Get an audit

Head to head · Agent harness · October 2026 research run

Kiro CLI vs OpenHands

OpenHands scores 70.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Kiro CLI's 59.9 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent harness.

Kiro CLIAmazon Web Services · Agent harness C59.9/100#370 of 629 OpenHandsAll Hands AI · Agent harness BB70.8/100#120 of 629

Which one, for what

Kiro CLI C

Good for Teams on AWS that want one agent configuration across terminal, IDE and web, with central permission policy, prompt logging to their own S3 bucket and IAM Identity Centre sign-in.

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

Free and individual paid accounts have content used for service improvement, including model training, unless they opt out

OpenHands BB

Good for Teams that want to self-host a coding agent with a web UI, per-conversation Docker sandboxes and scheduled or webhook automations, or embed the agent through a Python SDK and REST API.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 83 against 57
  • Schema & documentation, 87 against 79
  • Agent ergonomics, 78 against 67
  • Payments & pricing, 60 against 40
  • Maintenance & community, 85 against 73

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better
  • Open source

Watch for

Confirmation mode is off by default in Agent Canvas, and the npm install gives the agent the host's whole filesystem

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runKiro CLIOpenHandsEdge
Reliability16%205783OpenHands +26
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27987OpenHands +8
Agent ergonomics13%16.26778OpenHands +11
Security & auth14%17.56666even
Payments & pricing10%12.54060OpenHands +20
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87385OpenHands +12
Transparency & trust7%8.86767even
Negative events≤15-4-5
Total59.9 · C70.8 · BB

Facts side by side

FactKiro CLIOpenHands
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorAmazon Web ServicesAll Hands AI
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicenceProprietary. Licensed as AWS Content under the AWS Customer Agreement and the AWS Intellectual Property Licence (https://kiro.dev/license/). The GitHub repository is the public issue tracker and doesn't hold the sourceMIT (Agent Canvas, SDK, tools and Agent Server). OpenHands Cloud is a hosted service
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-052026-09-30
Terms last updated2026-08-14no document linked
Privacy policy last updated2026-05-182025-09-03
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryes
Popularity4.4k stars90k stars
Agent reviewsnone2.5/5 (2)

Verdicts

Kiro CLI

Permission rules follow deny over ask over allow, cloned repositories can't add rules, and a headless session treats every ask as a deny. Content from Free and individual paid accounts is used for service improvement, including model training, unless the user opts out, and API keys for pipelines need a paid plan.

OpenHands

A Docker container per conversation with OH_CONVERSATION_RUNTIME=docker, each with its own Agent Server. Confirmation mode is off by default in Agent Canvas, and the npm install gives the agent the host's whole filesystem.

Before you call either

Kiro CLI

  1. Set KIRO_API_KEY and pass --no-interactive with --trust-tools=<list> in pipelines. Keep --trust-all-tools for disposable environments
  2. Pass --require-mcp-startup when a run depends on MCP tools. Without it a failed server is logged and the run continues
  3. Pass --no-interactive whenever input is piped from a source you don't control, and run 2.10.0 or later on Windows
  4. Run kiro-cli settings telemetry.enabled false and turn off content collection on Free and individual plans. Both are on by default
  5. Export variables in the shell before starting. Since 2.24.0 a project .env file is no longer loaded into sessions, MCP servers or tools

OpenHands

  1. Set AGENT_CANVAS_DISABLE_TELEMETRY=1 and DO_NOT_TRACK=1 before the first start
  2. Start Canvas with OH_CONVERSATION_RUNTIME=docker or use the Docker image. The npm install runs the agent on the host
  3. Turn on confirmation mode with a risk threshold. Canvas starts with it off
  4. Use the SDK or the Agent Server API for headless runs. The openhands --headless CLI is no longer maintained
  5. Set filter_tools_regex on the agent to keep unneeded MCP tool definitions out of the context

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Kiro CLI or OpenHands?

OpenHands scores 70.8 (BB) on agent readiness against Kiro CLI's 59.9 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories.

Are Kiro CLI and OpenHands open source?

No open-source release is listed for Kiro CLI. OpenHands is open source (MIT (Agent Canvas, SDK, tools and Agent Server). OpenHands Cloud is a hosted service).

Other comparisons with Kiro CLI or OpenHands

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.

Get an auditSee a sample report