# Cline vs Gemini CLI

> Gemini CLI has a score of 72.3 (BB) against Cline's 60.8 (C). Both do agent harness. The largest gap is transparency & trust, 24 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-05

Gemini CLI has a score of 72.3 (BB) against Cline's 60.8 (C). Both do agent harness. The largest gap is transparency & trust, 24 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
- Gemini CLI: grade BB, 72.3/100, rank #72 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gemini-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/gemini-cli.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Cline for reliability (+9), payments & pricing (+10).

Pick Gemini CLI for schema & documentation (+16), agent ergonomics (+11), security & auth (+10), transparency & trust (+24).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cline | Gemini CLI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 71 | Cline +9 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 93 | Gemini CLI +16 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 78 | Gemini CLI +11 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 67 | Gemini CLI +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 40 | Cline +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 88 | Gemini CLI +3 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 66 | 90 | Gemini CLI +24 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -8 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **60.8 · C** | **72.3 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cline | Gemini CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Cline Bot Inc. | Google |
| 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 | Apache-2.0 |
| 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 | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-09-29 |
| Popularity | 68k stars | 107k stars |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (2) | 3.5/5 (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.

**Gemini CLI.** Apache-2.0, CI passing on main, and 583 open issues with priority labels. Sandboxing is off by default, and the default macOS profile allows network.

## 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

### Gemini CLI

1. Set `GEMINI_TRUST_WORKSPACE` to true only for trusted inputs in CI. Since 0.39.1 headless mode doesn't trust a folder on its own
2. Turn on the sandbox with `-s` or `tools.sandbox`, and pick a proxied Seatbelt profile on macOS to cut network
3. Set `privacy.usageStatisticsEnabled` to false to stop usage statistics
4. Read the exit code. 42 is bad input and 53 is the turn limit
5. Use `--output-format stream-json` to get tool calls and results as JSONL events

## Other comparisons with Cline or Gemini CLI

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- [Gemini CLI vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-cli-vs-openai-codex.md)
- [Gemini CLI vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-cli-vs-opencode.md)
- [Gemini CLI vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-cli-vs-openhands.md)