PoolsidevsQwen Code
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
Poolside
poolside · Terminal agent
#15MCP
Panel
6.91 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.”
Qwen Code
Alibaba Cloud (Qwen) · Terminal agent
#19OSSMCP
Panel
6.82 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.5
- Usefulness
- 6.8
- Cost
- 7.3
- Longevity
- 6.3
“Ships a Java SDK, which tells you precisely which enterprises Alibaba expects to pay for it.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Poolside | Qwen Code |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Terminal agent | Terminal agent |
| Runs | local, sandbox, cloud | local |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows | macos, linux, windows |
| Context window | 1M tokens on Laguna S 2.1, 256k on XS 2.1 and M.1 | 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 | NoWeb search and fetch are documented; there is no DOM-level browser automation. | YesThe first-party @qwen-code/chrome-bridge extension tunnels cdp_* frames from the `qwen serve` daemon into chrome.debugger so the agent drives a real Chrome tab, but console/network/screenshot/click tools need an external CDP MCP adapter set via QWEN_CDP_MCP_COMMAND, since none is bundled. |
| Sandboxed execution | 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. | YesTwo real isolation modes - macOS Seatbelt via sandbox-exec (default `permissive-open` profile) and container-based Docker/Podman with a published sandbox image (https://qwenlm.github.io/qwen-code-docs/en/users/features/sandbox/). |
| Multi-agent orchestration | Yes | Yes |
| Headless / CI mode | Yes`pool exec --prompt ... --output json` with POOLSIDE_API_KEY, plus a documented GitHub Actions integration. | Yes |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | Laguna S 2.1, Laguna XS 2.1, Laguna M.1 | Qwen3-Coder, OpenAI-compatible, Claude, Gemini |
| Bring your own model | Yes | Yes |
| Local models | YesDocumented local-run guides for Ollama and vLLM on Metal, plus full on-premises and air-gapped deployment. | Yes |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | mixed | byok |
| Starts at | n/a | n/a |
| Free tier | Yes | No |
| Bring your own key | Yes | Yes |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | No | Yes |
| License | proprietary | Apache-2.0 |
| GitHub stars | n/a | 28,271 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Poolside | Qwen Code | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 6.8 | 7.0 | Qwen Code — Pick Qwen Code if you want a Claude Code-shaped terminal with plugins for VS Code, JetBrains and Zed and your choice of model; pick Claude Code if you want the best model with zero setup. |
| El Crítico | 6.5 | 6.3 | Poolside — Isolation needs a container engine running on the machine and enforces network policy through a proxy container, which is a configuration rather than a boundary. |
| El Profesor | 6.5 | 6.0 | Poolside — The vendor trains its own model family and publishes no evaluation of it anywhere on the row, which is a conspicuous silence for a company selling its own inference. |
| La Inversora | 7.0 | 6.8 | Poolside — Training your own models and selling deployments into other people's data centres is a capital-intensive bet on the one segment that cannot buy from a lab directly. |
| La Jefa | 7.0 | 5.8 | Poolside — It runs inside our own network, including air-gapped, on the Kubernetes platforms we already operate, and the enterprise price is a sales conversation. |
| El Hacker | 7.5 | 8.8 | Qwen Code — Apache-2.0, OPENAI_BASE_URL pointed at my own box, modelProviders in settings.json, and MCP servers with a command or an httpUrl; the whole thing is mine to fork. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.