Crab CodevsKeen Code
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
Crab Code
lingcoder · Terminal agent
#236OSS
Panel
5.32 spec wins
- Reliability
- 4.8
- Usefulness
- 5.2
- Cost
- 7.0
- Longevity
- 4.2
“Twenty-five crates of hand-written Rust, so the prompt asking whether it may delete something is now memory-safe.”
Keen Code
mochow13 · Terminal agent
#201OSSMCP
Panel
5.52 spec wins
- Reliability
- 5.5
- Usefulness
- 5.2
- Cost
- 7.5
- Longevity
- 4.0
“A Go binary that you install through npm, which is the most honest summary of modern tooling currently on offer.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Crab Code | Keen Code |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Terminal agent | Terminal agent |
| Runs | local | local |
| Platforms | macos, linux | macos, linux |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | No | Yes |
| MCP server | No | No |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-file edits | Yes | Yes |
| Git operations | Yes | Yes |
| Browser control | No | No |
| Sandboxed execution | No | No |
| Multi-agent orchestration | No | Yes |
| Headless / CI mode | Yes | No |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | Anthropic, OpenAI, DeepSeek, Bedrock, Vertex AI | multiple providers |
| Bring your own model | Yes | Yes |
| Local models | No | No |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | byok | byok |
| Starts at | $0/mo | $0/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Bring your own key | Yes | Yes |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 76 | 70 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Crab Code | Keen Code | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 5.8 | 6.0 | Keen Code — Pick this if you want a lighter version of the terminal agents you already know; pick Claude Code if you would rather have the features than the restraint. |
| El Crítico | 5.0 | 5.3 | Keen Code — The stated design principle is leaving out features a working engineer does not need, and the row does not say which features those are or who decided. |
| El Profesor | 5.8 | 6.0 | Keen Code — The project's own prompts and generated documents are committed under a version-controlled directory, which makes its construction inspectable in a way almost nothing else here is. |
| La Inversora | 4.0 | 4.5 | Keen Code — Sixty-one stars, six hundred weekly installs and one maintainer, which is a hobby with early traction and no structure to convert it into anything. |
| La Jefa | 4.8 | 4.8 | no preference |
| El Hacker | 6.5 | 6.8 | Keen Code — MIT, MCP servers and skills both supported, my own key against multiple providers, and a source tree small enough that reading all of it is a realistic plan. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.