IDE extension · active

Cline

An open-source coding agent across VS Code, JetBrains, CLI, and a Kanban surface for parallel agent work.

Visit Cline ↗Verified ·Jul 31, 2026
Best for
Developers who want approval-driven IDE automation with broad model choice and client-side execution.
Avoid if
You want bundled, predictable model usage or a provider-neutral privacy guarantee without reviewing your chosen provider.

01 / Editorial view

Where it fits

Strengths

  • Broad BYOK and local-model support
  • Human approval and checkpoint workflow
  • IDE, CLI, SDK, and multi-agent Kanban surfaces

Limitations

  • Inference cost varies by model provider
  • Hosted-provider retention and training details require separate policy review

02 / Workflow

Surfaces and capabilities

Autocomplete
No
Chat
Yes
Agent
Yes
Background agent
Yes
Review
Yes
Testing
Yes

Editors

VS Code-compatible editors, JetBrains IDEs

Operating systems

macOS, Windows, Linux

Repository hosts

GitHub

Languages

Language-agnostic

Bring your own key

Yes

Bring your own model

Yes

03 / Orchestration

Coordination model

Supported agents

Cline

Isolation

IDE checkpoints, Client-side execution

Task sources

IDE chat, CLI, Kanban

Maximum parallelism

Multiple agents through Cline Kanban

Planning
Yes
Scheduling
Unknown
Agent communication
Unknown
Review gates
Yes
CI recovery
Unknown
Merge workflow
Unknown
Session persistence
Yes
Observability
Yes
Human approval
Yes

04 / Cost and deployment

What it costs to run

Individual

Free, open-source client; pay the chosen model provider or Cline inference rates.

Team

Use shared provider and policy controls; no stable team starting price is published.

Enterprise

Contact Cline.

There is no required individual subscription; model inference is a separate cost.

05 / Privacy

Data handling

Code processing
BYOK requests are sent from the client to the configured provider; Cline’s hosted provider is an optional alternative.
Indexing
Unknown
Retention
Unknown
Training policy
Unknown
Enterprise controls
SSO, RBAC, VPC deployment options, Centralized billing, Native IDE secret storage

06 / Evidence

Primary sources

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