# Cline vs GitHub Copilot CLI

> Cline has a score of 60.8 (C) against GitHub Copilot CLI's 57.9 (C). Both do agent harness. The largest gap is reliability, 25 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-05

Cline has a score of 60.8 (C) against GitHub Copilot CLI's 57.9 (C). Both do agent harness. The largest gap is reliability, 25 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
- GitHub Copilot CLI: grade C, 57.9/100, rank #286 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/github-copilot-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/github-copilot-cli.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Cline for reliability (+25), schema & documentation (+5), payments & pricing (+10), maintenance & community (+8).

Pick GitHub Copilot CLI for agent ergonomics (+5), transparency & trust (+6).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cline | GitHub Copilot CLI | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 55 | Cline +25 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 72 | Cline +5 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 72 | GitHub Copilot CLI +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 60 | GitHub Copilot CLI +3 |
| 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 | 77 | Cline +8 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 66 | 72 | GitHub Copilot CLI +6 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -8 | -5 | |
| **Total** | | **60.8 · C** | **57.9 · C** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cline | GitHub Copilot CLI |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Cline Bot Inc. | GitHub |
| 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 the licence in the repository's `LICENSE.md`. Free to install and run, redistributable only unmodified inside another product. The repository holds the README, changelog and install script, not the source |
| 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 | 2026-10-01 |
| Popularity | 68k stars | 11k stars |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (2) | 2.5/5 (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.

**GitHub Copilot CLI.** Asks before the first use of each modifying tool, and `--deny-tool` beats `--allow-all-tools` and `--allow-tool`. Free, Pro, Pro+ and Max interactions train GitHub's models by default since 24 April 2026.

## 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

### GitHub Copilot CLI

1. Pass `--deny-tool` for anything destructive. It wins over `--allow-all-tools` and `--allow-tool`
2. Turn on the sandbox with `/sandbox enable` or `--sandbox`. It's off unless you opt in
3. Turn off model training in Copilot settings on Free, Pro, Pro+ and Max. It's on by default since 24 April 2026
4. Run 1.0.88 or later where enterprise policy matters. Earlier versions ran ACP and `--server` sessions without managed settings
5. Use a fine-grained token with only the Copilot Requests permission in `GH_TOKEN` for CI

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