Modern coding assistants share a familiar chat surface, but their useful differences appear in context and control. Test whether a product can find the right files, understand project conventions, use documentation, and explain the proposed change before it edits anything. Large context claims do not guarantee relevant context.
Autonomy should be evaluated with a bounded repository task. Give each assistant the same issue, tests, and constraints. Compare the plan, files touched, test behavior, diff size, and how clearly the product reports uncertainty. A fast agent that creates a large review burden has only moved the work downstream.
Review ergonomics matter as much as model quality. Look for checkpoints, readable diffs, selective acceptance, command permissions, rollback, and a durable record of tool calls. Teams should also inspect data retention, repository indexing, secret handling, regional processing, and administrative controls.
Finally measure cost per accepted change rather than cost per token or request. Include the engineer time spent prompting, waiting, correcting, testing, and reviewing. The best assistant is the one that makes your existing engineering controls faster without asking you to surrender them.
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