---
title: "intentic vs Claude Code · the CLI and the workspace around it"
description: "Claude Code is a harness; intentic is what it runs inside. A fleet board, a browser you reach from a phone, an editable sandbox image, and automations, on the same subscription."
url: "https://intentic.dev/compare/claude-code/"
---

[Compare](https://intentic.dev/compare/) Agent CLIs · intentic runs these

# Claude Code is the agent. intentic is where you keep it.

Claude Code, Codex, Grok, Kimi Code and Gemini are harnesses: the loop, the tools, the permission prompts. This is not a choice between them and intentic, because intentic runs them.

> Anthropic's coding agent for your terminal, and the same shape as Codex, Grok, Kimi Code and Gemini CLI.

*Claude Code · [www.claude.com](https://www.claude.com/product/claude-code)*

[Get started free](https://app.intentic.dev) [See the product](https://intentic.dev/product/)

The short answer

Pick a harness the way you pick a compiler. Where it runs, what it can reach and who is watching it are still entirely open, and that is what intentic answers.

Every conversation picks its harness from the same five, switchable per turn. The terminal is still there, sharing one tmux server with the agent's shell.

## Where we agree

It is the same agent, on the same subscription, on the same files. Nothing is proxied and no tokens are marked up. You get Claude Code doing what Claude Code does, with a board and a diff reader around it.

## Where they differ

01

### One terminal, or a board of them

A CLI is single-player by construction: one conversation per window, one working tree. The fleet board gives each agent its own worktree and ranks them by which needs a decision.

02

### Available from a browser, including a phone

The sandbox dials out over a private tunnel and your browser talks to it. The same conversation is one tap away on a phone, which is the difference between an agent blocked overnight and one unblocked.

03

### An environment you can change

A CLI inherits the machine it was launched on. Here the machine is an image: an overlay Dockerfile you approve, plus capabilities that install a real client and keep its credential inside.

04

### Asleep when you are, or woken by events

Automations start a fresh session on a schedule, a push, an alert, a payment, an email or a chat message, each with its own transcript and an optional guard command. A CLI runs when you run it.

05

### One index, one tmux, one tree

Your search box and the agent's Bash calls hit the same iq index. Your terminal and its shell share one tmux server. What it edits is what you open.

## Head to head

| Dimension | intentic | Claude Code |
| --- | --- | --- |
| The agent itself | Claude Code, Codex, Grok, Kimi Code or Google, per turn | Claude Code |
| Whose subscription pays | yours, connected once, never metered by us | yours |
| Conversations at once | as many as you have roles, each on its own worktree | one per terminal window, one working tree |
| Where you drive it from | any browser, phone included, over a private tunnel | the terminal on that machine |
| Reviewing changes | a split or unified diff reader with comments, then land or discard | git, in your own terminal |
| Cost visibility | a ledger by day, provider, account, model and agent | per-session totals |
| Starts on an event | automations: cron, webhook, push, alert, email, chat | you start it |
| Setup | Docker, a Google account, one pasted command | ▸ one npm install, nothing else |
| Works with no account at all | the MIT CLI does; the hosted workspace needs a sign-in | ▸ yes, just your Anthropic login |

Not either/or

## You are already running it

Claude Code is the default harness inside every intentic sandbox, and the sandbox and CLI are MIT on GitHub. You can read exactly what wraps your agent before you trust it.

## Pick Claude Code when

You live in one terminal on one machine and need none of the fleet, the browser or the automations. The bare CLI is excellent and this does not pretend otherwise.

Every claim above is checkable on [www.claude.com](https://www.claude.com/product/claude-code) and in this repo. Where we have it wrong, [open an issue](https://github.com/intentic/intentic/issues) and it gets fixed in the next build.

[Next comparison vs OpenCode → Add it as a provider; it is a capability here](https://intentic.dev/compare/opencode/)

[Get started free](https://app.intentic.dev) [All comparisons](https://intentic.dev/compare/)