Cline vs CodeWhale
An independent, evidence-based trust comparison of Cline and CodeWhale, two Coding Agents projects in the HVTracker registry. Scores come from public, checkable signals — supply-chain provenance, OSSF Scorecard, maintenance, and adoption — not popularity.
Cline leads on trust — 92.7/100 (Grade A) vs 84.9/100 (Grade A), a 7.8-point gap. Full breakdown below.
| Signal | Clinecline/cline | CodeWhaleHmbown/CodeWhale |
|---|---|---|
| HVTrust score | 92.7 | 84.9 |
| Evidence grade | A | A |
| Coverage grade | A | B |
| Overall rank | #3 | #78 |
| Rank in Coding Agents | #1 | #8 |
| GitHub stars | 68.1k | 41.0k |
| Last updated | today | today |
| Build provenance | Yes | Yes |
| OSSF Scorecard | 6.6 / 10 | 5.7 / 10 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Downloads | 5.3M/wk | 2k/wk |
| Trust dimensions (points earned) | ||
| Safety / integrity / 25 | 20.4 | 14.8 |
| Identity & provenance / 18 | 18.0 | 18.0 |
| Transparency / 17 | 14.1 | 13.3 |
| Maintenance / 20 | 20.0 | 20.0 |
| Adoption / 20 | 20.0 | 15.4 |
| Runtime capability surface (full matrix) | ||
| MCP server | Declared | Declared |
| External providers | — | — |
| Requires API keys | Yes | No |
| Plugin surface | plugins | plugins |
| Provenance drift | Match | Match |
How to read this: HVTrust (0–100) weighs supply-chain signals (provenance, OSSF Scorecard, signed commits, open license) alongside real-world adoption, scaled by an evidence-confidence factor. Grade bands: A ≥ 80, B ≥ 65, C ≥ 50, D < 50. Signals refresh daily. Full methodology v4.3 →