Cline (AI agent)
Open-source AI coding agent
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cline is an open-source AI coding agent that operates through IDE extensions and a command-line interface. It can inspect and modify source code, execute terminal commands, run tests, and perform other software development tasks from natural-language instructions.[1] Cline supports models from multiple providers, including Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google, as well as locally hosted models through Ollama, LM Studio, and Atomic Chat.[2]
| Cline | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Original author | Saoud Rizwan |
| Developer | Cline |
| Release | June 2024 |
| Written in | TypeScript |
| Type | AI coding assistant |
| License | Apache License 2.0 |
| Website | cline |
| Repository | https://github.com/cline/cline |
History
Cline was created by software developer Saoud Rizwan in June 2024 for an Anthropic programming hackathon.[3] The project later became a company and had raised $32 million in seed and Series A funding by July 2025.[4]
Cline was initially distributed primarily as a Visual Studio Code extension[5] and was later expanded with support for JetBrains development environments, including IntelliJ IDEA, Android Studio, PyCharm, WebStorm, GoLand, PhpStorm, RubyMine, CLion, DataGrip, MPS, DataSpell, Rider, and RustRover.[6] It is also available through a command-line interface.[7]
The project was originally named Claude Dev after Claude, but was renamed Cline with version 2.0; the name is derived from “CLI aNd Editor”, reflecting its ability to operate through both the command line and code editor.[8]
Features
Cline can read and edit files across a software project, execute shell commands, build and run software, perform tests, and interact with external services. Users can review proposed changes and commands before execution or allow the agent to perform actions automatically.[9]
It also supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP), allowing models to interact with external tools and data sources.[10]
Cline supports OpenRouter, allowing users to access models from multiple AI providers through a single API key.[11]
Cline also provides a software development kit (SDK) for embedding its agent functionality into other applications.[12]