# Kiro CLI vs Rovo Dev CLI

> Kiro CLI scores 60.6 (C) to Rovo Dev CLI's 43.9 (E) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-18

Kiro CLI scores 60.6 (C) on agent readiness against Rovo Dev CLI's 43.9 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do agent harnesses.

- Kiro CLI: grade C, 60.6/100, rank #557 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kiro-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/kiro-cli.json
- Rovo Dev CLI: grade E, 43.9/100, rank #1010 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/rovo-dev-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/rovo-dev-cli.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 713 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## 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.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 57 against 35
- Schema & documentation, 79 against 45
- Agent ergonomics, 67 against 53
- Security & auth, 69 against 48
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 15
- Maintenance & community, 73 against 61
- Transparency & trust, 69 against 61

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 2.8 against 2.0 out of 5

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

### Rovo Dev CLI (E)

Good for: Teams already on Jira, Confluence and Bitbucket who want the agent to read and update work items and pages from the terminal or a pipeline.

Also in its favour:
- No incidents deducted, where Kiro CLI loses 4 points for them

Watch for: Atlassian has announced end of life for standalone Rovo Dev, with the CLI moving to the Rovo CLI and no dates set


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Kiro CLI | Rovo Dev CLI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 57 | 35 | Kiro CLI +22 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 45 | Kiro CLI +34 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 53 | Kiro CLI +14 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 69 | 48 | Kiro CLI +21 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 15 | Kiro CLI +25 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 73 | 61 | Kiro CLI +12 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 69 | 61 | Kiro CLI +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -4 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **60.6 · C** | **43.9 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Kiro CLI | Rovo Dev CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | Atlassian |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary. 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 source | Proprietary, under the Atlassian Customer Agreement (effective 1 October 2026) and the Atlassian AI Terms (effective 17 August 2026). No source is published |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-14 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-14 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-18 | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 4.4k stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 2.8/5 (4) | 2/5 (4) |

## 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.

**Rovo Dev CLI.** Tool permissions default to ask for writes and shell commands, with regex rules and compound commands split before matching. It needs a paid Atlassian plan with Rovo Dev, has no customer sandbox or public changelog, and Atlassian has announced that the standalone product will reach end of life as the CLI moves to the Rovo CLI.

## 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. Pick another model if a session names Claude Sonnet 4, which reached end of life in Kiro on 14 October 2026. Kiro doesn't switch it for you

### Rovo Dev CLI

1. Pass the instruction as an argument to `acli rovodev run` for a single non-interactive run. No JSON output flag or exit codes are documented
2. Use `acli rovodev serve <port>` and stream `/v3/stream_chat?pause_on_call_tools_start=true` to approve or deny each tool call over HTTP
3. Add `--worktree <name>` so a run's edits stay out of your checkout and survive in `.rovodev/worktrees/<name>`
4. Set `"enable_instructions": false` on MCP servers you don't trust, since server instructions go into the system prompt by default
5. Check `/usage` before long runs. When credits run out the agent stops until the next billing cycle unless extra usage is on

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Kiro CLI or Rovo Dev CLI?

Kiro CLI scores 60.6 (C) on agent readiness against Rovo Dev CLI's 43.9 (E), and leads in every scored category.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kiro-cli-vs-rovo-dev-cli.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kiro-cli-vs-rovo-dev-cli.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "kiro-cli", "b": "rovo-dev-cli"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare kiro-cli rovo-dev-cli`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/kiro-cli.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/rovo-dev-cli.json

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