Agentic CLI Tools Compared: Claude Code vs Cline vs Aider

Explore leading agentic CLI tools to streamline and elevate your code-editing workflow.

Claude Code vs Cline vs Aider

Tools are listed based on their GitHub scores:

Claude Code

Claude Code is a CLI interface that connects Claude models, including Claude 3.5, 3.7 and 4.0 (Sonnet and Opus), to local codebases. The tool supports file edits, bug fixes, merge resolution, and test execution.

What does Claude Code offer?

Claude Code runs with a claude command pointed to a directory. It does:

• Build applications end-to-end
• Edit files and fix bugs
• Answer architectural or code-related questions
• Run and debug tests or linting
  Manage Git: review history, resolve merges, create commits and PRs
• Agent-like behaviors (e.g., task chaining, searching, troubleshooting)

Claude Code generates a session summary at the end of each session. This summary shows activity details. For example, one session shows the total cost was $0.0556 and the API processing time was 9 seconds.

Pricing & runtime behavior

Costs add up with large codebases or longer workflows. The tool has a /cost command but no upfront control over spending or session limits.²

Claude Code’s $20/month plan has a tiny fraction of usage.

Note that there are other tools that can create websites with a single prompt for free.

Limitations:

Output & context handling

In our AI code editor benchmark which was a to-do app test, it was the top performer, successfully implementing all core features except drag-and-drop.

Its output quality improves when given clear architectural scaffolding and well-defined prompts.

Inconsistent code formatting

Claude Code sometimes outputs incomplete or fragmented code blocks.

Other limitations:

• No image preprocessing:  Large images may be rejected unless manually resized

Gemini CLI

Gemini CLI is an open-source AI agent built around a Reason and Act (ReAct) loop that provides the capabilities of the advanced Gemini models (e.g., Gemini 3 Pro) directly within the command line.

What does Gemini CLI offer?

• Agentic coding & automation: It helps with complex engineering tasks such as generating entire scaffold for a runnable web project, debugging performance issues across services, automating code analysis, and integrating into CI/CD pipelines.
• Agentic system automation: The agent utilizes its built-in basic tools (file operations, shell commands, web fetching) to execute complex engineering tasks. This enables end-to-end workflows such as generating an entire scaffold for a runnable web project, orchestrating multi-step debugging across services, and automating code analysis directly from the terminal.
• Natural language command line: It translates natural language instructions into complex shell commands (e.g., for Git Bisect), and can parse dense, formatted output back into natural language for the user, democratizing access to complex UNIX commands.
• Deep context and multimodality: Leveraging Gemini 3 Pro, it can synthesize disparate information (text, images, code) for superior reasoning. It supports interactive commands (like vim or git rebase -i) directly within the CLI, keeping them in the model’s context.
• Tool orchestration via MCP: It supports Model Context Protocol (MCP) configured in the settings.json file for discovering and using custom, third-party, and Google-made tools, enabling orchestration of workflows across business applications like Salesforce and SAP, and cloud services.

Pricing & runtime behavior

Gemini GLI offers a free tier that includes 60 requests/min and 1,000 requests/day with personal Google account.

OpenHands

OpenHands (formerly OpenDevin) is an open-source platform designed to create and deploy autonomous AI agents capable of performing comprehensive software development tasks. It is built as a community-driven project with a free MIT license.

What does OpenHands offer?

• Autonomous software development: Agents modify code, execute commands, browse the web, and interact with APIs, acting as a true “software developer” agent. It supports end-to-end project management, file creation, program compilation, and automated bug resolution.
• Sandboxed environment: Deployment via Docker ensures a consistent and isolated development environment (sandbox container) for the agent’s operations, which is deleted upon session exit for security.
• LLM flexibility: The platform is LLM-agnostic, supporting various AI models. However, optimal performance is typically achieved with more powerful, often cloud-based, models (e.g., Claude 3.5), with local LLM performance noted as inconsistent.
• Iterative workflow: It focuses on iterative development with built-in version control integration, providing a web interface to view generated code, folders, and chat with the agent.

Limitations

• Deployment complexity: Advanced deployment scenarios and model provider/API setup can be complex.
• Scalability: Currently limited primarily to single-user local workstation deployments, although it is being developed for managing fleets of asynchronous agents in the cloud for parallel work.
• Debugging user experience: Error messages in the browser chat are noted as not always helpful or user-friendly.

Codex CLI

Codex CLI is an interactive terminal-based coding assistant from OpenAI, providing access to their specialized coding models. It operates as a feature within the broader OpenAI ecosystem, focusing on developer productivity within the codebase.

What does Codex CLI offer?

• Interactive terminal UI: It launches into a full-screen terminal UI where it can read the repository, make file edits, and run commands, allowing for a conversational and real-time review process.
• Full context and execution: It can clone the entire repository into a secure sandbox, giving it full context to understand dependencies and make changes across the codebase. It can run linters and tests to check its own work.
• Multi-mode interaction: The tool offers flexibility through different interaction modes: 
  • Auto (makes changes with approval for external scope)
  • Read Only (consultative mode)
  • Full Access (for complete automation).
• Workflow integration: It includes features for streamlining Git workflows, such as reviewing code against a base branch and creating branches/opening Pull Requests (PRs). Slash commands (/review, /plan) enable quick access to specialized workflows.

Pricing & runtime behavior

Security default: By default, the cloud agent’s sandbox is cut off from the internet for security, which may present a friction point for tasks requiring new package installation or external API access.

Subscription model: Codex is generally not a standalone product but is included as a core feature within paid ChatGPT subscription plans (Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise), positioning it as a value-add to a broader AI toolkit.

API alternative: For heavy-duty or custom needs, users can bypass subscription limits and use the pay-as-you-go API, though this introduces less predictable costs based on usage.

Aider

Aider is one of the first open-source AI coding assistants.

The main interface runs in the terminal. Optional tools like a web UI and third-party VS Code extensions (like “Aider Composer”) bring it closer to the experience of tools like Cursor, Windsurf, or Cline.

Aider works best with LLMs such as Claude 4.1 Opus, DeepSeek V3, OpenAI’s GPT-5 and -4.1. It can also connect to local models.

Limitations:

• Model-specific quirks: Using certain LLMs (e.g., GPT-4) can generate bad or incorrect code until tasks are broken down into smaller steps.
• Prompt misinterpretation: Context and variable usage aren’t always well handled; instructions may be misunderstood, especially if your request is vague or spans multiple files.
• Overwrites during sequential edits: May undo previous changes when applying multiple prompts in a row
• Clunky web UI: Experimental web interface works, but is not polished
• Limited agentic control: No full autonomous workflows (e.g., long-run test-driven loops); it helps, but it’s no substitute for true agent mode.

Cline CLI

Cline is an open-source, autonomous AI coding agent that utilizes a flexible LLM backend to plan and execute complex, multi-step software development tasks within a developer’s IDE (VS Code/JetBrains) or directly through its new feature Cline CLI.

Cline CLI supports multiple AI model providers, such as OpenAI, Anthropic or Google Gemini. However, Cline CLI is at Beta version, meaning that its stability, feature set, and long-term API compatibility may change as it approaches a production-ready release.

What are CLI-based coding agents?

CLI-based coding agents are conversational, prompt-driven AI tools that operate entirely in the terminal. 

These integrate models like GPT-5, Claude 4.5 Sonnet, or Gemini 3 into your development workflow, allowing you to generate, edit, and refactor code without leaving the command line.

Most support models come from providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, and Google.

Read more

For those exploring the broader ecosystem of agentic developer tools, here our latest benchmarks:

• MCP benchmark: A comparison of the top MCP servers for web access.
• Remote browsers: How emerging browser infrastructure enables AI agents to interact with the web securely.

CLI agents vs GUI-based coding tools

Unlike GUI-based tools like Cursor, Replit, Windsurf, which present a visual interface for code suggestions and approvals, CLI-based agents run natively in the terminal. From the command line,  you give a prompt, the agent suggests a change, and you approve or reject it.

Typically, changes are automatically applied and committed to Git if the configuration is set. This makes CLI-based coding agents useful for:

• Version-controlled coding workflows
• Terminal-based or headless development setups
• Use of local or self-hosted LLMs
• Prompt-driven, scriptable automation workflows.

Reference Links

1.

Introducing Claude Code - YouTube

2.

Reddit - The heart of the internet

3.

Anthropic Claude Code: Command Line AI Coding - Review & Analysis

The Discourse

4.

Reddit - The heart of the internet

5.

Aider - AI Pair Programming in Your Terminal

Principal Analyst

Cem Dilmegani

Principal Analyst

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Cem has been the principal analyst at AIMultiple since 2017. AIMultiple informs hundreds of thousands of businesses (as per similarWeb) including 55% of Fortune 500 every month.

Cem's work has been cited by leading global publications including Business Insider, Forbes, Washington Post, global firms like Deloitte, HPE and NGOs like World Economic Forum and supranational organizations like European Commission. You can see more reputable companies and resources that referenced AIMultiple.

Throughout his career, Cem served as a tech consultant, tech buyer and tech entrepreneur. He advised enterprises on their technology decisions at McKinsey & Company and Altman Solon for more than a decade. He also published a McKinsey report on digitalization.

He led technology strategy and procurement of a telco while reporting to the CEO. He has also led commercial growth of deep tech company Hypatos that reached a 7 digit annual recurring revenue and a 9 digit valuation from 0 within 2 years. Cem's work in Hypatos was covered by leading technology publications like TechCrunch and Business Insider.

Cem regularly speaks at international technology conferences. He graduated from Bogazici University as a computer engineer and holds an MBA from Columbia Business School.

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