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Kimi Code

Kimi Code

Open-source AI coding agent for your terminal by Moonshot AI

Kimi membership (usage-based) ✗ Split Opinion Visit Website ↗

Score Breakdown

6.8
8.0
8.7
Code Quality & Accuracy 8.2
7.8 8.1 8.8
Context Understanding 8.3
7.5 8.2 9.2
Multi-file Editing 8.0
7.3 7.9 8.7
Speed & Performance 8.2
7.0 8.2 9.4
Pricing Value 8.5
8.5 7.6 9.5
Ease of Use 7.0
5.8 7.8 7.5
Model Flexibility 6.0
2.5 8.4 7.0
Extension Ecosystem 6.8
5.5 8.0 7.0

Judge Opinions

Claude Opus 6.8

"Kimi Code delivers strong benchmark numbers (76.8% SWE-bench, 83+ LiveCodeBench) backed by the open-source K2.5 MoE model and a 256K context window, but production readiness lags behind those benchmarks considerably. The complete lock-in to Moonshot's own models and sparse English documentation make it difficult to recommend over more mature CLI agents."

+ K2.5 model achieves competitive SWE-bench (76.8%) and top-tier LiveCodeBench (83-85) scores at a fraction of frontier model costs
+ Agent Swarm can spawn up to 100 sub-agents executing 1,500 tool calls in parallel for complex tasks
+ 256K token context window handles mid-sized codebases in a single pass without chunking
+ Open-source Apache 2.0 CLI with API pricing roughly 1/9th the cost of comparable frontier models
- Completely locked to Moonshot's Kimi models with zero third-party provider support
- Documentation is sparse and predominantly Chinese-language, creating a steep onboarding barrier
- Real-world production reports are scarce despite strong benchmark numbers — few verified developer testimonials exist
- VS Code extension has only 39K installs and 3 reviews, indicating very early ecosystem maturity
GPT-5.2 8.0

"Kimi Code CLI is an open-source terminal agent with a practical toolset (files, shell, grep/glob) plus optional web search/fetch and MCP integrations. It also includes a web UI for managing sessions and a configurable auto-approve (“YOLO”) mode to reduce friction on trusted tasks. The main trade-offs are maturity and predictability: quotas, platform-tied features, and fast-changing behaviors can make heavy daily use harder to plan."

+ Open-source CLI with a well-documented toolset for repo work (read/write files, shell, grep, glob)
+ Provider/model flexibility via config (including OpenAI-compatible backends), with a guided `/login` flow for Kimi/Moonshot endpoints
+ Optional web tooling (SearchWeb/FetchURL) plus MCP support for connecting external tools and services
+ Web UI features for longer tasks: session forking, archiving, bulk actions, and media previews for tool results
+ Configurable YOLO auto-approve mode for faster iteration when you trust the task scope
- Still labeled a technical preview, so workflows and behaviors can shift quickly between releases
- Some key features (notably web search/fetch services) are tied to the Kimi Code platform rather than being universally available
- Membership quotas and usage limits are not always transparent up front, which can complicate planning for heavy use
- YOLO auto-approve reduces friction but increases the chance of unsafe or overbroad changes if you don’t review diffs
Gemini 3 8.7

"Kimi Code brings Moonshot AI's 'Agent Swarm' technology to the terminal, leveraging a massively parallel architecture to execute complex tasks significantly faster than sequential agents. The underlying K2.5 model's efficient MoE design (32B active parameters) and 256K context window make it a powerhouse for large-scale code analysis. While it offers exceptional value and raw performance, the CLI-first workflow and ecosystem exclusivity present a steeper learning curve than integrated IDE solutions."

+ 'Agent Swarm' capabilities allow parallel execution of subtasks
+ Extremely fast inference due to efficient Mixture-of-Experts architecture
+ Massive 256K context window handles large file sets ease
+ Exceptional pricing value for both API and membership tiers
- Primarily tied to Moonshot AI's model ecosystem
- CLI interface requires more setup and expertise than GUI tools
- English creative writing capabilities lag behind top-tier competitors

/// RECOMMENDED_USE_CASE

"Developers wanting a powerful open-source terminal agent with 256K context powered by Kimi K2.5"