# Cline vs DeepSeek Harness (dsh)

> Cline scores 60.4 (C) to DeepSeek Harness's 49.2 (D) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-18

Cline scores 60.4 (C) on agent readiness against DeepSeek Harness (dsh)'s 49.2 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. DeepSeek Harness (dsh) leads on payments & pricing. Both do agent harnesses.

- Cline: grade C, 60.4/100, rank #568 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/cline.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cline.json
- DeepSeek Harness (dsh): grade D, 49.2/100, rank #909 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/deepseek-harness.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deepseek-harness.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 713 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Cline (C)

Good for: Developers who want an agent inside VS Code or JetBrains that asks before acting and can roll back, with the same engine in a CLI.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 80 against 33
- Security & auth, 57 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 85 against 71
- Transparency & trust, 61 against 50

Watch for: The CLI approves every tool by default outside ACP mode and starts on Cline's own provider

### DeepSeek Harness (dsh) (D)

Good for: Developers who use DeepSeek models and want a scriptable harness with ACP, a JSON event stream and a Python SDK.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 60 against 50

Also in its favour:
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.0 against 2.0 out of 5

Watch for: By default each request to DeepSeek's official API carries the session log, including message text, tool arguments and results, up to 8 MiB a request


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cline | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 33 | Cline +47 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 77 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 68 | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 40 | Cline +17 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 60 | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 71 | Cline +14 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 61 | 50 | Cline +11 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -8 | -6 | |
| **Total** | | **60.4 · C** | **49.2 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cline | DeepSeek Harness (dsh) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Cline Bot Inc. | DeepSeek |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-17 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-09-25 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-09-24 | no document linked |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |
| Popularity | 68k stars | 245k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (2) | 3/5 (4) |

## 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.

**DeepSeek Harness (dsh).** Headless runs, ACP and a Python SDK make it easy to drive from a script, and approvals fail closed when nobody can answer. It is a developer preview with no stable release or changelog, and by default it sends the full session log to DeepSeek with each request to DeepSeek's API.

## 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

### DeepSeek Harness (dsh)

1. Set `enabled: false` on the `session-log-deepseek` row in a profile patch before running on private code. Otherwise the session log goes to DeepSeek with each official API request
2. Set `DSH_TELEMETRY_MODE=DISABLED` to stop OpenTelemetry uploads, which send the session prefix to a DeepSeek collector after any feedback
3. Treat exit code 1 and the `turn_end` reason as failure. A `--json` stream can end with a `final` event for a failed run
4. Run in a disposable container or VM. The sandbox doesn't confine reads or network, and SAFETY.md says the project has had no security audit
5. Pin the version. npm `latest` (0.2.0-rc.2) and `next` (0.2.1-rc.2) differ, DeepSeek's changelog asks for 0.2.1-rc.1 or later, and the README warns of breaking changes

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Cline or DeepSeek Harness (dsh)?

Cline scores 60.4 (C) on agent readiness against DeepSeek Harness (dsh)'s 49.2 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. DeepSeek Harness (dsh) leads on payments & pricing.

### Are Cline and DeepSeek Harness (dsh) open source?

Yes. Cline is open source (Apache-2.0). DeepSeek Harness (dsh) is open source (MIT).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-deepseek-harness.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-deepseek-harness.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "cline", "b": "deepseek-harness"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare cline deepseek-harness`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/cline.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/deepseek-harness.json

## Other comparisons with Cline or DeepSeek Harness (dsh)

- [Agent Zero vs Cline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-cline.md)
- [Agent Zero vs DeepSeek Harness (dsh)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-zero-vs-deepseek-harness.md)
- [Aider vs Cline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-cline.md)
- [Aider vs DeepSeek Harness (dsh)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-deepseek-harness.md)
- [Amp vs Cline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-cline.md)
- [Amp vs DeepSeek Harness (dsh)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/amp-vs-deepseek-harness.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs Cline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-cline.md)
- [Antigravity CLI vs DeepSeek Harness (dsh)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/antigravity-cli-vs-deepseek-harness.md)
- [Auggie CLI vs Cline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/auggie-vs-cline.md)
- [Auggie CLI vs DeepSeek Harness (dsh)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/auggie-vs-deepseek-harness.md)
- [Claude Code vs Cline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-cline.md)
- [Claude Code vs DeepSeek Harness (dsh)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-deepseek-harness.md)
- [Cline vs Crush](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-crush.md)
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- [Cline vs Devin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-devin.md)
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- [Cline vs Pi](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-earendil-pi.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)
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