# Kiro CLI vs Sculptor (slim)

> Kiro CLI scores 59.8 (C) to Sculptor's 53.1 (D) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kiro-cli-vs-sculptor.md (~6,250 tokens) · this version ~2,680 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kiro-cli-vs-sculptor.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kiro-cli-vs-sculptor
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Kiro CLI scores 59.8 (C) on agent readiness against Sculptor's 53.1 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Sculptor leads on payments & pricing. Both do agent harnesses.

- Kiro CLI: C 59.8, rank #678 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/kiro-cli.min.md
- Sculptor: D 53.1, rank #966 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/sculptor.min.md
- Kiro CLI, 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 43; Schema & documentation, 79 against 45; Agent ergonomics, 67 against 50; Security & auth, 69 against 57; Transparency & trust, 71 against 57. Also Free to start without a card.
- Sculptor, good for Developers who want parallel coding agents in isolated workspaces and are fine with a research preview. Ahead on Payments & pricing, 60 against 40. Also No key needed to call it; Open source; No incidents deducted, where Kiro CLI loses 5 points for them.

| Category | Kiro CLI | Sculptor |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 57 | 43 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 79 | 45 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 67 | 50 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 69 | 57 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 40 | 60 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 73 | 75 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 71 | 57 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Kiro CLI | Sculptor |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Amazon Web Services | Imbue, Inc. |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| 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 | MIT |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-11-03 | 2026-11-06 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-14 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-05-18 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not read yet |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | 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 | 4.4k stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 2.8/5 (4) | none |

Why the edge:
- Schema & documentation, Kiro CLI +34: Kiro CLI 79 (Framework reading. A command reference, a settings reference, an exit-code page and a documented rule format for permissions, plus the Agent Client Protocol methods the CLI implements. No published schema for the stream-json events was found (14). kiro.dev/llms.txt indexes every docs page and each has a Markdown twin, though robots.txt disallows both for crawlers (10). The permissions page states the defaults, what each preset allows and when to pick it, and that headless runs treat ask as deny (16). Rules are validated, an unknown preset rejects the session request, and a malformed managed policy fails closed (12). CI examples, exit codes 0, 1, 3 and 4 and hook exit codes are documented, but code 1 covers every other failure (12). Versioned releases with a dated changelog and a 2.x reference kept beside V3 (15).); Sculptor 45 (Harness reading. A README, specs and agent docs in the repository; no API reference (45).)
- Payments & pricing, Sculptor +20: Kiro CLI 40 (Harness reading of the published rubric, scored on the Kiro subscription the CLI needs. No payment protocol (0). Plan prices, the $0.04 credit price and per-model credit multipliers are public without a login (20). Kiro Free has 50 credits a month, and the pricing page asks for a card only on upgrade (20). A person signs in through a browser or device flow, and the API key for headless runs is created by hand at app.kiro.dev on a paid plan (0).); Sculptor 60 (Free self-hosted software with nothing to buy, so 0 for a protocol and 20 each for public pricing, a free tier and onboarding with no sign-up, 60.)
- Agent ergonomics, Kiro CLI +17: Kiro CLI 67 (Framework reading, adapted to a harness driven by a pipeline. `--trust-tools` limits approved tools, `disabledTools` removes MCP tools per server, tool search loads MCP tools on demand, and custom agents carry their own tool set (20). Compaction and a workflow timeout (`KIRO_HEADLESS_WORKFLOW_TIMEOUT_SECS`, six hours by default) exist, but no cap on turns or run time for a plain headless run was found (10). Distinct exit codes for MCP startup failure and a missing agent, `--require-mcp-startup`, and a final interruption record in stream-json, with exit 1 for everything else (14). Sessions are saved every turn, with `--resume`, `--resume-id` and checkpoints with rewind (15). No SDK. The programmatic interfaces are the headless command and the ACP server, and a headless run needs a paid-plan API key and explicit trust flags (8).); Sculptor 50 (Harness reading. Workspaces as isolated copies, review and merge back, and built-in skills (50).)
- Reliability, Kiro CLI +14: Kiro CLI 57 (Local-package reading, the same as the other closed-source harnesses. An install script that verifies SHA-256 checksums, a .deb, an AppImage and a PowerShell script, with macOS, Windows 11 and Linux (glibc 2.34 or newer, or musl) stated, per the 8 October check (20). No public CI or test suite, since the source isn't published and the GitHub repository is an issue tracker whose newest commit is 27 August (0). Per the 8 October check, not re-read on 3 November, 1,401 open issues in the shared Kiro tracker, 428 labelled cli, with 96 cli issues opened and 69 closed in the 30 days to 8 October, area labels, a triage label and stale-issue automation (12). A dated changelog for every release, and 3.0.0 lists its breaking changes under their own heading with a migration route, though 2.24.0 stopped loading project `.env` files in a minor version (10). 3.0.0 on 3 November 2026 makes V3 the default engine (15). 20+0+12+10+15 = 57.); Sculptor 43 (Local software. Desktop downloads for Mac (Apple Silicon), Linux and Linux ARM64 (20). checks.yml and a PR gate run 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). sculptor-v tags up to v0.49.0, no changelog file (8). 0.x and labelled a research preview (0). 20 + 15 + 0 + 8 + 0 = 43.)
- Transparency & trust, Kiro CLI +14: Kiro CLI 71 (Proprietary, with clear terms. The licence page puts the CLI under the AWS Customer Agreement and the AWS Intellectual Property Licence, where the Amazon Q Developer CLI it replaced was Apache 2.0, per the 8 October check (15). The data protection page (updated 23 October 2026) says what is stored for Free, individual and enterprise users, names US East (N. Virginia) for storage, and gives 60 days for Free Tier abuse detection and 30 days for some models. It agrees with sections 50.3 and 50.14 of the AWS Service Terms, read on 8 October. No general retention period for stored content was found (22). The models page has a model lifecycle section with Experimental, Active and EOL stages and dates, and Claude Sonnet 4 ended on 14 October 2026. 3.0.0 made V3 the default as 2.30.0 announced and retired the Classic interface 34 days after the 2.26.0 deprecation notice, but the desktop app and inline autocomplete were retired in the same release with no earlier notice found, and no minimum notice period is stated (14). Telemetry types are listed and `kiro-cli settings telemetry.enabled` turns them off, with collection on by default. The data protection page's CLI steps still point to the desktop app's Preferences, which 3.0.0 retired (15). 15+22+14+15 = 66.); Sculptor 57 (MIT (30). Consent-based telemetry documented in the repository (18 of 30). The README warns of drastic changes during the research preview, with no deprecation policy (5). Opt-in telemetry (20). 30 + 18 + 5 + 20 = 73.)
- Security & auth, Kiro CLI +12: Kiro CLI 69 (Framework reading (telemetry defaults, approvals, guardrails, sandboxing), five lines. Telemetry and content collection are on by default for Free and individual accounts, each with a documented opt-out, and enterprise users are opted out. API keys are long-lived and revocable with no scopes, and administrators must switch key generation on (14). Deny over ask over allow across six scopes, hard-coded denies on Kiro's own settings paths, workspace trust and a managed policy that fails closed. V3 is the default since 3.0.0 (3 November 2026), interactive V3 sessions ask before loading a folder's hooks, agents and MCP servers since 2.33.0, and `/sandbox` puts agent shell commands and local stdio MCP servers in an operating-system sandbox. The sandbox is off unless chosen and doesn't cover the agent, built-in file tools or remote MCP servers, and AWS says managed policies are client-enforced and can be circumvented (17). An untrusted workspace doesn't load its agents, steering, MCP configuration or skills, compound shell commands are split before matching, and the MCP page warns that servers run outside any sandbox (11). Enterprise prompt logging to the customer's S3 bucket covers the CLI, with daily activity reports and OpenTelemetry export, and individuals have local logs only (11). AWS vulnerability reporting through a HackerOne disclosure programme with no paid bounty, CVEs published in security bulletins with credit to reporters, ISO/IEC 27001:2022 scope and HIPAA eligibility. The aws.amazon.com security.txt is valid (Expires 2027-10-16) and kiro.dev/.well-known/security.txt answers 404, so 2 are held back for that and 2 for no bounty (16). 14+17+11+11+16 = 69.); Sculptor 57 (Harness reading. Product analytics, error reporting and session recording default to off in the user config, and the app asks for a telemetry level and privacy consent at first run; PostHog runs on the front end only for now (25 of 30). Each workspace is an isolated copy of the code (14 of 20). No prompt-injection guidance (5). No audit log (5). SECURITY.md (8). 25 + 14 + 5 + 5 + 8 = 57.)