Cline — Open-Source Human-in-the-Loop Coding Agent for VS Code, CLI, JetBrains & SDK (BYOK, Plan/Act, MCP-Native)

Cline (formerly “Claude Dev”, Cline Bot Inc.), Apache 2.0, ~66.8k GitHub stars, 8M+ installs across surfaces, Series A $32M, active Aug 2026. No acquisition, no sunset. Category ai-productivity-data, pipeline_stage=none. File under Dev.Official site: https://cline.botDocs: https://docs.cline.botGitHub: https://github.com/cline/cline

Snapshot

Field	Value
Status	Active
Origin	Cline Bot Inc. (USA), ex-“Claude Dev” 2024 → Cline late 2024
Lane	In-IDE/CLI/SDK autonomous coding agent (human-in-the-loop), not autocomplete-only, not standalone editor
Models	Claude 4.x/5, GPT-5.x, Gemini 2.5 Pro, DeepSeek R1/V3/V4-Flash, Qwen3-Coder, Groq/Cerebras, Ollama/LM Studio local, any OpenAI-compatible
Category	`ai-productivity-data` / Dev

Features (table)

Layer	Capability	Notes
Agent loop	Read/write files, run terminal, drive browser (Puppeteer), iterate on test/stderr	Every irreversible step gated for approval; auto-approve toggle for CI
Plan / Act	Plan mode = read-only proposal; Act mode = execute with per-tool-call approval	Cheap model plans, cheap model acts pattern
Multi-file edit	Coordinated diffs across modules, linter/compiler-aware self-fix, checkpoints + `/undo`	Shadow git checkpoints, reviewable
Rules & Skills	`.clinerules` repo-local standards, Skills bundles, lifecycle hooks	Picked up by CLI/VS Code/JB uniformly
MCP	Native MCP client + Marketplace (DB/API/infra/Linear/Slack), custom tools via SDK	Primary MCP-native OSS agent (vs Aider)
Multi-agent	Coordinator + specialist subagents, Kanban web board w/ per-card worktrees, cron schedules	Slack/Discord/Telegram/Linear chat surface
Surfaces	VS Code (4.5M+ installs), JetBrains (Enterprise), Cursor, Windsurf, Zed, Neovim (ACP), CLI, SDK `@cline/sdk`	CLI headless for CI/CD
Models	Provider dropdown: Anthropic/OpenAI/Gemini/Bedrock/Vertex/Azure OA/OpenRouter/Groq/Cerebras/DeepSeek/Ollama, OpenAI-compatible	No vendor markup on BYOK
Arch	Client-side: code never hits Cline servers, direct extension↔provider TLS	Why security teams approve
No	No inline tab-autocomplete (vs Copilot/Continue), no bundled model, no free quota on frontier models

Pricing (2026-08, USD)

Tier	Price	What you pay
Open Source (BYOK)	$0 (Apache 2.0)	Extension/CLI/SDK free; pay LLM vendor directly (typical $5–50/mo solo, local$ 0)
Cline Provider (managed)	Pay-as-you-go at provider cost + small processing fee	One sign-in, no key wrangling, transparent token counter
ClinePass	$9.99/mo (promo$ 4.99 first mo)	Bundled open-weight models (DeepSeek/Qwen/Kimi/GLM) 2–5× quota vs raw API
Enterprise	Custom	JetBrains plugin, SSO/OIDC/SCIM, RBAC, central billing, audit logs, VPC/on-prem/air-gap, SLA, OpenTelemetry

starting_price=$0; first paid (optional) $9.99/mo ClinePass; no mandatory seat fee like Cursor/Copilot/JB AI.

Reviews (2026)

Source	Score	Signal
VS Code Marketplace	4.1/5 (312)	Strong agent praise, token-cost gripes
AI Agent Index	4.6/5	Autonomy 4/5, Integrations 5/5, Setup 5/5
ToolChase / community	~4.5/5	Plan/Act + MCP + OSS transparency loved
Complaint cluster	—	Token-heavy on Sonnet 4.5/Opus (can hit $10–20/day), UI utilitarian vs Cursor, JB plugin Enterprise-only, no tab-complete, session memory not retained

Praised: Plan/Act guardrail, MCP Marketplace, client-side privacy, model freedom, checkpoints/undo, Kanban multi-agent. Complained: token burn uncontrolled with frontier models, no inline completion, JB support paywalled, less polished than Cursor.

Access / Integration (table)

Method	Supported
VS Code	Marketplace extension (primary)
JetBrains	IntelliJ/PyCharm/WebStorm/GoLand — Enterprise tier
Other editors	Cursor, Windsurf, Zed, Neovim (ACP), VSCodium
CLI	`npm i -g cline` interactive + headless CI
SDK	`@cline/sdk` embed agent core in custom apps
Kanban	`npx kanban` parallel agents, per-card git worktrees
Models	Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, Bedrock, Vertex, Azure OA, OpenRouter, Groq, Cerebras, DeepSeek, Qwen, Ollama, LM Studio, any OpenAI-compatible
Messaging	Slack (socket mode), Discord, Telegram, Google Chat, WhatsApp, Linear
MCP	Marketplace + custom stdio/SSE/http servers
No	No web UI standalone, no REST public “gen code” API, no Jira native (MCP only)

Best For / Not For

Best For	Not For
VS Code users wanting Cursor-level agent without $20 lock-in	Developers wanting inline tab-completion (→ Copilot/Continue/Cursor)
OSS/audit/air-gap shops (client-side, Ollama)	Non-technical users unwilling to manage API keys
Plan-then-act refactor workflows (multi-file, linter-aware)	“Zero-config, walk away” autonomy seekers (→ Devin/Claude Code autopilot)
Teams mixing cheap-planner + frontier-actor models	Heavy Sonnet-Opus users unwilling to watch token meter
MCP-heavy workflows (DB/Linear/Slack/infra)	JetBrains-only teams on free tier (JB plugin = Enterprise)
CI/CD headless agent runs	GUI-first developers who hate diff-approval loops

Competitors (lane map)

Lane	Tool	Cline edge / gap
OSS IDE agent	Continue	Continue has tab-complete + JB parity free; Cline deeper agent/MCP/Kanban, JB paywalled
OSS terminal agent	Aider	Aider leaner/git-cleaner/cheaper tokens; Cline has GUI/MCP/browser/Plan-Act
AI-first editor	Cursor	Cursor $20 flat + polished UI + tab-complete; Cline$ 0+OSS+model-free, less polish
Terminal CLI agent	Claude Code, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI	Vendor models+MCP in Claude Code; Cline OSS+provider-agnostic
OSS VS Code fork	Roo Code (ex-Roo Cline)	Roo ships faster/experimental modes; Cline calmer/more audited
Editor plugin	GitHub Copilot, JetBrains AI	Flat sub zero-config; Cline BYOK/no-sub
Autonomous SWE	Devin, Factory	Ticket-to-PR; Cline is human-in-the-loop pair
In-list overlap	Exa, Cody, Q Dev(sunset), JB AI, Continue, Aider	Dev lane only; no audio/video overlap