Cline

Cline is a tool we assess in the garden.

Blurb

Open-source AI coding agent with Plan/Act modes, MCP integration, and terminal-first workflows. Trusted by 8M+ developers worldwide.

Summary

Cline (cline/cline on GitHub, 60k+ stars) runs as an IDE extension or headless CLI in your repo: coordinated edits, bash with live output, optional auto-approve, multi-agent teams with cron schedules, and integrations (Slack, Linear, GitHub Actions). Rules ship via .clinerules; skills and MCP extend tools. No vendor lock-in: Claude, GPT, Gemini, Bedrock, Azure, Vertex, Ollama, OpenRouter, and OpenAI-compatible endpoints.

Worth evaluating when you want a widely adopted, editor-agnostic open agent without switching IDEs, or when embedding agents via the SDK. Compare OpenCode for terminal-first multi-provider hubs; Kilo.ai for a similar VS Code + CLI story; Cursor when the editor platform and subscription are the anchor.

Details

• Install: VS Code Marketplace / Open VSX (saoudrizwan.claude-dev legacy id → Cline); npm i -g cline for CLI; https://cline.bot/install
• Docs: https://docs.cline.bot
• License: Apache 2.0 (open source).
• Models: BYOK or local weights; all major cloud providers plus OpenAI-compatible APIs.
• Surfaces: IDE extension (VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, VS Code Insiders), CLI, SDK (embed), JetBrains EA.
• Features: Plan/Act modes, checkpoints/undo, MCP, multi-agent coordinator, CI/Slack/Linear hooks.
• Fit: Tool / AI Agent: open, multi-surface coding agent.
• Contrast: OpenCode / Kilo.ai (peer open-source agents); Cursor + cursor-agent (default adopt stack).