# Prime Agent vs Mirror CLI

> Prime Agent scores 60.5 (C) to Mirror CLI's 54.2 (C) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prime-agent-vs-reflection-mirror
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prime-agent-vs-reflection-mirror.md (~3,050 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prime-agent-vs-reflection-mirror.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prime-agent-vs-reflection-mirror.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
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- Updated: 2026-10-17

Prime Agent scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Mirror CLI's 54.2 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Mirror CLI leads on schema & documentation and security & auth. Both do agent harnesses.

- Prime Agent: grade C, 60.5/100, rank #559 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/prime-agent.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/prime-agent.json
- Mirror CLI: grade C, 54.2/100, rank #765 of 1133. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/reflection-mirror.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/reflection-mirror.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 331 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Prime Agent (C)

Good for: Long-running research and coding work where one model drives subagents, schedules and goals from code, and where the owner can isolate the machine.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 65 against 37
- Agent ergonomics, 73 against 58
- Maintenance & community, 79 against 47
- Transparency & trust, 64 against 58

Also in its favour:
- No key needed to call it

Watch for: No approval prompts and no sandbox. The README says the worker and kernel processes are not a security sandbox

### Mirror CLI (C)

Good 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.

Ahead on:
- Schema & documentation, 65 against 42
- Security & auth, 58 against 50

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


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Prime Agent | Mirror CLI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 65 | 37 | Prime Agent +28 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 42 | 65 | Mirror CLI +23 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 73 | 58 | Prime Agent +15 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 50 | 58 | Mirror CLI +8 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 60 | 60 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 47 | Prime Agent +32 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 64 | 58 | Prime Agent +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **60.5 · C** | **54.2 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Prime Agent | Mirror CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Prime Intellect | Reflection |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | None | API key |
| Pricing | Free | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-07 | 2026-10-16 |
| Terms last updated | no date given |  |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given |  |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |
| Popularity | 22k stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 2.8/5 (4) | 3/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Prime Agent.** Budgets for turns, tokens and time bound an autonomous run, and sessions survive a closed terminal through a supervising daemon. Model-written Python and shell commands run with the user's rights, with no approval step and no sandbox, and the Rust build on the main branch ships only as nightly betas.

**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

### Prime Agent

1. Run it in a disposable clone, container or VM. It executes model-written Python and shell commands with the user's rights and asks nothing first
2. Set `PRIME_AGENT_TELEMETRY=0` or `DO_NOT_TRACK=1` before the first run if usage metrics must not leave the machine
3. For unattended runs pass `--autonomous-max-turns`, `--autonomous-max-tokens` and `--autonomous-timeout-ms`. Reaching a limit does not mean the task succeeded
4. Headless use is `-p` with `--mode json` per the argument parser. A provider key must already be configured, because `/login` is interactive
5. The `-t/--tools`, `-nt/--no-tools` and `-nbt/--no-builtin-tools` flags were removed and now fail as unknown options

### 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, Prime Agent or Mirror CLI?

Prime Agent scores 60.5 (C) on agent readiness against Mirror CLI's 54.2 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Mirror CLI leads on schema & documentation and security & auth.

### Are Prime Agent and Mirror CLI open source?

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


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with Prime Agent or Mirror CLI

- [Agent Zero vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Agent Zero vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Aider vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Aider vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Amp vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Amp vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Claude Code vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Claude Code vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Cline vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Cline vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Cursor CLI vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Devin vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/devin-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Devin vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/devin-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Droid CLI vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/droid-cli-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Droid CLI vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/droid-cli-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Pi vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/earendil-pi-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Pi vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/earendil-pi-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Gemini CLI vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-cli-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Gemini CLI vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-cli-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [GitHub Copilot CLI vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/github-copilot-cli-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [GitHub Copilot CLI vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/github-copilot-cli-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [goose vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [goose vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [HarnessRouter vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harnessrouter-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [HarnessRouter vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harnessrouter-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Kilo Code CLI vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kilo-code-cli-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Kilo Code CLI vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kilo-code-cli-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Kiro CLI vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kiro-cli-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Kiro CLI vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kiro-cli-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Muse Code vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-code-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Muse Code vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/muse-code-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [OpenAI Codex vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-codex-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [OpenAI Codex vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openai-codex-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [OpenCode vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/opencode-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [OpenCode vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/opencode-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [OpenHands vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openhands-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [OpenHands vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openhands-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Prime Agent vs Qwen Code](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/prime-agent-vs-qwen-code.md)
- [Qwen Code vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/qwen-code-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [CLI Manager vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [CLI Manager vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cli-manager-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Harness vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harness-autonomous-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Harness vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/harness-autonomous-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Paperclip vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paperclip-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Paperclip vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/paperclip-vs-reflection-mirror.md)
- [Parallax vs Prime Agent](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallax-agents-vs-prime-agent.md)
- [Parallax vs Mirror CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallax-agents-vs-reflection-mirror.md)

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