How do the cliclick and MouseTools command line tools differ? I would like to perform double-clicks via AppleScript.

Two tools that I understand are suitable for the job (since AppleScript contains no built-in mechanism to do this) are cliclick and MouseTools.

These two tools are very similar, sharing many features. Do they differ? Is one more reliable than the other?
cliclicl is the easiest one to automate your work.
However too simple.
for example, In your terminal cliclicl dc:. will do double click.

I recommend using cliclicl If your purpose is just double click.
Mouse tools is relatively complex.

Try cliclicl.
If you need more powerful tool for automate, then use Mousetools.