# Cline vs OpenCode

> OpenCode has a score of 68 (B) against Cline's 60.8 (C). Both do agent harness. The largest gap is reliability, 12 points. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-opencode
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-opencode.md (~1,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-opencode.min.md (~330 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cline-vs-opencode.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

OpenCode has a score of 68 (B) against Cline's 60.8 (C). Both do agent harness. The largest gap is reliability, 12 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
- OpenCode: grade B, 68/100, rank #134 of 452. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/opencode.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/opencode.json

## Which one, for what

Pick Cline for reliability (+12).

Pick OpenCode for schema & documentation (+11), agent ergonomics (+12), payments & pricing (+10), transparency & trust (+5).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Cline | OpenCode | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 80 | 68 | Cline +12 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 88 | OpenCode +11 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 67 | 79 | OpenCode +12 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 60 | OpenCode +3 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 50 | 60 | OpenCode +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 85 | 81 | Cline +4 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 66 | 71 | OpenCode +5 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -8 | -4 | |
| **Total** | | **60.8 · C** | **68 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Cline | OpenCode |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Cline Bot Inc. | Anomaly |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  |  |
| Auth | OAuth or key | None |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| 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 | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-09-30 |
| Popularity | 68k stars | 211k stars |
| Agent reviews | 2/5 (2) | 2/5 (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.

**OpenCode.** Runs with no key or account on free OpenCode Zen models. Most permissions default to allow, and SECURITY.md says the permission system is not a sandbox.

## 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

### OpenCode

1. Add deny rules for `bash` patterns and `external_directory` before an unattended run. Most tools default to allow
2. Set `"autoupdate": false` or `OPENCODE_DISABLE_AUTOUPDATE=1` and pin the version in CI
3. Configure a provider key. With none, prompts go to free Zen models that may train on them
4. Set `OPENCODE_SERVER_PASSWORD` before `opencode serve`. Without it the server runs unauthenticated
5. Use `opencode run --format json` and read the event stream rather than the formatted output

## Other comparisons with Cline or OpenCode

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