KeelenCompare — Keelen vs Devin
One prompt, one task — or a roadmap that runs itself.
Devin and Keelen are both autonomous coders; the difference is the unit of work. A prompt-driven cloud agent takes one task per session — you hand it work, it works, you review, you hand it the next one. Keelen runs a standing process against your repository: it holds the whole roadmap, breaks items into dev-ready tasks with acceptance criteria, picks its own next task by priority, and keeps going after each merge — around the clock, on your own Claude, Codex, GLM, or Kimi credentials, with test and review gates on every change.
Keelen is an autonomous coding loop: an AI development team that runs against your GitHub repository around the clock. It turns free-form requests into a prioritized roadmap, breaks roadmap items into dev-ready tasks with acceptance criteria, implements each task in an isolated single-use VM using your own Claude, Codex, GLM, or Kimi credentials, verifies every change through test and review gates, and ships the result as a merged pull request — or holds it for your review, if that's what you've configured.
✓ / ~ / — describe the designed workflow of each product category, not a version-by-version feature audit — products evolve, so check the vendor's docs for current capabilities. The Keelen column is backed by shipped, tested code.
The unit of work
Per-task agents are dispatchers: the human queues the work, one prompt at a time. That fits one-off tasks well. It breaks down when the real job is a backlog — someone still has to decide what's next, write it up, and feed the machine every morning.
Keelen inverts that. You steer with free-form requests and priority ordering; the PM layer maintains the roadmap and produces dev-ready tasks with acceptance criteria; the scheduler picks the top task and dispatches it — including while you sleep. Steering rules and lessons persist across runs, so course corrections stick.
Verification, not vibes
Autonomy without gates is a liability. Five gates stand between the AI and your main branch. New tests are applied without the implementation first and must fail — tests born green are rejected. An independent adversarial reviewer that shares no context with the dev run reviews the diff. Your real test suite runs on a clean checkout. Nothing merges over a red required CI check. And gated auto-merge waits out a review window — or you can replace it entirely with plan-review sign-off, manual merge, or branch-only mode.
When a run fails, that's data, not a mystery. Every failed run is classified into one of 30 failure kinds. Infrastructure blips and provider limits retry on a budget and never count against your work; real dead ends become one plain-English card in your Needs-you queue with a recommended action, and the project pauses instead of burning your quota.
Whose account it runs on
Keelen runs on credentials you connect: Anthropic Claude (subscription login or API key, via Claude Code), OpenAI Codex, Zhipu GLM, or Moonshot Kimi. Token usage bills to your own provider account at cost — Keelen charges a flat monthly tier ($29 / $79 / $299) and never marks up tokens. If you already pay for a Claude Pro or Max plan, the loop runs on the subscription you own — Keelen's tier is the only new line item.
FAQ
How is Keelen different from a cloud coding agent like Devin?
The unit of work. A cloud agent takes one task per prompt and waits for the next one. Keelen holds your whole roadmap, turns it into dev-ready tasks with acceptance criteria, picks its own next task by priority, and continues after every merge — a standing loop rather than a per-task session.
Does Keelen need a prompt for every task?
No. You submit free-form requests when you have new intent; Keelen's PM layer classifies them into roadmap items, expands the top item into tasks, and the scheduler works through them unattended. You reorder priorities and answer clarifying questions; you don't dispatch tasks one by one.
What happens when a Keelen run fails?
Every failed run is classified into one of 30 failure kinds. Infrastructure blips and provider limits retry on a budget and never count against your work; real dead ends become one plain-English card in your Needs-you queue with a recommended action, and the project pauses instead of burning your quota.
Can a human approve work before it merges?
Yes, per project. Require plan review — product and/or developer sign-off before any code is written. Set merge to manual and Keelen opens the PR but leaves the button to you. Or choose branch-only and it never opens PRs at all.
Whose AI account does Keelen run on?
Keelen runs on credentials you connect: Anthropic Claude (subscription login or API key, via Claude Code), OpenAI Codex, Zhipu GLM, or Moonshot Kimi. Token usage bills to your own provider account at cost — Keelen charges a flat monthly tier ($29 / $79 / $299) and never marks up tokens.