What did Hlido score gi-dellav/zerostack?

gi-dellav/zerostack scored 70/100 (STEADY) in Hlido's independent, hands-on review.

How much does gi-dellav/zerostack cost?

Hlido recorded the pricing model as: Open source. Derived from evidence Hlido holds, not vendor-supplied; verify current prices on the vendor's pricing page.

Does any vendor pay Hlido for placement?

No. Hlido takes no money from the agents it rates — scoring weights stay private and the evidence behind every verdict is public.

gi-dellav/zerostack

Name: gi-dellav/zerostack review
Item: gi-dellav/zerostack
Rating: 70
Author: Hlido Editor

Coding · tested 2026-07-21 · re-test due 2026-10-19 · by the Hlido desk, not the vendor

In short: A lean Rust coding agent built for low memory and speed, with a genuinely clever parallel-worktree design — promising and fast, but earlier-stage than the incumbents.

2 PASS · 3 FAIL of 5 public-surface claims

Visit gi-dellav/zerostack → scorecard.json

Quick answer

gi-dellav/zerostack scores 70/100 (STEADY) on Hlido’s independent, hands-on test (reviewed 2026-07-21). STEADY (70) because the design choices are genuinely strong — Rust for footprint, ACP support, and the parallel-worktree concurrency model are real engineering, and permissioned file access is a good safety default. Pricing: Open source (free entry point documented).

Hlido Editor · 2026-07-21

Zerostack is a coding agent written in Rust with an explicit optimisation target most tools ignore: memory footprint and performance. It wraps OpenRouter (default), OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini and Ollama, streams tokens, and reads/writes/edits/searches your codebase with user-controlled permissions on what it may touch. Two features stand out as more than table stakes: it ships an ACP server so editors like Zed can connect to it as an agent, and it can run multiple zerostack agents on the same repository simultaneously — each in a temporary git worktree, with changes merged when the agent exits, no manual worktree juggling. It also does multimodal input (images, audio, PDF) and has an 'Advisors' feature where cheaper models escalate hard tasks to expert LLMs. The built-in slash commands (frontend-design, review-security, simplify, autoconfig) show a thoughtful product mind. The honest framing: this is GPL-3.0 (copyleft — matters for how you can reuse it), the community is smaller than the established CLI agents, and as a younger project the durability and real-world reliability track record simply isn't there yet. It's a credible, well-designed entrant rather than a proven default.

Why STEADY

STEADY (70) because the design choices are genuinely strong — Rust for footprint, ACP support, and the parallel-worktree concurrency model are real engineering, and permissioned file access is a good safety default. Not higher because it's earlier-stage than the incumbents: smaller community, GPL-3.0 copyleft to weigh, and limited independent evidence of reliability over time. A tool to watch and try, not yet a safe default.

Public-surface checklist

PASS Homepage loads (required)
PASS Primary value prop (required)
FAIL Cta present (required)
FAIL Pricing or access
FAIL Evidence or demo

What we saw

1 screenshot captured by the Hlido engine during the reviewed run (run-d1ad26ffd410e600-gi-dellav-github-io). Our own captures — not vendor marketing material.

gi-dellav/zerostack — run screenshot 1 (home.png) — home.png

What it does well

Rust implementation optimised for low memory footprint and speed
Runs multiple agents on one repo in parallel via automatic temporary git worktrees
ACP server support — connects to editors like Zed as an agent
Permissioned file access: user controls what the agent may read/write
Multimodal input (image/audio/PDF) and an Advisors escalation path to stronger models

What it fails at

GPL-3.0 copyleft — a real reuse consideration for commercial/proprietary contexts
Smaller community and shorter track record than established CLI coding agents
Independent reliability evidence over time is limited (younger project)
No hosted UI — CLI/editor-oriented, assumes developer fluency

Best for

Developers who want a fast, low-footprint coding agent they can run many of at once
Zed / ACP users wanting a native agent connection
Users who value explicit permission control over file access
Rust-friendly teams comfortable adopting a younger, well-designed tool

Not recommended for

Teams that need GPL-3.0-incompatible licensing
Buyers wanting a mature, widely-battle-tested default agent
Non-technical users needing a polished GUI and vendor support

Pricing & access

ModelOpen source
Free entry pointYes — a free tier or open-source edition is documented
Pricing findable on the public surfaceFAIL

Derived from Hlido-held evidence only (engine checklist + editorial text); quotes are verbatim from the scorecard; not vendor-supplied; re-derived daily. Verify current prices on the vendor's pricing page. Last verified 2026-07-18.

Compared to

Aider footprint-and-concurrency
Aider is the mature, widely-adopted git-native pair programmer; zerostack is the leaner, faster Rust newcomer with a novel parallel-worktree model. Choose Aider for a proven default, zerostack for footprint/performance and concurrent agents.
gptme/gptme maturity-vs-performance
gptme is the older, broader Python terminal agent; zerostack is narrower and Rust-native with ACP and multi-worktree concurrency. gptme for breadth and maturity, zerostack for speed and parallelism.

Agent relevance

CLI Behavioral-testable

Agentic-Commerce Readiness 44/100 · SURFACE-ONLY

Independent readiness for agent delegation & transaction. How it’s scored · check live

Good. Ships an ACP server so editors/other tools can drive it as an agent, and its parallel-worktree model makes it suitable for orchestrating multiple concurrent coding agents. CLI-first; no REST API or MCP surface documented yet.

Agent-friendly score: 6/10

Evidence

Lightweight Rust coding agent optimised for memory/performance — source (2026-07-21) verified
Wraps OpenRouter/OpenAI/Anthropic/Gemini/Ollama; ACP server support — source (2026-07-21) verified
Parallel agents via temporary git worktrees; permissioned file access — source (2026-07-21) verified
GPL-3.0 licensed — source (2026-07-21) verified

scorecard.json · transparency passport · registry · methodology

More: compare agents · best of · developer tools · incident registry

Verdict by Hlido Editor, our automated editorial system · Method: public-surface-tier-1+editorial-narrative-v2 · Methodology version 2026.07 · Next review due 2026-10-19

How this page was produced. The scores, claim verdicts and evidence come from automated hands-on testing of the product’s public surface. The written analysis is drafted by an AI system, and pages publish without a person reviewing each one. Hlido publishes this record and answers for it — tell us if anything here is wrong and we will correct it.

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