head to head · open source
rtk vs Cline
rtk has 80,883 GitHub stars, 5,130 forks, 1,642 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Cline has 68,599 stars, 7,418 forks, 1,288 open issues and last shipped yesterday. rtk leads on adoption by 18% (80,883 vs 68,599 stars). rtk is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; Cline is written in TypeScript under Apache-2.0. rtk has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Cline 11%. Cline was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| rtk | Cline | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 81K | ★ 69K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.1K | ⑂ 7.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick rtk if
- You weight community size — 81K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Cline if
- You want the Cline feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Cline fits your workflow better
About rtk
rtk is an Apache 2.0 Rust CLI proxy that sits between an AI coding agent and the shell, filtering and compressing command output so 60 90% fewer tokens reach the model, and it is built for developers running agentic coding tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, or Codex against real repositories.
About Cline
Cline is an open source AI coding agent that operates across multiple interfaces: as a CLI tool, desktop application, VS Code extension, JetBrains plugin, and SDK. It lives in the developer tooling ecosystem and is built with TypeScript under the Apache 2.0 license. The project solves the problem of fragmented AI assisted coding workflows by unifying agent capabilities—code generation, command execution, project wide edits, and human in the loop approval—into a single extensible engine that works consistently across environments.
read the full Cline overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is rtk or Cline more popular?
rtk has 80,883 GitHub stars and Cline has 68,599. rtk has the larger community by that measure.
Are rtk and Cline free?
Both are open source. rtk is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Cline under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between rtk and Cline?
rtk is written in Rust and Cline in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, rtk or Cline?
Choose rtk if you want the larger community (80,883 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Cline if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.