Cline
by Cline Bot Inc.
Cline is an open-source autonomous coding agent for Visual Studio Code. It can inspect projects, edit files, run terminal commands, use a browser, and connect to external tools through the Model Context Protocol.
Why Abandoned
Cline remains actively maintained: its official GitHub repository publishes current releases, and the project maintains live documentation and product download pages.
🩺 Health Signals
- HTTP Status
- 200
- Response
- —
- SSL
- —
- Confidence
- 98%
- Domain expires
- —
- Last content change
- —
- Last tweet
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- API status
- —
📅 Timeline
Initial release as Claude Dev
Saoud Rizwan published the first public release of the VS Code coding agent under the name Claude Dev.
Renamed to Cline
The project adopted the Cline name after previously being known as Claude Dev.
Raised $27 million seed round
Cline announced a $27 million seed financing led by Emergence Capital and Pace Capital, with participation from First Round Capital and others.
Raised $32 million Series A
Cline announced a $32 million Series A led by Emergence Capital and Benchmark, bringing reported total funding to $59 million.
🔄 Alternatives to Cline
Codeium
🟢ActiveFree AI code completion tool supporting 70+ programming languages across multiple IDEs.
Cursor AI
🟢ActiveAI-first code editor built on VS Code with deep AI integration for code generation and editing.
GitHub Copilot
🟢ActiveAI pair programmer that suggests code completions in your IDE, powered by OpenAI Codex.
Replit Agent
🟢ActiveReplit Agent is an AI software-building tool within Replit that turns natural-language requests into working applications. It can plan projects, write code, configure infrastructure, test changes, and deploy apps from the browser.
🪦 Other dead AI Agents tools
Sweep
🟠Possibly DeadSweep was an AI coding agent that converted GitHub issues and bug reports into proposed code changes and pull requests. Its original product was later discontinued as the team shifted to an AI-assisted JetBrains coding plugin.
Ultimate
🟡Acquired / MergedUltimate was a customer-support automation platform that used conversational AI to resolve requests across chat, email, and social channels. Zendesk acquired the company in 2024 and integrated its technology into Zendesk AI.
Hyperlight
🟡Acquired / MergedHyperlight was an AI-agent startup focused on automating customer-service workflows for businesses. Public reporting indicates that the company was acquired by Cresta in 2024 to strengthen Cresta's AI capabilities.
Sana Agents
🟡Acquired / MergedSana Agents is an enterprise AI agent platform from Sana Labs for creating and deploying agents that work with organizational knowledge, connect to business systems, and automate research, analysis, and recurring workflows.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
What is Cline AI?
Cline is an open-source AI coding agent that runs in Visual Studio Code. It can read a codebase, edit files, execute terminal commands, use a browser, and work with connected tools while presenting actions for user approval.
Is Cline free and open source?
Cline's extension source code is publicly available under the Apache License 2.0. Using it can still incur charges from the selected model provider or other connected services.
Which AI models does Cline support?
Cline can connect to multiple model providers and local-model options rather than requiring one fixed model. Supported integrations change over time, so its current provider documentation is the authoritative list.
How is Cline different from GitHub Copilot or Cursor?
Cline emphasizes agentic, multi-step work inside VS Code, including file edits, terminal commands, browser interaction, and external tools through MCP. GitHub Copilot and Cursor also offer coding agents, but differ in editor integration, pricing, model access, and approval workflows.
Does Cline support the Model Context Protocol (MCP)?
Yes. Cline supports MCP servers, allowing the agent to use additional tools and data sources exposed through the protocol.