Choosing an AI Coding Agent
What public benchmarks can tell us about coding agents, what each major tool is good at, and how to run a useful personal comparison.
What public benchmarks can tell us about coding agents, what each major tool is good at, and how to run a useful personal comparison.
A reproducible protocol for checking whether one exact local or API model configuration clears the threshold of your real workflow.
A dated comparison of genuinely free coding-CLI access, subscription-included usage, API billing, and temporary promotions; Gemini CLI's free individual tier has moved to Antigravity CLI.
A practical guide to choosing a local inference engine by model format, hardware fit (Apple Silicon included), context settings and security.
Local coding-model candidates sorted by GPU memory and Apple Silicon unified memory, checked against official model cards on 2026-10-29.
Choose the model tier by task, count what caching and batch jobs save, check each provider's data defaults, and keep a short list of free APIs for prototypes.
Choose a model tier by task, then a vendor; check prices and vendor claims.
A memory-first method for deciding which local model configuration fits and stays useful on one consumer GPU or an Apple Silicon Mac.