Cline
An open-source agentic coding assistant that runs as a VS Code extension and orchestrates file edits and shell commands.
Definition
Cline is a VS Code extension that turns the editor into an agent: it reads the project, plans changes, edits files, runs shell commands, and waits for approval at each step. It is BYO-LLM — Claude, GPT, Gemini, or local models via OpenRouter or Ollama. Cline is an open-source alternative to Cursor's built-in agent and to Claude Code.
When to use
See also
- Claude Code — Anthropic's official terminal-based coding agent, with MCP support and a plugin ecosystem.
- Cursor — An AI-first code editor forked from VS Code that integrates LLM completions, chat, and agent loops natively.
- agent — An LLM-driven program that plans, calls tools, observes results, and loops until it reaches a goal.