Compare
Compare: Sentinel vs AI IDEs and hosted agents
| Dimension | Sentinel | AI IDE | Hosted agent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Runs on your machine | Yes, in-process | Client app, vendor backend | No |
| Works over SSH / headless | First class | Awkward | Yes |
| Model choice | 12 providers + local models | Usually one vendor lineup | Locked to the vendor |
| Cost shape | Bring your own key, free tier by default | Seat subscription | Per-seat or usage pricing |
| Code leaves the machine | Only if you use a hosted model | Yes, for agent features | Yes, always |
| Fully offline | Yes, with Ollama or LM Studio | No | No |
| Permission model you can read | Yes. It is the source | Opaque | Opaque |
| MCP interoperability | Server and client | Varies | Usually server only |
| Shared team dashboard / SSO | No | Usually yes | Yes |
Vendor features change frequently. Treat the shape of the trade as durable and verify anything time-sensitive against each product’s own documentation.
Where Sentinel wins outright
- Auditability. Every guard rail (sandboxed paths, per-mode allowlists, the risk ledger, the blast-radius gate) is a few hundred lines of readable JavaScript. You can verify the control instead of trusting a policy page. The full permission model and why the gates are designed to stay switched on.
- Cost control you can point at. A free-tier default, hard context caps, per-turn receipts and a persisted per-project ceiling. How the spend actually works.
- Offline. Point it at Ollama or LM Studio and no request leaves the machine, the one claim no hosted product can make. Running fully local.
- Interoperability in both directions. Sentinel speaks MCP as a server and consumes MCP servers, so it sits inside a toolchain instead of replacing it. MCP setup.
Where it does not
- No inline autocomplete. Not a gap we intend to close. Keep your editor for typing.
- No team dashboard, SSO or audit log. If your security team reviews agent access centrally, you need a platform product and we would rather say so now.
- Younger ecosystem. Fewer integrations, fewer blog posts, fewer Stack Overflow answers than the incumbents.
Try it in five minutes
git clone https://github.com/KunjShah95/SENTINEL-CLI.git
cd SENTINEL-CLI
npm install
npm link
export GROQ_API_KEY=gsk_... # optional: Ollama needs no key at all
sentinelThen check the guard rails are real before you trust them: installation guide, tool reference and how to choose between open source coding agents.
Frequently asked questions
Is Sentinel a replacement for Cursor?
For whole-codebase work, scripting and SSH, yes. Often better, because the agent has grep, glob and a shell rather than only the open file. For inline autocompletion and visual diff review inside the editor, no: keep the editor for typing and use the agent for changes. The two solve different problems, and most engineers end up running both.
Does Sentinel require an account or a subscription?
No. It is MIT licensed and runs locally in-process. The only account you may ever need is with a model provider, and that is optional: Ollama and LM Studio need no key at all, and Groq's free tier is the default. Nothing is phoned home except your own LLM API calls.
Which models does Sentinel support?
One streaming client covers twelve providers: OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Groq, Mistral, DeepSeek, xAI, Together, Fireworks, OpenRouter, Ollama and LM Studio. OpenAI-compatible endpoints share one code path, and Anthropic and Gemini use their native protocols. Models are discovered live from provider APIs at runtime.
Can I use Sentinel in CI or over SSH?
Yes. The headless surface (ask, goal, outcome, watch, budget, handoff, risk) is designed for exactly that, and the MCP stdio server lets any MCP client call the agent. There is no server component to deploy and nothing to authenticate against.