What it does

Cline is an autonomous coding agent. It reads your project structure, makes coordinated edits across files, and watches linter and compiler errors as it works. In VS Code and JetBrains each edit appears as a diff you can review, and checkpoints let you undo the agent's changes. It runs shell commands in your terminal and reacts to output from long-running processes such as dev servers. Plan mode lets it explore the codebase and propose a strategy before Act mode carries it out. File edits and terminal commands need your approval unless you turn on auto-approve. Cline is not tied to one model provider. The page lists Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, OpenRouter, Vercel AI Gateway, AWS Bedrock, Azure and GCP Vertex, Cerebras and Groq, Ollama and LM Studio for local models, and any OpenAI-compatible API. Project rules go in .clinerules files. It can be extended with plugins and MCP servers, and supports multi-agent teams, scheduled agents and chat connections to services such as Slack and Telegram. A headless CLI mode supports scripting and CI/CD. The repository is licensed under Apache 2.0.

Capabilities

Coordinated multi-file edits with reviewable diffs and checkpoints
Runs terminal commands and reacts to their output
Plan and Act modes with approval for edits and commands
Works with many model providers, including local models
Plugins, MCP servers and multi-agent teams
Headless CLI for scripting and CI/CD

When to use it

You want an agent in your editor or terminal that asks before it changes files
You want to choose your own model provider or run local models
You want to run coding tasks from scripts or CI pipelines
You are building your own agents on the SDK