Head to head · Agent harnesses · October 2026 research run
Paseo vs Qoder CLI
Paseo scores 62.1 (B) on agent readiness against Qoder CLI's 59.5 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Qoder CLI leads on schema & documentation and agent ergonomics. Both do agent harnesses.
Best agent harnesses and coding agents · All 1500 harnesses comparisons
Which one, for what
Paseo B
Best for Developers who want parallel coding agents on their own machines with no telemetry, reachable from anywhere.
Ahead on
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 35
- Transparency & trust, 68 against 61
Also in its favour
- No key needed to call it
- Open source
- No incidents deducted, where Qoder CLI loses 3 points for them
Watch for
Pre-1.0, at 0.15.3
Best for Developers already on Qoder who want the same agent in a terminal, in CI through a PAT, in Zed through ACP, or embedded through the Agent SDK.
Ahead on
- Schema & documentation, 81 against 65
- Agent ergonomics, 80 against 70
Watch for
No local sandbox is documented, and auto mode approves read-only tools on any path
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.
Payments & pricing Paseo +25
Paseo 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.
Qoder CLI 35
Harness reading of the published rubric, scored on the Qoder subscription the CLI needs. No payment protocol (0). Plan prices, the Credit Pack price ($20 for 1,500 credits) and per-model credit factors are public in the docs without a login. qoder.com/pricing is disallowed by robots.txt and wasn't read (20). A Free plan with basic models for a limited number of messages and a 14-day Pro trial with 300 credits. We found no statement on whether a card is needed (15). A person signs in through a browser, and a PAT is created by hand at qoder.com/account/integrations (0). 0+20+15+0 = 35. Per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November (Qoder's terms bar scraping its Services by automated means, so its sites are paused for this run).
Schema & documentation Qoder CLI +16
Paseo 65
Harness reading. Public docs, a CLI and plugin examples in the repository (65).
Qoder CLI 81
Framework reading. A CLI reference with types and defaults for every flag, a settings reference with types and defaults, TypeScript declaration files and a Python reference for the SDK, and Result and error-code tables. No schema for the stream-json events was found (16). docs.qoder.com/llms.txt indexes every page with a Markdown twin, and robots.txt allows both (10). The permissions page states what each mode does and is best for, what headless runs do with ask, and which actions skip the auto classifier (17). Permission modes and output formats are enums and rules have a fixed syntax (12). CI examples, an SDK error page with exit codes 0, 1, 41, 42, 44, 52, 53, 54 and 130, Result subtypes and a troubleshooting index. Code 44 names a sandbox the docs don't describe (14). Dated release notes for the CLI and the SDK, though the SDK notes stop at 1.0.41 on 15 September while npm has 1.0.53, and the CLI reference still names the removed lite model (12). 16+10+17+12+14+12 = 81. Per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November (Qoder's terms bar scraping its Services by automated means, so its sites are paused for this run).
Agent ergonomics Qoder CLI +10
Paseo 70
Harness reading. A self-hosted daemon that agents can use to create worktrees, launch other agents and talk to them, scriptable from the CLI (70).
Qoder CLI 80
Framework reading, adapted to a harness driven by a pipeline. --tools, --allowed-tools and --disallowed-tools restrict built-in tools, and --strict-mcp-config with --allowed-mcp-server-names limits MCP servers. Nothing on deferred MCP tool loading was found (18). text, json and stream-json output, --max-turns, --max-output-tokens and --no-session-persistence (16). Distinct exit codes for authentication, input, configuration, turn-limit and tool failures, and SDK Result subtypes with error codes (16). --continue, --resume, --session-id, --fork-session, SDK checkpoints with rewind, and --max-model-request-retries (15). Official SDKs in TypeScript and Python, an ACP server, and headless runs that need only a PAT and a permission flag (15). 18+16+16+15+15 = 80. Per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November (Qoder's terms bar scraping its Services by automated means, so its sites are paused for this run).
Transparency & trust Paseo +7
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.
Qoder CLI 61
Proprietary, with clear terms from BRIGHT ZENITH PRIVATE LIMITED under Singapore law, and the SDK's LICENSE points to the same terms (15). The privacy policy lists purposes with retention for each (mostly for as long as the account exists), names storage in the United States, Singapore and Japan and names model providers. The terms let the operator use User Content to improve the Services unless Share & Improve is turned off, and the policy says the opt-out depends on the plan. No subprocessor list or DPA was found (14). Dated notices with two weeks' warning for the Lite tier removal (4 to 18 September 2026) and for the credit factor change on 21 September, but no stated deprecation policy (8). Usage statistics and AI code statistics are disclosed as settings with an opt-out, both on by default, and the installer's telemetry isn't described (14). 15+14+8+14 = 51. Per the 18 October check, not re-read on 4 November (Qoder's terms bar scraping its Services by automated means, so its sites are paused for this run).
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Paseo | Qoder CLI | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 50 | 51 | Qoder CLI +1 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 65 | 81 | Qoder CLI +16 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 70 | 80 | Qoder CLI +10 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 58 | 58 | even |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 60 | 35 | Paseo +25 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 75 | 72 | Paseo +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 68 | 61 | Paseo +7 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| Total | B 62.1/100 | C 59.5/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Paseo | Qoder CLI |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Mohamed Boudra | Qoder (BRIGHT ZENITH PRIVATE LIMITED) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary, under the Qoder Terms of Service (BRIGHT ZENITH PRIVATE LIMITED, last updated 29 April 2026). No source is published, and the Agent SDK's LICENSE file points to the same terms |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-11-07 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | none | 5k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (4) |
How the scores have moved
Paseo
No score change since it was listed.
Verdicts
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.
Qoder CLI
A closed-source terminal agent with a documented headless mode, an ACP server, typed TypeScript and Python SDKs and near-daily releases. Permission rules and modes are detailed, but no local sandbox is documented, usage statistics are on by default, and security fixes appear only as one-line release notes with no advisories or disclosure policy.
Before you call either
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
Qoder CLI
- Set
QODER_PERSONAL_ACCESS_TOKENin CI. The browser sign-in can't complete in a headless run - Pass
--permission-modewith--allowed-toolsin headless runs. Every ask is denied, and--yoloremoves all checks - Set
--max-turnson unattended runs, and branch on exit codes 41 (authentication) and 53 (turn limit) - Set
privacy.usageStatisticsEnabledandaiCodeStatistics.enabledto false in ~/.qoder/settings.json if usage data must stay local - Don't pass
--model lite. The Lite tier was removed on 18 September 2026 and headless requests naming it fail
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Paseo or Qoder CLI?
Paseo scores 62.1 (B) on agent readiness against Qoder CLI's 59.5 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Qoder CLI leads on schema & documentation and agent ergonomics.
Are Paseo and Qoder CLI open source?
Paseo is open source (Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for Qoder CLI.
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- Paseo vs Sculptor
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/paseo-vs-qoder-cli.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/paseo.json·/api/v1/tools/qoder-cli.json - From a terminal
anchor compare paseo qoder-cli(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "paseo", "b": "qoder-cli"}at/mcp, no key