Claude CodevsPoolside
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
Anthropic · Terminal agent
#3MCP
Panel
7.02 spec wins
- Reliability
- 7.2
- Usefulness
- 8.0
- Cost
- 5.5
- Longevity
- 7.2
“Included with Pro at $20, which is how you learn what the Max plan is for.”
Poolside
poolside · Terminal agent
#15MCP
Panel
6.92 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.8
- Usefulness
- 7.0
- Cost
- 6.5
- Longevity
- 7.2
“One of its three network policies is named unsafe-allow-all, which is at least the most clearly labelled decision on this board.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Claude Code | Poolside |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Terminal agent | Terminal agent |
| Runs | local, cloud | local, sandbox, cloud |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows | macos, linux, windows |
| Context window | 200k tokens, 1M on select models | 1M tokens on Laguna S 2.1, 256k on XS 2.1 and M.1 |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | No |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-file edits | Yes | Yes |
| Git operations | Yes | Yes |
| Browser control | Yes | NoWeb search and fetch are documented; there is no DOM-level browser automation. |
| Sandboxed execution | Yes | YesTool commands run inside a container on your machine and need a local Docker engine; network policy is off, allow-list or unsafe-allow-all, enforced through a proxy container. |
| Multi-agent orchestration | Yes | Yes |
| Headless / CI mode | Yes | Yes`pool exec --prompt ... --output json` with POOLSIDE_API_KEY, plus a documented GitHub Actions integration. |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | Claude | Laguna S 2.1, Laguna XS 2.1, Laguna M.1 |
| Bring your own model | YesThrough Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud's Agent Platform, Microsoft Foundry, or any LLM gateway your organisation runs, with model IDs pinned per deployment. | Yes |
| Local models | NoClaude Code routes only to Claude models. Anthropic states it does not support routing Claude Code to non-Claude models through any gateway, and gateway model discovery drops every model ID that does not contain "claude" or "anthropic", so a local Ollama or LM Studio endpoint is not a supported setup. | YesDocumented local-run guides for Ollama and vLLM on Metal, plus full on-premises and air-gapped deployment. |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | mixed | mixed |
| Starts at | $20/mo | n/a |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Bring your own key | YesYour own Anthropic API key, or your own AWS, Google Cloud or Azure account. | Yes |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | No | No |
| License | proprietary | proprietary |
| GitHub stars | 148,999 | n/a |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Claude Code | Poolside | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 7.8 | 6.8 | Claude Code — Use it if you live in the terminal and can pay for Max or an API key; it is the strongest terminal agent here for real repositories. |
| El Crítico | 6.8 | 6.5 | Claude Code — The sandbox is opt-in and covers only Bash, and one vendor sits behind the model, so the risk lands on your filesystem and your invoice. |
| El Profesor | 6.8 | 6.5 | Claude Code — A capable architecture whose claims are supported by no benchmark on record; the design is principled and unmeasured. |
| La Inversora | 8.5 | 7.0 | Claude Code — Anthropic owns the model, the distribution and the invoice, which is the rarest kind of moat in this category. |
| La Jefa | 7.0 | 7.0 | no preference |
| El Hacker | 5.0 | 7.5 | Poolside — The client is proprietary and the model weights are published under OpenMDW-1.1 and Apache-2.0, which is the exact opposite of everyone else on this board. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.