Open Source Alternative to Cursor: Roo-Cline

This article introduces an open-source alternative tool to Cursor.

Roo-Cline is an autonomous coding agent running in an IDE, optimized for speed and flexibility, and is a branch of Cline. Its main features are as follows:

• Automatic approval for commands, writes, and browser actions

• Support for custom instructions in .clinerules for each project

• Can operate in parallel with the original Cline

• Complete unit test coverage

• Supports MCP

Roo-Cline not only has the original functions of Cursor but can also interact via the command line and open the browser for AI-based interactive testing!

Below is a showcase of Roo-Cline’s core functionalities:

Use Any API and Model

Cline supports API providers such as OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, AWS Bedrock, Azure, and GCP Vertex. It can also configure any OpenAI-compatible API or use local models via LM Studio/Ollama. When using OpenRouter, the extension retrieves its latest model list for immediate use of the newest models.

This extension also tracks the total tokens and API usage costs throughout the task loop and each request, keeping you informed of expenditures at every step.

Run Commands in the Terminal

Thanks to the new shell integration update in VSCode v1.93, Cline can execute commands directly in the terminal and receive outputs. This enables it to perform various tasks, from installing packages and running build scripts to deploying applications, managing databases, and executing tests, while adapting to your development environment and toolchain to get the job done correctly.

For long-running processes like development servers, use the “Continue During Run” button to let Cline continue executing tasks while commands run in the background.

While Cline is working, it will receive notifications about any new terminal outputs, allowing it to respond to potential issues, such as compile-time errors when editing files.

Interact with the Browser

With the computing capabilities enabled by Sonnet in Claude 3.5, Cline can launch the browser, click elements, input text, and scroll, capturing screenshots and console logs at each step.

This allows developers to perform interactive debugging, end-to-end testing, and general web usage, enabling it to autonomously fix visual bugs and runtime issues without needing hand-holding and manual error log copying.

Demo

Below is an example of Roo-Cline autonomously creating a Snake game, with the “Always Approve Write Operations” and “Always Approve Browser Operations” options enabled:

For more details, see:https://github.com/RooVetGit/Roo-Cline

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/d4iIdQnvfpKdYP0lJT-fpQ

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=RooVeterinaryInc.roo-cline