PoolsidevsZero
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.”
Zero
Gitlawb · Terminal agent
#6OSSMCP
Panel
7.03 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.7
- Usefulness
- 7.0
- Cost
- 8.2
- Longevity
- 6.2
“It accepts image input in a terminal, a sentence that would have ended a career in 2019.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Poolside | Zero |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | Terminal agent | Terminal agent |
| Runs | local, sandbox, cloud | local, sandbox |
| 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 | Yes |
| 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. | YesBrowser and terminal control helpers ship with the npm and release builds; source builds need those helper binaries on PATH or configured in local-control settings. |
| 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. | NoZero ships a native Linux sandbox helper using seccomp rather than Docker; source builds must build the `zero-linux-sandbox` helper separately. |
| 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`zero exec` returns exit codes and has a documented GitHub Action recipe. |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | Laguna S 2.1, Laguna XS 2.1, Laguna M.1 | OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Groq, OpenRouter, DeepSeek, Mistral, xAI, Qwen, Kimi, GitHub Models, Fireworks, MiniMax, Ollama, LM Studio |
| 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 | $0/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Bring your own key | Yes | Yes |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | No | Yes |
| License | proprietary | MIT |
| GitHub stars | n/a | 1,688 |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Poolside | Zero | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 6.8 | 7.3 | Zero — Pick it if you want a terminal agent that lets you change your mind mid-task; pick Crush if you want the same shape with a longer track record behind it. |
| El Crítico | 6.5 | 6.8 | Zero — Package builds ship the browser and terminal control helpers; a source build needs those binaries on PATH and expects you to build the Linux sandbox helper separately. |
| El Profesor | 6.5 | 7.3 | Zero — Sessions can be resumed or forked, which makes a continuation a controlled variable, and the headless mode emits text, JSON or stream-JSON rather than prose only. |
| La Inversora | 7.0 | 5.5 | 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 | 6.8 | 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 | 8.5 | Zero — MIT, twenty-five providers with Ollama and LM Studio among them, and it works as an MCP server as well as a client, so my tools go both ways. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.