# Cline vs goose

> goose has a score of 73.9 (BB) against Cline's 60.8 (C). Both do agent harness. The largest gap is security & auth, 20 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-05

goose has a score of 73.9 (BB) against Cline's 60.8 (C). Both do agent harness. The largest gap is security & auth, 20 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
- goose: grade BB, 73.9/100, rank #52 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/goose.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/goose.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Cline for nothing in particular (no category where it leads by five points or more).

Pick goose for agent ergonomics (+15), security & auth (+20), payments & pricing (+10).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cline | goose | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 77 | Cline +3 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 81 | goose +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 82 | goose +15 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 77 | goose +20 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 60 | goose +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 86 | goose +1 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 66 | 63 | Cline +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -8 | -2 | |
| **Total** | | **60.8 · C** | **73.9 · BB** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cline | goose |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Cline Bot Inc. | Agentic AI Foundation (originally Block) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Free |
| 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 | 2026-09-23 |
| Popularity | 68k stars | 55k 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.

**goose.** Telemetry off until the user opts in, with the collected fields listed. Autonomous mode, which approves every tool call, is the default.

## 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

### goose

1. Set `GOOSE_MODE=smart_approve` or `approve` before a run. The default approves everything
2. Pass `--max-turns` with a real limit. The default is 1000
3. Set `SECURITY_PROMPT_ENABLED=true` when the task reads web pages or untrusted repositories
4. Use `--output-format json` and `--no-session` in CI, and check the exit code
5. Point remotes and links at aaif-goose/goose and goose-docs.ai. The block/goose paths redirect

## Other comparisons with Cline or goose

- [Aider vs Cline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-cline.md)
- [Aider vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/aider-vs-goose.md)
- [Claude Code vs Cline](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-cline.md)
- [Claude Code vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/claude-code-vs-goose.md)
- [Cline vs Cursor CLI](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-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 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 goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cursor-cli-vs-goose.md)
- [Gemini CLI vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-cli-vs-goose.md)
- [GitHub Copilot CLI vs goose](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/github-copilot-cli-vs-goose.md)
- [goose vs OpenAI Codex](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-openai-codex.md)
- [goose vs OpenCode](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-opencode.md)
- [goose vs OpenHands](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/goose-vs-openhands.md)