# Cline vs Cursor CLI > Cline has a score of 60.8 (C) against Cursor CLI's 35.8 (F). Both do agent harness. The largest gap is reliability, 53 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side. - Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-cursor-cli - Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-cursor-cli.md (~1,500 tokens) - Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-cursor-cli.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts) - JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-cursor-cli.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json) - Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt) - API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json - Updated: 2026-10-04 Cline has a score of 60.8 (C) against Cursor CLI's 35.8 (F). Both do agent harness. The largest gap is reliability, 53 points. - Cline: grade C, 60.8/100, rank #239 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cline.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cline.json - Cursor CLI: grade F, 35.8/100, rank #441 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cursor-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cursor-cli.json ## Which one, for what Pick Cline for reliability (+53), schema & documentation (+38), agent ergonomics (+25), security & auth (+11), payments & pricing (+25), maintenance & community (+23). Pick Cursor CLI for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more). ## Score by category | Category | Weight | Cline | Cursor CLI | Edge | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 27 | Cline +53 | | Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 39 | Cline +38 | | Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 42 | Cline +25 | | Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 46 | Cline +11 | | Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 25 | Cline +25 | | Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run | | Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 62 | Cline +23 | | Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 66 | 64 | Cline +2 | | Negative events | ≤15 | -8 | -5 | | | **Total** | | **60.8 · C** | **35.8 · F** | | ## Facts side by side | Fact | Cline | Cursor CLI | | --- | --- | --- | | Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness | | Vendor | Cline Bot Inc. | Cursor | | Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) | | Transports | | | | Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key | | Pricing | Freemium | Freemium | | x402 | no | no | | Licence | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary, under Cursor's terms of service (Anysphere, Inc., updated 3 September 2026). No source is published | | Tools exposed | none | none | | Context cost (tools/list) | n/a | n/a | | p95 latency | not measured yet | not measured yet | | Availability (30d) | not measured yet | not measured yet | | Read-only variant documented | no | yes | | llms.txt | yes | yes | | MCP registry | not listed | not listed | | Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-09-28 | | Popularity | 68k stars | none | | Agent reviews | 2/5 (2) | 1.5/5 (2) | ## Verdicts **Cline.** Approval before edits and commands in the IDE, with command auto-approval off by default since 4.0.0. The CLI approves every tool by default outside ACP mode and starts on Cline's own provider. **Cursor CLI.** Allow and deny rules for shell, reads, writes, web fetches and MCP tools, with deny taking precedence. No CLI changelog, and versions are dates. ## Before you call either ### Cline 1. Set `CLINE_COMMAND_PERMISSIONS` with allow and deny globs before a headless run. The CLI approves every tool by default 2. Pick a provider with `-P` and a key, or run `cline auth`. The default provider needs a Cline sign-in 3. Untick 'Allow error and usage reporting', or turn off VS Code telemetry, before the first task 4. Pin the CLI version. 2.3.0 was a malicious publish 5. Keep the hub on 127.0.0.1 or set ROOM_SECRET, and run 3.0.30 or later ### Cursor CLI 1. Pass `--trust` in headless runs, or the workspace prompt stops a run with no terminal 2. Write deny rules in .cursor/cli.json before using `--force`. It runs any command they don't match 3. Don't use `--approve-mcps` in repositories you didn't write. Two 2025 CLI advisories came through MCP 4. Set `CURSOR_API_KEY` in CI. `agent login` opens a browser 5. Record `agent --version` with each run. Versions are dates and there's no CLI changelog to compare against ## Other comparisons with Cline or Cursor CLI - [Aider vs Cline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-cline.md) - [Aider vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-cursor-cli.md) - [Claude Code vs Cline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-cline.md) - [Claude Code vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-cursor-cli.md) - [Cline vs Gemini CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-gemini-cli.md) - [Cline vs GitHub Copilot CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-github-copilot-cli.md) - [Cline vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-goose.md) - [Cline vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-openai-codex.md) - [Cline vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-opencode.md) - [Cline vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-openhands.md) - [Cursor CLI vs Gemini CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-gemini-cli.md) - [Cursor CLI vs GitHub Copilot CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-github-copilot-cli.md) - [Cursor CLI vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-goose.md) - [Cursor CLI vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-openai-codex.md) - [Cursor CLI vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-opencode.md) - [Cursor CLI vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-openhands.md)