cline vs opencode
opencode is much bigger: 204.4k stars against 67.5k. Over the days we have tracked them cline moved +4.3% and opencode +9.6%, so opencode is growing faster right now.
cline leads on noise control and customization and privacy and model freedom and setup ease. opencode does not take any axis by a clear margin.
Stars and commit dates come from our own daily tracking. The six axes are read off each project's documentation by our review pipeline, so they describe what a project says about itself, not what we measured in its code.
Where they stand today
Provides a unified, extensible SDK + CLI + editor integrations with multi-agent Kanban and real shell command execution for coordinated, project-wide edits.
- Stars
- 67.5k
- Tracked growth
- +4.3%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 2h ago
- Language
- TypeScript
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Cost to run
- Bring-your-own API key or run local models
Open-source, installable coding agent that provides both a read-only 'plan' agent for safe exploration and a full-access 'build' agent for edits.
- Stars
- 204.4k
- Tracked growth
- +9.6%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 1h ago
- Language
- TypeScript
- License
- MIT
- Cost to run
- Your API key, cloud model costs apply
Six axes, head to head
Each axis runs 0 to 5. The label under a score is what that project's own docs claim, not a category average.
| Axis | cline | opencode |
|---|---|---|
Context depth How much of your codebase it sees before it answers: the open diff, the diff plus related files, or the whole repository. | ●●●●● Whole-repo analysis | ●●●●● Whole-repo analysis |
Noise control How it keeps output volume down — severity thresholds, deduplication, incremental runs over new commits only. | ●●●●● Human-in-loop + rules | ●●●●● Action gating only |
Customization How far it bends to your team: custom rules, prompts, style guides, per-path config. | ●●●●● Project rules & plugins | ●●●●● Configurable agents |
Privacy Whether your code stays on your own infrastructure: fully local, self-hostable, or cloud API only. | ●●●●● Can run fully local | ●●●●● Cloud APIs (your key) |
Model freedom Whether you can point it at any provider, or it is wired to one. | ●●●●● Any provider / local models | ●●●●● Bring-your-key |
Setup ease What it takes to get a first useful run out of it. | ●●●●● One-command install | ●●●●● Install + API key |
Which one to pick
Pick cline if…
Flexible model support — use any provider or run local models, with an extensible SDK, editor plugins, and CLI for controlled, project-wide code changes.
- Noise control: Human-in-loop + rules (4/5 against 2/5)
- Customization: Project rules & plugins (5/5 against 3/5)
- Privacy: Can run fully local (5/5 against 3/5)
- Model freedom: Any provider / local models (5/5 against 3/5)
- Setup ease: One-command install (5/5 against 3/5)
Pick opencode if…
Easy install — choose OpenCode when you want an open-source, locally installable coding agent that offers both safe read-only analysis and full-access development workflows.
What people want from each one
cline/cline
Hacker News: Using AI for Coding: My Journey with Cline and LLMs drew 198 points and 91 comments.
- "Cline uses complex prompts and iterative task execution that may be challenging for less capable models. For best results, it's recommended to use Claude 4 Sonnet for its advanced agentic coding capabilities." 👍 57
- Cline JetBrains plugin is unable to work with two or more open IDEA projects (Windows). 👍 12
- Fix File Editing Tool Reliability - replace_in_file, write_to_file, and Diff Failures 👍 12
anomalyco/opencode
Hacker News: OpenCode – Open source AI coding agent drew 1274 points and 618 comments.
Questions people ask
Is cline better than opencode?
cline leads on noise control and customization and privacy and model freedom and setup ease. opencode does not take any axis by a clear margin. cline is worth picking when flexible model support — use any provider or run local models, with an extensible SDK, editor plugins, and CLI for controlled, project-wide code changes.
Which of cline and opencode keeps my code private?
cline: Can run fully local (5/5). opencode: Cloud APIs (your key) (3/5).
What does each one cost to run?
cline: Bring-your-own API key or run local models. opencode: Your API key, cloud model costs apply.
Full profiles: cline/cline and anomalyco/opencode. Everything else in CLI coding agents.