Continue CLIvsOpenCode
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
Continue CLI
Continue · Terminal agent
#24OSSMCP
Panel
6.40 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.2
- Usefulness
- 6.3
- Cost
- 8.0
- Longevity
- 5.2
“It installs by piping a URL straight into your shell, then politely asks permission before it touches a single file.”
OpenCode
Anomaly (formerly SST) · Terminal agent
#5OSSMCP
Panel
7.02 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.7
- Usefulness
- 7.3
- Cost
- 7.3
- Longevity
- 6.8
“Two hundred thousand GitHub stars, seventy-five providers, and a vendor that renamed itself before the tool did.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Continue CLI | OpenCode |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Terminal agent | Terminal agent |
| Runs | local | local |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows | macos, linux, windows |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | No | No |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-file edits | Yes | Yes |
| Git operations | Yes | Yes |
| Browser control | No | NoBuilt-in tools include webfetch and websearch only; nothing drives or reads a browser. |
| Sandboxed execution | NoThe docs describe running the CLI inside a Docker container, not sandboxing the agent in one. | NoTool calls are gated by the permission config, which is an approval policy rather than container or OS-level isolation. |
| Multi-agent orchestration | No | Yes |
| Headless / CI mode | Yes | Yes |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | any provider configured in config.yaml, Anthropic | Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Kimi, Ollama |
| Bring your own model | Yes | Yes |
| Local models | YesThe CLI reads the same ~/.continue/config.yaml provider schema as the IDE extensions, including a custom apiBase, so any local server can be configured; the CLI pages defer to that reference rather than naming Ollama or LM Studio. | Yes |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | byok | mixed |
| Starts at | $0/mo | $0/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Bring your own key | Yes | Yes |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 36,084 | 211,366 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Continue CLI | OpenCode | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 6.8 | 8.0 | OpenCode — OpenCode is what to hand anyone who wants the Claude Code shape with their own keys and a model picker; pick Claude Code if you want one vendor and one bill. |
| El Crítico | 6.3 | 7.0 | OpenCode — Commands run with your permissions and no sandbox, and the Zen gateway offers free models without saying who pays for them. |
| El Profesor | 6.5 | 6.8 | OpenCode — The provider abstraction over 75+ backends is the design most likely to survive model turnover, and no benchmark of any kind is published. |
| La Inversora | 5.3 | 6.0 | OpenCode — Two hundred thousand stars is distribution, the Zen gateway is the business model, and a company that renamed itself mid-flight is a company still deciding what it is. |
| La Jefa | 6.0 | 5.8 | Continue CLI — Zero licence for sixty and a single-shot flag that fits our pipelines, but sign-in goes to a vendor account by default and nothing on the row mentions SSO or audit. |
| El Hacker | 7.8 | 8.8 | OpenCode — MIT, Ollama for offline, MCP servers in opencode.json with a published $schema, custom agents, and it has already been forked, which is the point. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.