Cline is an open source, autonomous coding agent. Instead of just autocompleting the line you're typing, Cline can read your entire project, plan out a set of changes, edit multiple files, run terminal commands, and check its own work against linter and compiler errors, all with you reviewing and approving each step. It started as a VS Code extension (previously known as "Claude Dev"), but it has grown into something bigger. Today, Cline ships as four things built on the same underlying engine: VS Code Extension — the original, most widely used form. Install it from the VS Code Marketplace and it sits right in your editor. JetBrains Plugin — the same experience inside IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, GoLand, and the rest of the JetBrains family. CLI — run Cline directly in your terminal, either as an interactive chat or fully headless for scripts and CI/CD pipelines. SDK — a Node.js package ( @cline/sdk ) for developers who want to build their own agents, custom tools, or integrations on top of Cline's engine. It's licensed under Apache 2.0, and as of this writing has over 67,000 stars and more than 7,000 forks on GitHub, so it has real traction, not just a novelty project. What Can It Actually Do? Here's a breakdown of the core capabilities, in plain terms. It edits code across your whole project Cline doesn't just look at the file you have open. It reads your project structure, figures out how files relate to each other, and makes coordinated edits across the codebase. While it works, it watches for linter and compiler errors and tries to fix problems like missing imports or type mismatches before you even notice them. Every edit shows up as a reviewable diff, and changes are tracked with checkpoints so you can undo the agent's work if something goes wrong. It runs terminal commands Cline can execute commands directly: installing packages, running build scripts, executing tests, deploying, managing databases. For long-running processes like a dev server, it keeps watching the output in the background and reacts to new errors or crashes as they appear. Plan mode and Act mode This is one of Cline's more distinctive features. In Plan mode , Cline explores your code, asks clarifying questions, and proposes a strategy before touching anything. Once you're happy with the plan, you switch to Act mode and it executes. By default, every file edit and command needs your approval — though you can flip on auto-approve if you want it to run more autonomously. Custom rules and skills You can define project-specific rules in .clinerules files: coding standards, architecture conventions, deployment steps, testing requirements. These are picked up automatically across the CLI, VS Code extension, and JetBrains plugin, so the agent behaves consistently with your team's conventions rather than guessing. You're not locked into one AI model This is a big differentiator. Cline doesn't force you onto a single provider. You can plug in: Anthropic (Claude Opus, Sonnet, Haiku) OpenAI (GPT series) Google (Gemini series) OpenRouter (200+ models) AWS Bedrock, Azure, GCP Vertex Cerebras, Groq (fast inference) Ollama or LM Studio for local models Any OpenAI-compatible endpoint You bring your own API key, and you decide what you're paying for and which model fits the task. Extensibility: plugins and MCP servers Using the SDK, you can register custom tools and lifecycle hooks for logging, auditing, policy enforcement, or domain-specific capabilities. Cline also supports MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers, so it can connect to databases, call APIs, manage cloud infrastructure, or use community-built tools. You can even ask Cline to write a new custom tool on the fly. Multi-agent teams and scheduled agents Newer additions let you coordinate multiple agents on a single task, with a coordinator agent delegating subtasks to specialists, and state persisting across sessions. You can also schedule agents to run on a cron schedule for recurring work like daily PR summaries or weekly dependency checks. Chat with it from Slack, Telegram, Discord, and more Cline can connect to messaging platforms so you can hand it tasks from Slack, Telegram, Discord, Google Chat, WhatsApp, or Linear, with each conversation thread mapped to a full agent session. Headless mode for CI/CD For automation, Cline can run with zero interaction: pipe input in, get JSON output back, and chain it into scripts or pipelines. For example: cline "Run tests and fix any failures" git diff origin/main | cline "Review these changes for issues" How Do You Get Started? For the CLI: npm i -g cline For the editor experience, install the VS Code extension or the JetBrains plugin , then connect your API key from whichever model provider you want to use. Is It Worth Trying? Short answer: yes, especially if any of the following sound like you. Try Cline if: You want an agent that can make autonomous, multi-file changes across a real codebase, not just single-line suggestions. You want to choose your own model and control your own costs, rather than being locked into one vendor's bundled pricing. You already live in VS Code or a JetBrains IDE and don't want to switch to a different editor entirely. You want to inspect, extend, or audit the tool itself, since it's fully open source under Apache 2.0. You want the same agent core available as a CLI for scripting, a plugin for your editor, and an SDK for building your own tools. Think twice, or pair it with something else, if: You want a fully polished, all-in-one AI-native editor experience. Tools like Cursor offer a more integrated, purpose-built interface with fast inline completions, and many developers report an easier on-ramp for beginners. You'd rather pay a flat monthly fee and not think about token costs. Cline's "bring your own key" model means your spend depends on which model you use and how much you run it, and heavy usage can add up. You want something with zero setup. Cline requires you to get an API key from a provider and configure it, which is a small extra step compared to tools with built-in, bundled access. How It Compares to Other Agents It's worth being clear-eyed about where Cline sits in the current landscape: Cline vs Cursor : Cursor is a standalone, AI-native editor (a VS Code fork) with a bundled model and a smoother out-of-the-box experience. Cline is a VS Code/JetBrains extension plus CLI and SDK, open source, and model-agnostic. Many developers actually run both: Cursor for fast in-editor completions, an agent like Cline or Claude Code for larger autonomous, multi-file work. Cline vs Claude Code : Claude Code is Anthropic's own terminal-first agent, tightly built around Claude models. Cline offers a similar terminal and autonomous-agent experience but lets you swap in any model provider, and it also gives you a full IDE extension and SDK, which Claude Code doesn't offer in the same way. Neither of these makes Cline "better" or "worse" outright. It's a different set of trade-offs: openness and model flexibility versus the tighter polish of a closed, single-vendor product. Repository: github.com/cline/cline