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Cline

4 min readUpdated October 2026
Cline
Type
Open-source AI coding agent
Creator
Saoud Rizwan (founder and CEO)
Developer
Cline Labs and community contributors
First released
2024 (originally Claude Dev, late 2023)
Licence
Apache 2.0
Platforms
VS Code extension, JetBrains, CLI, desktop, SDK
Funding
US$32 million Series A and Seed (July 2025)
Adoption
2.7 million installs and 50,000+ GitHub stars by early 2026
Cline is a free and open-source AI coding agent that operates inside code editors, in the terminal and as a software development kit. Unlike autocomplete tools that suggest individual lines, Cline works as an autonomous agent: it can read and edit files, run terminal commands, browse the web and invoke external tools, with each consequential action approved by the developer.[1]

History

Cline began life in late 2023 as "Claude Dev", an experiment by developer Saoud Rizwan in autonomous AI coding within Visual Studio Code, and was renamed Cline in early 2024 as it grew into a community project.[1] The project added Model Context Protocol (MCP) integration early, including a marketplace for MCP servers, which broadened its reach beyond code editing into tool-augmented agent workflows.[2]

In July 2025 Cline announced US$32 million in combined Series A and Seed funding, led by Emergence Capital and Pace Capital with participation from 1984 Ventures, Essence VC and Cox Exponential, plus angel investors including developer-tool figures Addy Osmani and Logan Kilpatrick. At that point Cline reported 2.7 million installs across the VS Code Marketplace and Open VSX registry, 48,000 GitHub stars and adoption by enterprises including SAP and Samsung.[3] By early 2026 the project had surpassed 50,000 GitHub stars and expanded availability to a command-line interface, a desktop application and an SDK for embedding the agent in other products.[4]

Key Concepts and Technology

Cline's core is an agent loop: the language model proposes an action — a file edit shown as a diff, a terminal command, or a browser operation — and the developer approves or rejects it before execution. This human-in-the-loop design lets the agent handle multi-step tasks (implementing features, fixing bugs, refactoring, writing tests) while keeping the developer in control.[4] Cline distinguishes a Plan mode, where it drafts an implementation strategy for review, from an Act mode, where it executes the approved plan. A checkpointing feature snapshots file states, allowing developers to rewind AI-made changes.[1]

Cline is model-agnostic: users connect their own API keys for models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, DeepSeek and others, or run local models through Ollama and LM Studio. Its tagline — "open source, open prompts, open models" — reflects the project's commitment to visible, editable system prompts and transparent operation.[3] Integration with the Model Context Protocol lets Cline connect to external services such as GitHub, databases and browser automation tools, while conversation compression summarises long sessions to extend working context.[2]

Applications and Impact

Cline is used for software-development tasks including codebase exploration, feature implementation, test generation, bug fixing and web research during development. Its open-source, bring-your-own-model architecture has made it a popular alternative to proprietary AI coding subscriptions such as Cursor, Windsurf and GitHub Copilot, particularly among developers who want to control which models process their code and to avoid per-seat licensing. Community forks including Roo Code and Kilo Code have extended Cline's architecture, and the project has become one of the most-starred AI coding projects on GitHub.[3][4]

>See Also

🇲🇾Malaysian Context

🇲🇾 Cline's model aligns well with Malaysian software teams. Most Malaysian developers use Visual Studio Code, and Cline's open-source licence with bring-your-own-model support means teams can pair it with lower-cost models — including DeepSeek and open-weight models such as Qwen and Llama — or run models locally through Ollama, avoiding per-seat subscriptions that may not fit smaller budgets.[1][5]

For Malaysian enterprises, Cline's auditability is relevant to compliance: because the agent's code and prompts are open, security teams can review what data leaves the organisation, a material concern under the Personal Data Protection Act when source code may contain personal data sent to external model APIs. Local deployment options keep processing in-country. Cline also fits Malaysia's talent-development agenda — HRD Corporation training grants and MDEC digital-skills programmes support upskilling in AI-assisted development, and Malaysian startups are adopting agent-based tooling to accelerate product development within lean teams.[5][6]

References

  1. ↑Cline. Homepage — AI Coding, Open Source and Open Choice. https://cline.bot/
  2. ↑Hacker News. Cline — open-source VS Code AI coding agent with a new MCP marketplace. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43105538
  3. ↑Cline. (2025). Cline raises $32M building the open-source AI coding agent that enterprises trust. https://cline.bot/blog/cline-raises-32m-series-a-and-seed-funding-building-the-open-source-ai-coding-agent-that-enterprises-trust
  4. ↑Cline (GitHub). cline/cline — autonomous coding agent as an SDK, IDE extension, or CLI. https://github.com/cline/cline
  5. ↑Developers Digest. What is Cline? The open-source AI coding tool that runs in VS Code. https://www.developersdigest.tech/blog/what-is-cline-open-source-ai-coding-tool
  6. ↑HRD Corporation. Training and upskilling programmes. https://www.hrdcorp.gov.my/
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