Cline vs ECC
An independent, evidence-based trust comparison of Cline and ECC, 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 — 91.3/100 (Grade A) vs 89.5/100 (Grade A), a 1.8-point gap. Full breakdown below.
| Signal | Clinecline/cline | ECCaffaan-m/ECC |
|---|---|---|
| HVTrust score | 91.3 | 89.5 |
| Evidence grade | A | A |
| Coverage grade | A | B |
| Overall rank | #8 | #16 |
| Rank in Coding Agents | #2 | #4 |
| GitHub stars | 65.9k | 238.7k |
| Last updated | today | today |
| Build provenance | Yes | Yes |
| OSSF Scorecard | 6.0 / 10 | 5.6 / 10 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Downloads | 4.4M/wk | 4k/wk |
| Trust dimensions (points earned) | ||
| Safety / integrity / 25 | 19.1 | 18.6 |
| Identity & provenance / 18 | 18.0 | 18.0 |
| Transparency / 17 | 13.6 | 13.3 |
| Maintenance / 20 | 20.0 | 20.0 |
| Adoption / 20 | 20.0 | 17.7 |
| Runtime capability surface (full matrix) | ||
| MCP server | Declared | Implemented |
| External providers | — | 2 — Anthropic, OpenAI |
| Requires API keys | Yes | Yes |
| 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 →