Cline is an open-source autonomous coding agent runtime maintained by Cline Bot Inc. and an active open-source community. Available as a standalone CLI, an IDE extension across VS Code, JetBrains, Cursor, and Windsurf, and an embeddable SDK, it allows developers to inspect repositories, execute terminal commands, and perform multi-file code modifications across environments. In day-to-day use, Cline follows a Plan-and-Act methodology. Developers can engage Plan mode to evaluate codebases and establish an implementation strategy, then switch to Act mode to perform multi-file edits, monitor long-running processes, and react to bash command outputs live. Cline is model-agnostic and operates on a bring-your-own-key or local-inference basis, supporting Anthropic Claude, OpenAI, Google Gemini, AWS Bedrock, GCP Vertex, Azure, DeepSeek, Ollama, LM Studio, and any OpenAI-compatible API endpoint. Cline distinguishes itself through deep extensibility via the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and granular execution controls. Teams can configure project-specific behaviors using repository-level .clinerules, inspect visual diffs at each step, and utilize checkpoints with one-click undo capabilities. It also supports headless execution for continuous integration pipelines, scheduled cron tasks, and chat bridge integrations like Slack and Linear. Cline is distributed under the Apache 2.0 open-source license, allowing complete local data ownership and freedom from proprietary runtime lock-in.
Plan-and-Act execution mode — Toggle between read-only planning to map out architectural changes and action mode for multi-file code execution. - Universal model and provider support — Connect directly to Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, AWS Bedrock, Azure, DeepSeek, Ollama, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint with your own API keys or local weights. - Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration — Connect external tools, custom databases, and API infrastructure through standard MCP servers and plugins. - Interactive terminal execution — Run shell commands directly, monitor live test outputs, and handle long-running dev servers inside the agent loop. - Repository guardrails via .clinerules — Commit project-specific architecture, styling, and testing standards directly into your repository to steer agent behavior. - Checkpoint and diff management — Inspect multi-file diffs with linter-aware validation before applying changes, backed by one-click undo checkpoints. - Headless and CI automation — Trigger Cline non-interactively within GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or cron schedules for recurring updates.
Use cases
Use Case: Coordinated Multi-File Refactoring Refactoring shared models, APIs, or configuration structures across a large codebase. Cline inspects the repository architecture, creates an execution plan, updates all dependent files simultaneously, and resolves linter and compiler errors iteratively.
Use Case: Automated CI/CD and Scripting Pipelines Running non-interactive code maintenance tasks directly in continuous integration workflows. Developers configure Cline CLI within GitHub Actions or cron jobs to automatically apply routine dependency updates, generate changelogs, and run regression suites.
Use Case: Shell-Driven Bug Fixing and Testing Investigating failing test suites in the terminal. Cline executes test suites, parses live stdout and stderr traces, modifies application code to address failures, and re-runs commands until all tests pass.
Use Case: External Context Enrichment with MCP Querying live internal systems or databases during development. By linking an MCP server to the runtime, Cline retrieves schema definitions or API responses directly while drafting backend integration code.
Who it is for
Cline is built for software engineers, DevOps teams, and tech leads who require an open-source, model-agnostic coding agent that operates across CLI, IDE, and headless CI environments with granular checkpoint controls. It is less suitable for non-technical users or developers looking for a turnkey, managed SaaS assistant that does not require managing their own model API keys or local inference backends.
Install guide
Installation Install the Cline CLI globally using npm: bash npm install -g cline
First Run Configure your preferred model provider and API credentials: bash cline config
Example Session Invoke Cline with a specific engineering task in your project directory: bash cline "Inspect the repository, convert the user service to TypeScript, and run tests to verify"
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