The Terminal Strikes Back: AI Coding Assistants Make a CLI Comeback

Not long ago, we were raving about AI-powered web browsers; now the spotlight shifts to our terminals. A new wave of terminal-based AI code assistants is rising, bringing powerful "agentic AI" capabilities (autonomous coding actions) right into the command line. Tools like Claude Code, Gemini CLI, and Qodo CLI are leading this comeback, turning the humble terminal into an AI-augmented development cockpit. Below, we dive into each and how they compare.

Claude Code: Anthropic's AI Pair Programmer in the Terminal

Claude Code is a CLI tool from Anthropic designed for agentic coding, essentially an AI pair engineer living in your terminal. It connects to Anthropic's Claude models and works across various environments, codebases, and languages. Unlike some open-source counterparts, Claude Code is closed-source, but it's packed with powerful features:

• Autonomous code editing: It can modify files, fix bugs, run tests, and even execute commands in your codebase as directed. It integrates with CI pipelines (e.g., GitHub Actions) to automate pull requests and code reviews.
• Understands your whole project: Claude Code maintains awareness of your entire codebase without needing you to manually specify context files. Ask it questions about your architecture or have it refactor code, it "knows" where everything is.
• Built-in tools: It includes handy tools like WebSearch and WebFetch to browse documentation or examples online, and MultiEdit for making broad edits across files. (For security, some tools require explicit permission, ensuring it doesn't run wild in your system.)
• Enterprise-grade privacy: All calls go directly to Anthropic's API from your terminal (no intermediate server), and you can enforce strict permissioning on what the AI is allowed to do. This makes it easier to adopt in enterprise settings with sensitive code.
• Installation: You can install Claude Code via NPM: npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code (Node 18+ is required). Once installed, run claude and authenticate with your Anthropic API key to start an interactive CLI session.

Gemini CLI: Google's Open-Source Challenger

Gemini CLI is Google's newly announced (and open-sourced) command-line AI assistant, officially unveiled on June 25, 2025. It's aimed squarely at competing with tools like Claude Code, promising to bring the power of Google's advanced Gemini 2.5 Pro model straight to developers' terminals. The big buzz? An unprecedented free tier and deep integration with Google's ecosystem.

• Free & high-powered: Gemini CLI offers up to 1,000 requests per day (60 per minute) at no charge, an industry-leading allowance that effectively makes heavy-duty AI accessible to individual developers. It wields a massive 1 million-token context window, meaning it can ingest huge codebases or datasets in one go.
• Direct terminal access to Gemini: As a local utility, it lets you interact with Google's state-of-the-art model for coding assistance, content generation, research, and more right from the shell. You can use it interactively (like a chat REPL) or invoke it in scripts for automation.
• IDE synergy: Google built Gemini CLI to work hand-in-hand with Gemini Code Assist (their IDE plugin for VS Code, Android Studio, etc.), creating a seamless workflow between terminal and editor. It's essentially the same brain in both contexts, so you can start a task in VS Code and continue in the CLI (or vice versa) with consistent results.
• Web-connected intelligence: Thanks to integration with Google Search, Gemini CLI can fetch up-to-date information from the web when needed. This grounding means it can pull in documentation, examples, or real-time data during its responses, a big plus for tasks that need the latest info.
• Extensible & open: Gemini CLI is open-source (Apache-2.0), inviting developers to inspect and contribute. It supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP) for extensibility, allowing customization via system prompts and easy integration as part of larger AI systems. In short, Google wants this tool to be hackable and integrable.
• Installation: Install Gemini CLI with a single command: npm install -g @google/gemini-cli. After installing, you log in with your Google account to activate that generous free tier, and then you can launch the gemini command for an interactive session. (Yes, it's free now and open source, a game-changer in this space.)

Qodo Gen CLI: Build-Your-Own AI Agents

Qodo Gen CLI (by Qodo, formerly Codium), also announced on June 25, 2025, takes a slightly different approach. It's an agent framework that lives in your terminal, letting you create and customize AI coding agents to automate parts of your software development lifecycle. Think of it as giving you the tools to craft specialized "AI coworkers" that can review code, write tests, generate docs, and more, tailored to your project's needs.

• Custom Agentic workflows: Qodo Gen CLI enables developers to define their own AI agents via simple configuration files. You can specify an agent's triggers (e.g., a new pull request), its permissions/tools, and its goal, without needing to be an AI expert. In minutes, you can spin up an agent that, say, monitors your repo for todo comments and opens Jira tickets for them, or one that checks every PR for security flaws.
• Pre-built agents out of the box: To get you started, Qodo comes with several ready-made agents for common needs, including a code review bot that suggests improvements, a test generation agent to increase coverage, and a release notes generator to draft change logs. These integrate seamlessly with existing tools (GitHub/GitLab CI, Jenkins, etc.) to slot into your CI/CD pipeline.
• Integration and flexibility: Qodo's agents can run anywhere, triggered in CI, via webhooks, or even as persistent services. For advanced cases, you can deploy agents as MCP servers (Model Context Protocol) to interface with other AI platforms. This means Qodo agents can talk to or be triggered by other AI tools, creating a mesh of intelligent services in your development process.
• Bring your own model: Under the hood, Qodo Gen CLI is model-agnostic. It currently supports OpenAI's GPT (e.g., GPT-3.5/4) and Anthropic's Claude models for its agents' brains. You can choose which LLM powers your agent based on the task or cost, and on-prem deployment is in the works for companies that need everything kept in-house.
• Free for developers: Qodo Gen CLI is available as a free tool (in Alpha), with enterprise support plans if needed. The company provides a growing library of reference agents and a community Discord, so developers can share agent templates and best practices.
• Installation: You can install Qodo's CLI via NPM as well: npm install -g @qodo/gen. After that, running Qodo in your terminal will let you initialize or launch agents. (It's language-agnostic since it's a Node.js CLI, works wherever Node runs.)

How They Compare (Claude vs. Gemini vs. Qodo)

Each of these CLI assistants brings something unique to the table:

• Origin & Openness: Claude Code is proprietary (closed-source) from Anthropic, whereas Gemini CLI is fully open-source (Google), and Qodo CLI is an open framework by a startup. This impacts extensibility, e.g., Gemini invites community contributions, while Claude focuses on vetted enterprise integration.
• Model & Power: Claude Code leverages Anthropic's Claude models, renowned for quality but with API costs that can add up. Google's Gemini CLI taps into the cutting-edge Gemini 2.5 Pro model, offering comparable prowess with an enormous context window. Qodo CLI lets you choose a model (even Claude or OpenAI's) for each agent, offering flexibility over raw model power.
• Cost & Access: This is a big differentiator. Claude Code usage is pay-as-you-go (and can become pricey for heavy use, as some developers have learned). Gemini CLI, meanwhile, offers an extremely generous free tier, lowering the barrier for individuals and small teams. Qodo CLI itself is free, but if you use it with OpenAI/Anthropic APIs, you'll pay those providers, yet you can optimize when and which calls are made thanks to custom agent logic.
• Capabilities: All three can read, write, and understand code, but their emphases differ. Claude Code shines in understanding large codebases and doing complex, multi-step coding tasks autonomously with minimal setup. Gemini CLI emphasizes a smooth developer experience and integration with familiar Google dev tools (and that web-enabled savvy). Qodo CLI stands out by letting you automate any part of your workflow by inventing new agents - it's less about one AI doing everything and more about many purpose-specific AIs working in concert.
• Enterprise & Security: Claude Code was built with enterprise needs in mind, featuring security controls, a direct API host, and deployability on platforms like Bedrock/Vertex for enhanced compliance. Qodo targets engineering teams automating their SDLC with on-prem support and MCP integrations. Google's Gemini CLI, while open, is clearly aimed at pulling developers into Google's ecosystem (Cloud and Code Assist), and its free tier may evolve. All recognize that letting an AI loose in your code requires trust, hence features like Claude's permission system and approval modes.

In essence, Claude Code offers a robust, out-of-the-box AI engineer for your terminal (at a premium cost), Gemini CLI promises to democratize that power with free, open tooling and Google's AI might, and Qodo CLI provides a flexible framework to inject AI agents into every nook of your development process. It's not one-size-fits-all; it's about choosing the right tool (or combination) for your workflow.

One More Thing

At Prompt Security, we're excited about this trend. So much so that our Endpoint Agent already supports all three of these AI assistants. That means you can leverage Claude Code, Gemini CLI, or Qodo CLI in your security workflows seamlessly (yes, all of them). Book a demo with our team to see these terminal-based AIs in action through our platform. The renaissance of terminal AI is just beginning, and we're gearing up to make the most of it.

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