clinvk compare

Compare responses from multiple backends.

Synopsis

clinvk compare <prompt> [flags]

Description

Send the same prompt to multiple backends and compare their responses. CLI compare runs are always ephemeral (no sessions are persisted).

Flags

Flag	Type	Default	Description
--backends	string		Comma-separated backend list
--all-backends	bool	false	Compare all registered backends (skips unavailable CLIs)
--sequential	bool	false	Run one at a time
--json	bool	false	JSON output

Examples

Compare Specific Backends

clinvk compare --backends claude,codex "explain this code"

Compare All Backends

clinvk compare --all-backends "what does this function do"

Sequential Execution

clinvk compare --all-backends --sequential "review this PR"

JSON Output

clinvk compare --all-backends --json "analyze performance"

Output

Text Output

Comparing 3 backends: claude, codex, gemini
Prompt: explain this algorithm
================================================================================
[claude] This algorithm implements a binary search...
[codex] The algorithm performs a binary search...
[gemini] This is a classic binary search implementation...

================================================================================
COMPARISON SUMMARY
================================================================================
BACKEND      STATUS     DURATION     MODEL
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
claude       OK         2.50s        claude-opus-4-5-20251101
codex        OK         3.20s        o3
gemini       OK         2.80s        gemini-2.5-pro
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total time: 3.20s

JSON Output

{
  "prompt": "explain this algorithm",
  "backends": ["claude", "codex", "gemini"],
  "results": [
    {
      "backend": "claude",
      "model": "claude-opus-4-5-20251101",
      "output": "This algorithm implements a binary search...",
      "duration_seconds": 2.5,
      "exit_code": 0
    }
  ],
  "total_duration_seconds": 3.2
}

Execution Modes

Parallel (Default)

All backends run simultaneously:

clinvk compare --all-backends "prompt"

Sequential

Run backends one at a time:

clinvk compare --all-backends --sequential "prompt"

Error Handling

Unavailable backends are skipped with a warning. If any selected backend fails during execution, the command exits with a non-zero status.

Exit Codes

Code	Description
0	All selected backends succeeded
1	Any backend failed or none were available

See Also

• parallel - Different prompts, concurrent
• chain - Sequential pipeline