Nine terminal agents, one question, three families

Nine terminal agents, one question, three families A workflow diagram generated by Archify. 01 / Start here 02 / 1 · Bundled with a subscription 03 / 2 · Model-agnostic, bring your own key 04 / 3 · Free-tier-first Decide What is left, and what it costs Who should pick it Nine tools · all read, edit, run commands · Start here › Decide Nine tools all read, edit, run commands Tool and model vendor: · allowed to be one decision? · Start here › Decide · answer first Tool and model vendor: allowed to be one decision? answer first Claude Code · Codex CLI · setup in minutes · 1 · Bundled with a subscription › What is left, and what it costs Claude Code · Codex CLI setup in minutes Total lock-in · leaving the vendor leaves the tool · 1 · Bundled with a subscription › What is left, and what it costs Total lock-in leaving the vendor leaves the tool Already paying for it · take the one on your plan · 1 · Bundled with a subscription › Who should pick it Already paying for it take the one on your plan opencode · goose · Crush · you supply the key · 2 · Model-agnostic, bring your own key › What is left, and what it costs opencode · goose · Crush you supply the key Untuned prompts · an evening of configuration · 2 · Model-agnostic, bring your own key › What is left, and what it costs Untuned prompts an evening of configuration No-single-vendor policy · opencode has the largest ecosystem · 2 · Model-agnostic, bring your own key › Who should pick it No-single-vendor policy opencode has the largest ecosystem Gemini CLI · real work on a personal account · 3 · Free-tier-first › What is left, and what it costs Gemini CLI real work on a personal account Quota changes first · evaluation path, not a standard · 3 · Free-tier-first › What is left, and what it costs Quota changes first evaluation path, not a standard Evaluating, no budget · move once you know what you need · 3 · Free-tier-first › Who should pick it Evaluating, no budget move once you know what you need what it costs worth it if capability barely separates them what it costs worth it if what it costs worth it if must stay separate one decision is fine no budget yet Legend Agent logic Policy Cloud service External system

What moves the decision

  • • A no-single-vendor policy
  • • Who owns model choice and spend
  • • Whether it runs where the work is

Editors sit outside this

  • • Cursor, Copilot, Devin: where you type
  • • Terminal agents: where you run things