi -p with stream-json output, an ACP server and a local REST API. Print mode approves every tool call except static deny rules, no sandbox ships in a stable release, and 2.x minor releases changed behaviour without notice.
Paseo
A self-hosted, open-source workspace for running many coding agents on your own machines, scriptable from the CLI and reachable from phone, web or desktop, with no telemetry or forced log-in. It's pre-1.0 and run largely by one maintainer.
Before you call either
Kimi Code CLI
kimi -papproves every tool call. Add[[permission.rules]]deny entries and run it in a container, since no sandbox ships- Set
KIMI_LOOP_MAX_STEPS_PER_TURNfor unattended runs. Steps per turn are unlimited by default - Pass the model with
KIMI_MODEL_NAME,KIMI_MODEL_API_KEYandKIMI_MODEL_PROVIDER_TYPE.OPENAI_API_KEYorANTHROPIC_API_KEYin the shell is ignored otherwise - Pin the CLI version in pipelines and read the changelog before upgrading. Minor and patch releases have changed plugin skill names and swarm availability
- Set
KIMI_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1and use 0.41.0 or later, since earlier print-mode runs ignored it
Paseo
- Run the daemon on the machine that has your tools and credentials, and connect from the clients
- Script runs from the CLI for repeatable agent jobs
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Kimi Code CLI or Paseo?
Paseo scores 62.1 (B) on agent readiness against Kimi Code CLI's 58.1 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Kimi Code CLI leads on reliability and schema & documentation.
Are Kimi Code CLI and Paseo open source?
Yes. Kimi Code CLI is open source (MIT). Paseo is open source (Apache-2.0).
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/kimi-code-cli-vs-paseo.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/kimi-code-cli.json·/api/v1/tools/paseo.json - From a terminal
anchor compare kimi-code-cli paseo(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "kimi-code-cli", "b": "paseo"}at/mcp, no key