Cline

What is Cline?

Cline is an autonomous coding agent available as a VS Code extension, JetBrains plugin, CLI tool, and SDK that generates and modifies code based on natural language prompts. Built and maintained as an open-source project, Cline integrates with multiple development environments to provide AI-assisted programming across different workflows.

The tool reads project structure, understands file relationships, and makes coordinated edits across codebases while monitoring for linter and compiler errors. In VS Code and JetBrains, all changes appear as diffs for human review, modification, or reversion, with checkpoint functionality enabling easy undo operations. Cline executes bash commands directly in terminals, watches output in real time, and can install packages, run build scripts, execute tests, and deploy applications. The extension supports tool use with human-in-the-loop approval, file creation, command execution, and web browsing capabilities. Users can interact via interactive chat or fully headless mode for CI/CD pipelines and scripting workflows.

The project distributes across multiple formats: the VS Code extension installs from the Marketplace; JetBrains plugins work with IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, GoLand, and other JetBrains IDEs; a CLI version (installable via npm) runs in terminals; and a web-based Kanban board enables running multiple agents in parallel with separate worktrees, auto-commits, and dependency chains. The SDK allows developers to build custom AI agents and integrations with custom tools, multi-agent teams, connectors, and scheduled automations. Cline is free and open-source under the Apache 2.0 license, with development tracked on GitHub where it has accumulated significant community adoption.

The tool competes with GitHub Copilot, which offers AI code completion and generation, and Cursor, a VS Code fork featuring AI-driven editing. Developers commonly use Cline for full-stack application development, refactoring tasks, tes