Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run

OpenCode vs Mirror CLI

OpenCode scores 68.5 (B) on agent readiness against Mirror CLI's 54.2 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do agent harnesses.

Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 331 harnesses comparisons

Which one, for what

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

  • Reliability, 72 against 37
  • Schema & documentation, 88 against 65
  • Agent ergonomics, 79 against 58
  • Maintenance & community, 81 against 47
  • Transparency & trust, 67 against 58

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

Mirror CLI C

Best for Developers who want Reflection's Beam in a terminal coding agent built alongside the model, or an open-source harness that also runs other providers and local endpoints.

Also in its favour

  • Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.0 out of 5
  • No incidents deducted, where OpenCode loses 4 points for them

Watch for

Version 0.1.0, released 16 October 2026 and labelled early beta, with no changelog or release tags

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runOpenCodeMirror CLIEdge
Reliability16%207237OpenCode +35
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28865OpenCode +23
Agent ergonomics13%16.27958OpenCode +21
Security & auth14%17.56058OpenCode +2
Payments & pricing10%12.56060even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88147OpenCode +34
Transparency & trust7%8.86758OpenCode +9
Negative events≤15-40
TotalB 68.5/100C 54.2/100

Facts side by side

FactOpenCodeMirror CLI
KindAgent harnessAgent harness
VendorAnomalyReflection
Hosted endpointno (local only)no (local only)
Transports
AuthNoneAPI key
PricingFreemiumFree
x402nono
LicenceMITApache-2.0
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last release2026-10-162026-10-16
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
Popularity211k starsnone
Agent reviews2/5 (2)3/5 (4)

Verdicts

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.

Mirror CLI

Mirror CLI is Apache-2.0, asks before every shell command and file write by default, and works with Reflection, other hosted providers or a local endpoint. It is a one-day-old 0.1.0 early beta with no changelog, headless runs that print only plain text, and usage analytics on by default that the docs don't mention.

Before you call either

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

Mirror CLI

  1. Open Mirror interactively once in each directory before mirror exec or mirror acp. Both refuse to run until the usage and folder notices are accepted
  2. Pass --approval-mode auto to mirror exec only inside a container or VM. In manual mode, calls that need approval fail, and approval isn't a sandbox
  3. Set --max-iterations on unattended runs. Turns are unlimited by default
  4. Check the result with your own tests. exec returns 0 whenever it prints an answer
  5. Never share logs recorded with --log-level debug. The docs say they contain request headers with the API key

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, OpenCode or Mirror CLI?

OpenCode scores 68.5 (B) on agent readiness against Mirror CLI's 54.2 (C), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Are OpenCode and Mirror CLI open source?

Yes. OpenCode is open source (MIT). Mirror CLI is open source (Apache-2.0).

Other comparisons with OpenCode or Mirror CLI

Machine-readable

For companies

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