Terminal AI Agents: The 2025 Landscape
Table of Contents
Background
In 2025, AI coding tools shifted to a surprising place: the terminal. Since February 2025, Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI have all released command-line coding tools, and they're already among the companies' most popular products.
This research documents hands-on evaluation of 20+ terminal AI agents, including installation testing on FreeBSD 14.3, GitHub stars tracking, and feature comparison.
"Our big bet is that there's a future in which 95% of LLM-computer interaction is through a terminal-like interface." — Mike Merrill, Co-creator of Terminal-Bench (Stanford)
Industry Context
CLI coding agents now fill a sweet spot between heavy IDE copilots and web-based generators by being lighter, faster, and plugging directly into familiar workflows.
Adoption Statistics
- 53% of companies experimenting with LLMs for development have deployed to production (a16z Enterprise AI Report 2024)
- 75% of enterprise software engineers will use AI assistants by 2028, up from <10% in 2023 (Gartner 2025)
- Terminal agents are the fastest-growing category of AI developer tools
GitHub Stars Leaderboard (December 2025)
Rankings based on live GitHub API data collected during this research:
| Rank | Agent | Stars | Provider |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gemini CLI | 88,306 | |
| 2 | OpenHands | 65,846 | Open Source |
| 3 | Open Interpreter | 61,209 | Open Source |
| 4 | Cline | 56,318 | Open Source |
| 5 | GPT Engineer | 55,131 | Open Source |
| 6 | OpenAI Codex CLI | 54,514 | OpenAI |
| 7 | Claude Code | 48,023 | Anthropic |
| 8 | Aider | 39,129 | Open Source |
| 9 | Continue | 30,453 | Open Source |
| 10 | Goose | 24,922 | Block/Square |
| 11 | Devika | 19,477 | Open Source |
| 12 | SWE-agent | 18,075 | Princeton NLP |
| 13 | Plandex | 14,781 | Open Source |
| 14 | gptme | 4,089 | Open Source |
| 15 | Efrit | 338 | Steve Yegge |
The Big Three: Enterprise Terminal Agents
Claude Code (Anthropic)
- Released: February 24, 2025
- Stars: 48,023
- SWE-bench: 72%+ (leading published scores)
- Install:
npm install -g @anthropic-ai/claude-code
Key differentiators:
- Multi-tool orchestration with MCP protocol
- 5 permission modes for enterprise control
- JSON schema validation for structured output
- Docker sandboxing and offline capability
Gemini CLI (Google)
- Stars: 88,306 (highest among terminal agents)
- Free Tier: 1,000 requests/day with 1M-token context window
- Install:
npm install -g @google/gemini-cli
Key differentiators:
- Most generous free tier
- Native Google service integration
- Sandbox execution with custom containers
OpenAI Codex CLI
- Released: April 16, 2025
- Stars: 54,514
- Install:
npm install -g @openai/codex
Key differentiators:
- Works with ChatGPT subscription (cost-effective)
- Lightweight and fast
- Full customizability
Open Source Champions
Aider - The Git-Native Agent
- Stars: 39,129
- Accuracy: 84.9% on polyglot test suite
- Install:
pip install aider-chat
Aider's repository mapping feature understands entire codebases. It automatically commits changes with sensible messages and supports voice input.
Open Interpreter - Natural Language Computing
- Stars: 61,209
- Version: 0.4.3
- Install:
uv tool install open-interpreter
Equips LLMs with an exec() function for running code in Python, JavaScript, and shell. Streams output to terminal.
Continue - The Extensible Platform
- Stars: 30,453
- Enterprise Users: Siemens, Morningstar
- Install:
npm install -g @continue/cli
TUI mode for interactive sessions, headless mode for automation. Custom assistant framework with community hub.
gptme - Personal AI Agent
- Stars: 4,089
- Install:
pip install gptme
Shell, Python, browser, and vision tools. Self-correction feedback loop. Works as GitHub bot or web interface.
GitHub Copilot CLI
- Docs: GitHub Copilot Documentation
- Install:
gh extension install github/gh-copilot
GitHub's official CLI extension for Copilot. Integrates with gh CLI for command suggestions and explanations. Requires GitHub Copilot subscription.
Amp - Sourcegraph's Terminal Agent
- Docs: Amp CLI Manual
- Install: Download from ampcode.com
Sourcegraph's agentic coding assistant. Runs as CLI or integrates with VS Code. Go binary works natively on FreeBSD.
Emerging Protocols
MCP (Model Context Protocol)
Anthropic's protocol for tool integration, now adopted by:
- Claude Code
- Cursor CLI
- Cline
- Continue
ACP (Agent Client Protocol)
Zed's open standard for agent-editor integration:
- Multi-IDE support (Zed, JetBrains coming)
- No vendor lock-in
- Apache licensed
Benchmarks
| Benchmark | Focus | Top Performance |
|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench | GitHub issue resolution | Claude Code 72%+ |
| SWE-bench Pro | Harder variant | GPT-5/Claude Opus ~23% |
| Terminal-Bench | Real terminal tasks | Featured on Claude 4 card |
| LiveBench | Continuously updated | Varies by model |
SWE-bench Pro reveals massive performance drops vs Verified version, highlighting the gap between benchmarks and real-world difficulty.
FreeBSD Compatibility Testing
Hands-on testing on FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE:
| Agent | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | ✅ Works | Native Node.js support |
| Amp | ✅ Works | Go binary |
| Gemini CLI | ✅ Works | Native npm |
| GitHub Copilot CLI | ✅ Works | Via gh extension |
| Efrit | ✅ Works | Pure Elisp |
| Open Interpreter | ✅ Works | v0.4.3, 44min build |
| Aider | ❌ Fails | tree-sitter parser.h missing |
| OpenAI Codex CLI | ❌ Fails | Explicit FreeBSD check |
| Goose | ⚠️ Issues | langfuse.decorators missing |
Methodology
This research was conducted using Claude Code itself as the primary interface. The approach:
- Discovery: Web search for terminal AI agents released in 2024-2025
- Star Collection: GitHub API queries for live star counts
- Installation Testing:
uv tool installandnpm install -gon FreeBSD - Feature Extraction:
--helpoutput analysis for each agent - Documentation: Org-mode literate programming
All data collected December 22, 2025.
Repository
Full comparison matrices, architecture diagrams, and workshop labs available at:
Conclusion
The terminal is where professional developers live. In 2025, AI finally met them there.
Claude Code leads in reasoning and enterprise features. Gemini CLI wins on free tier generosity. Aider dominates git-native workflows. The open-source ecosystem (OpenHands, Cline, Continue) offers unmatched customization.
The future is agentic, and it runs in your terminal.