claude-code-routervsGitLab Duo
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
claude-code-router
musistudio · Agent harness
OSSMCP
Panel
7.04 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.3
- Usefulness
- 7.7
- Cost
- 8.3
- Longevity
- 5.8
“Its main job is pointing Claude Code at a model that is not Claude, and it is named after both of them.”
GitLab Duo
GitLab · Agent harness
MCP
Panel
6.85 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.7
- Usefulness
- 6.5
- Cost
- 5.8
- Longevity
- 8.0
“It has shipped a Security Analyst agent, so the robot now files the vulnerability the other robot wrote.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | claude-code-router | GitLab Duo |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Runs | local | local, cloud |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows, web | macos, linux, windows, web |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | No | Yes |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | NoCCR is a routing proxy; the agent CLI behind it does the executing. | Yes |
| Multi-file edits | No | Yes |
| Git operations | No | Yes |
| Browser control | No | No |
| Sandboxed execution | YesA documented docker compose deployment runs the router itself in a container; it does not sandbox the agents that call it. | No |
| Multi-agent orchestration | YesCCR fronts many agent CLIs at once (Claude Code, Codex, Grok CLI, Kimi CLI, Kilo Code, OpenCode, ZCode) but does not itself orchestrate agents against a task. | Yes |
| Headless / CI mode | No | YesFlows started from the GitLab UI execute in GitLab CI/CD runners. |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, OpenRouter, DeepSeek, SiliconFlow, Moonshot Kimi, Mistral, Z.AI, Bailian | Anthropic Claude |
| Bring your own model | Yes | YesOnly through the GitLab Duo Self-Hosted deployment on Self-Managed instances. |
| Local models | YesAny OpenAI-compatible endpoint can be added as a custom provider with its own base URL, which covers a locally hosted server; no named Ollama or LM Studio preset is documented. | YesGitLab Self-Managed instances can run Duo against self-hosted models through a self-installed AI Gateway; GitLab.com uses GitLab-selected models. |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | byok | seat |
| Starts at | $0/mo | n/a |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| Bring your own key | Yes | No |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | Yes | No |
| License | MIT | proprietary |
| GitHub stars | 37,511 | n/a |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | claude-code-router | GitLab Duo | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 7.3 | 7.0 | claude-code-router — Pick it if you like your agent and dislike its bill; pick OpenCode if you would rather run an agent that talks to many providers without a proxy in between. |
| El Crítico | 6.3 | 6.5 | GitLab Duo — An agent with shell access and commit rights runs inside the system that holds the source, the pipelines and the deploy credentials, with no container boundary of its own. |
| El Profesor | 7.0 | 7.0 | no preference |
| La Inversora | 6.5 | 8.0 | GitLab Duo — Bundling the entry tier into Premium and Ultimate is an attach-rate play, not a product launch: the AI is defending the subscription, not selling itself. |
| La Jefa | 6.5 | 7.3 | GitLab Duo — The add-on seats are quoted rather than listed, and Agent Platform usage draws down purchased Credits, so sixty developers is one number I cannot compute in advance. |
| El Hacker | 8.8 | 4.8 | claude-code-router — MIT, and any OpenAI-compatible endpoint becomes a provider by writing its base URL into the config, which includes the server on my own machine. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.