Setting Up DeepSeek + Cline as a Cursor Alternative

Setting Up DeepSeek + Cline as a Cursor Alternative

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The emergence of Cursor provides a different AI code assistant experience. Unlike the code completion usage mode of GitHub Copilot, it understands context through dialogue with AI to provide code implementations.

However, the monthly price is quite high. After DeepSeek V3, combined with Cline, offers another possibility. We can use DeepSeek + Cline to create a simple alternative.

1. Register DeepSeek

Log in to https://www.deepseek.com/ and click to access the API:

Setting Up DeepSeek + Cline as a Cursor Alternative

Enter your phone number to log in.

After logging in, you can view your account information, with a default complimentary usage of 10 yuan:

Setting Up DeepSeek + Cline as a Cursor Alternative

2. Create API Key

Click on the API keys menu, go to the API keys page, and select the Create API key button to create a new key. This key will be used later.

Setting Up DeepSeek + Cline as a Cursor Alternative

3. Add Cline Plugin to VS Code

Open VS Code, enter ‘cline’ on the Extensions page, and select the Cline plugin to install:

Setting Up DeepSeek + Cline as a Cursor Alternative

You can also search and install it from the VS Code marketplace:

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=saoudrizwan.claude-dev

4. Configure Cline

Setting Up DeepSeek + Cline as a Cursor Alternative

Click the Cline icon in the sidebar to enter the settings page and configure the following options:

API Provider select OpenAI Compatible

Base URL fill in https://api.deepseek.com

API Key fill in the key obtained in the previous step

Model ID fill in deepseek-coder

After filling in, click save. Then it can be used.

5. Example Usage

In the following example, I let it fetch data from a specified API interface and display it in a list format.

Setting Up DeepSeek + Cline as a Cursor Alternative

It first analyzed the requirements and then requested to install the axios library for API access:

Setting Up DeepSeek + Cline as a Cursor Alternative

After authorizing it to execute, it started generating code and displayed it through diff:

Setting Up DeepSeek + Cline as a Cursor Alternative

After reviewing, I found it acceptable, so I allowed it to proceed with the update:

Setting Up DeepSeek + Cline as a Cursor Alternative

After updating the code, it attempted to run dev to start a service to check the modifications. After allowing it to run, a development service started, and the current task showed completed:

Setting Up DeepSeek + Cline as a Cursor Alternative

Through this simple example, we found it quite easy to use. I wonder how it performs in larger projects?

6. Improvements

Due to the token consumption by Cline, it may lead to slower task execution. You can use Roo Cline instead of Cline. Let’s try replacing it with Roo Cline later.

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