In the world of software development, efficiency and quality are the eternal pursuits of developers. With the rapid development of artificial intelligence technology, AI assistants have gradually become powerful tools for developers. Today, we are introducing an AI assistant that can implement autonomous coding in your IDE – Cline. It can not only create and edit files, execute commands, but also interact through a browser, and even complete complex development tasks with your authorization.
What is Cline?
Cline (formerly Claude Dev) is an AI assistant based on the Claude 3.5 Sonnet model, designed specifically for developers. It can help you complete complex software development tasks through command line and editor (CLI + Editor). The core functionality of Cline lies in its autonomous coding capability, which allows it to incrementally handle tasks, create and edit files, browse large projects, use a browser, execute terminal commands, and more, all requiring your authorization.
What makes Cline unique is that it provides a human-computer interaction GUI interface, allowing you to approve file changes and terminal commands at every step of the operation. This design not only ensures security but also allows you to explore the potential of the AI assistant without worrying about losing control.
Cline’s Core Features
1. Task Analysis and File Operations
Cline can analyze your file structure and the abstract syntax tree (AST) of your source code, and quickly understand the existing project situation by searching and reading relevant files using regular expressions. It can intelligently manage contextual information, ensuring that even in large and complex projects, Cline can provide valuable assistance without overwhelming the context window.
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Creating and Editing Files: Cline can create and edit files while monitoring lint and compiler errors during the process, automatically fixing issues such as missing imports and syntax errors. -
Executing Terminal Commands: Cline can execute commands directly in your terminal and monitor the output. For example, after editing files, it can automatically handle issues with the development server. -
Browser Interaction: For web development tasks, Cline can launch a headless browser, click, input, scroll, and capture screenshots and console logs to help you fix runtime errors and visual issues.
2. Support for Multiple APIs and Models
Cline supports various API providers, including OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, AWS Bedrock, Azure, and GCP Vertex. You can also configure any OpenAI-compatible API or use local models via LM Studio/Ollama. If you use OpenRouter, Cline will automatically fetch the latest model list, allowing you to use the latest models immediately.
Additionally, Cline tracks the total token count and API usage cost for the entire task loop and individual requests, ensuring you are aware of the costs involved at every step of the operation.
3. Terminal Command Execution
Thanks to the Shell integration update in VSCode v1.93, Cline can execute commands directly in the terminal and receive output. This enables it to perform a wide range of tasks, from installing packages, running build scripts, to deploying applications, managing databases, and running tests. Cline adapts to your development environment and toolchain, ensuring tasks are completed smoothly.
For long-running processes (like a development server), you can use the “Proceed While Running” button, allowing Cline to continue processing tasks while the command runs in the background. Cline will receive notifications of any new terminal output while working, enabling it to respond promptly to potential issues, such as compilation errors that occur while editing files.
4. Browser Automation
Cline can leverage the “computer usage” capability of Claude 3.5 Sonnet to launch a browser, click elements, input text, scroll pages, and capture screenshots and console logs at each step. This allows Cline to perform interactive debugging, end-to-end testing, and even general web operations. You no longer need to manually copy and paste error logs; Cline can autonomously fix visual errors and runtime issues.
For example, you can instruct Cline to “test the application,” and it will run the npm run dev command to start a local development server and execute a series of tests in the browser to ensure everything is functioning correctly.
5. Custom Tool Extensions
Through the Model Context Protocol (MCP), Cline can extend its capabilities. You can use community-made servers or let Cline create and install tools specifically tailored to your workflow. Just tell Cline to “add a tool,” and it will handle all the steps from creating a new MCP server to installing it in the extension. These custom tools will become part of Cline’s toolkit, available for use in future tasks.
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“Add a tool to get Jira tickets”: Get the ticket’s AC and let Cline start working. -
“Add a tool to manage AWS EC2 instances”: Check server metrics and scale instances. -
“Add a tool to pull the latest PagerDuty events”: Get details and let Cline fix errors.
6. Context Management
Cline provides various ways to add contextual information, ensuring it better understands your task requirements:
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@url: Paste a URL, and Cline will convert it into Markdown format for easier access to the latest documentation. -
@problems: Add workspace errors and warnings (from the “Problems” panel) for Cline to fix. -
@file: Add file contents to avoid wasting API requests to approve file reading. -
@folder: Add all files in a folder at once to speed up workflows further.
7. Checkpoints: Compare and Restore
Cline creates snapshots of your workspace during tasks. You can use the “compare” button to view differences between snapshots and the current workspace, and use the “restore” button to roll back to a snapshot point. For example, when working with a local web server, you can use “restore workspace only” to quickly test different versions of an application and then use “restore task and workspace” to continue building from a version you are satisfied with.
Comparison with Similar Projects
The features of Cline are similar to some existing AI coding assistants (like GitHub Copilot, Tabnine, etc.), but it also has its unique aspects. Compared to Copilot, Cline is not limited to code completion; it can autonomously perform complex development tasks such as file operations, terminal command execution, and browser automation. Furthermore, Cline supports custom tool extensions through the MCP protocol, making it adaptable to a wider range of development needs.
Overall, Cline is a powerful and flexible AI assistant, especially suitable for developers looking to improve efficiency and reduce repetitive work during development. Whether handling large projects or performing web development, Cline can provide robust support for you.
If you are interested in Cline, why not download and experience it to see how it can transform your development workflow!