AI coding agents compared
How terminal agents, IDE copilots, and review bots differ—selection criteria, not a product scorecard.
We do not publish benchmark winners. Compare how each style of tool interacts with your repo.
| Style | Examples (category) | Strength | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| IDE agent | Cursor-like editors | Fast local edits, visual diff | Over-broad edits if rules weak |
| Terminal agent | Claude Code-like CLIs | Scriptable, SSH-friendly | Shell access needs hard limits |
| PR review bot | CI comments | Catches obvious defects | Shallow context on product intent |
| Chat-only assistant | Browser chat | Explains APIs | No repo truth unless you paste |
Selection checklist
- Where do engineers already work (IDE vs terminal)?
- What must never be auto-edited?
- Which test command is the merge gate?
- Do you need MCP integrations or is grep enough?
- How will legal/compliance review agent logs?
Deep dives: Claude Code vs Cursor · What is MCP? · services for engagements.