Cost model How you pay, and whether you can predict the bill. | ✓Yes Flat subscription. Runs on your Claude Code OAuth — no metered tokens. | ○Some Subscription, but heavy use pushes you into per-token overage tiers. | —No Per-ACU usage billing. Long tasks can produce large invoices. | ✓Yes Your salary. The most predictable bill of all, just the slowest. |
TDD discipline Tests written before code, coverage gate on merge. | ✓Yes Non-negotiable. Failing tests committed before any implementation. Coverage reported on every PR — wire it into your CI gate. | —No You can prompt for tests, but nothing enforces order or coverage. | ○Some Will write tests if you ask. Not order-enforced. | ○Some Depends on the human. Easy to skip under pressure. |
PR review How the agent responds to reviewer comments. | ✓Yes Per-comment fixed / won't-fix replies. Iterates on the same branch. Works with Gemini, CodeRabbit, and human reviewers. | —No No PR awareness. You re-prompt in the editor. | ○Some Can address review comments, but threads them as a single response. | ✓Yes Whatever your team's convention is. Cycle time depends on your reviewers. |
Founder-friendly auto-merge Low-risk PRs ship on green checks without a manual diff review. | ✓Yes Founder Mode — risk tiers + plain-English changelog. Off by default; opt-in per repo. | —No You're always in the editor. | —No Opens PRs, doesn't self-merge. | —No You read every diff yourself. |
Async via webhook Works while you sleep, off ticket events — no human at the wheel. | ✓Yes Triggered by ticket assignment / label / column move. Streams progress to dashboard via SSE. | —No Editor-bound. Closes when you close the laptop. | ✓Yes Async by design. Runs in its own VM. | —No You're the trigger. |
You own the code, end-to-end The agent commits to your repo, not a sandbox you have to import from. | ✓Yes Direct commits to a branch in your repo. Your CI, your reviewers, your merge button. | ✓Yes Pair programmer — writes into your working tree. | ○Some Pushes to its own sandbox; you pull / import. | ✓Yes Always have, always will. |
Plan-before-act mode Writes the plan as a comment, waits for your approval, then writes code. | ✓Yes Plan mode is opt-in per project — flip it on and every ticket waits for plan approval before any code is written. | ○Some Composer agent has a plan step; you can re-prompt. | ✓Yes Posts a plan, executes after confirmation. | ✓Yes You think, then you type. Hopefully. |
