Automating Programming in VsCode with Cline and Deepseek

Have you heard of the tool Cursor? It’s like a combination of AI and VsCode. By binding APIs from large models like ChatGPT and Claude, you can achieve conversational self-programming, allowing you to develop a software application with just a casual chat.

However, Cursor is limited by foreign networks, making it inaccessible for users in China, and it’s also quite expensive, which is not very user-friendly.

This led to the emergence of an alternative: the Cline plugin for VsCode, which is very useful, free, simple, and powerful.

Importantly, Cline not only supports mainstream large model APIs like ChatGPT and Claude, but it also supports the recently popular Deepseek, making coding a truly enjoyable experience.

Of course, the model APIs are not free; you need to procure them yourself.

Without further ado, let’s briefly discuss the operational process.

First, you need to have the VsCode software installed and configured with the appropriate programming environment, such as Python in my case.

Next, search for Cline in the VsCode plugin library, and download and install it directly. After installation, you can directly use Cline, select the large model API you want to use, such as Deepseek, and then fill in the key.

Obtaining the key is very simple; each large model has its own website where you can find it. After selecting Deepseek, you can configure the corresponding model, such as Deepseek-Reasoner. Cline will display the capabilities of that model, whether it supports images, and the billing rules for tokens, along with custom settings for the system prompt.

You can also configure an MCP server, which can provide Cline with additional capabilities, such as accessing a PostgreSQL database or executing specific task tools. These servers run locally and interact with the main application (Cline) via the MCP protocol.

After configuring the key and other parameters, you will see a dialog box, and you can start “conversational” code development!

Next, let’s do a simple test and have Cline write a basic GUI calculator program in Python.

Instruction:

Develop a simple calculator application using Python’s tkinter with the following features:
1. A general calculator interface with a beautiful and simple UI.
2. Support for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, squaring, and square root.

❞

Cline is very fast (of course, this depends on the model API speed). It immediately starts analyzing the requirements and creates a new file called calculator.py on the left, automatically writing the code without you having to worry about it. Once the code is written, it will prompt you to save and execute it.

In about 10 seconds, a simple calculator program is developed, with Cline writing 115 lines of code. The execution UI looks quite good.

However, when I used the calculator to compute 6*8, it actually returned an error!!! This indicates that there is a bug in the code.

This is quite normal, as current AI large models are not omnipotent and often struggle to write perfect programs in one go.

We don’t need to debug ourselves; we can just report the error to Cline and let it automatically modify the code.

Instruction:

When using the calculator program, I found that the calculation produced an error and could not output the correct result.

❞

Cline will analyze the bug and provide a solution, then modify the code.

After debugging, save and execute the code again. When calculating 6*8, the correct answer will now appear.

This calculator UI is too plain; I want to optimize the interface style. Let’s refer to the iPhone calculator for a major redesign. All I need to do is present the requirements to Cline, and it will help me modify the code to realize the idea!

Instruction:

Optimize the UI, designing it in the style of the iPhone calculator application:
1. Use a black background, gray for number keys, and orange-yellow for other keys.
2. The font color for all keys should be white.

❞

The final presentation effect is as follows:

After developing the script, you can also ask Cline to package the script into an exe software, allowing it to be executed directly on your computer.

Instruction:

Package this script into an exe software.

❞

Just wait a moment, and Cline will automatically package the calculator script into an executable file, becoming your exclusive software.

You can design more rich and practical functions, and Cline can achieve them as long as your requirements are clear enough.