Cline (harness)
OSS VS Code extension that runs as a fully agentic coding assistant — plan/act modes, file ops, shell exec, browser-use, MCP. Originally "Claude Dev" (2024); rebranded Cline 2024-Q4. Multi-model: Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter, Bedrock, Vertex. Memory layer = .clinerules and Memory Bank pattern (distinct rows in catalog).
At a glance
- Type
- VS Code agentic coding extension (OSS, formerly Claude Dev)
- Tier
- T2
- Section
- Agent IDEs & coding harnesses
- Created
- 2024-07
- Latest release
- Cline 3.x (2025-2026 rolling)
- License
- Apache-2.0
- GitHub
- ~45k★, TypeScript
- Pricing
- Free (OSS) + paid Pro
- Funding
- Cline Inc. — Series A reported (2025; HQ undisclosed)
Taxonomy
- storage
- file
- retrieval
- injection
- persistence
- cross-session
- update
- hybrid
- unit
- document
- governance
- inspectable
- conflict
- human-arbitrate
When to use
Optimised for: Plan/Act loop with explicit human approval gates
Anti-fit: VS Code-only; cost-per-run can spike on long sessions
Pros & cons
Pros
Strongest plan-then-act safety pattern in the OSS coding-agent set; Memory Bank pattern (.cline-memory-bank/) influenced wider "memory in markdown" practice.
Cons
VS Code only (no JetBrains, no terminal); per-token costs surprise users on long autonomous runs.
Claims & capabilities
~45k★ GH; one of the most-installed agentic VS Code extensions; multi-model via standard OpenAI-compatible APIs.
Technical surface
- API surface
- VS Code extension
- Backend storage
- local workspace + .clinerules
- Deployment
- VS Code extension (desktop) + Pro cloud
- Embedding model
- not applicable — not a memory product
- Multi-tenancy
- per-user; Pro per-org
- MCP
- native — Cline is an MCP client
- A2A
- searched not found
- OpenTelemetry
- searched not found
Similar systems
Other agent ides & coding harnesses in the catalog, ranked by inbound references.
- Bedrock AgentCore (AWS) T2
AWS Bedrock AgentCore — managed runtime to deploy + scale + observe agents. Multi-component: Runtime, Identity, Memory, Gateway, Browser, Code Interpreter, Observability. Distinct from Bedrock Agents (older fixed-config product); AgentCore is the 2025 framework-agnostic runtime for any agent (LangGraph, CrewAI, Strands, OpenAI Agents SDK).
- Claude Code (Anthropic) T1
Anthropic's official agentic coding CLI — runs Claude as a long-running coding agent in the developer's terminal. Memory layer = CLAUDE.md (project + user scoped), agent skills, MCP servers. Released GA October 2024; widely adopted as the reference harness for Claude-as-coder. Plan Mode and Compute Use surfaces extend it from coding to broader desktop automation.
- GitHub Copilot (Agent Mode) T1
The original AI coding assistant (Copilot in editor; 2021). 2025 evolved into a full agentic surface: chat, completions, Agent Mode (multi-step), and Copilot Workspace. Backed by Microsoft. Distinct row from Workspace — this row covers the everyday in-editor + agent mode product, Workspace covers the hosted spec-driven workflow.
- Aider (harness) T2
OSS terminal coding agent by Paul Gauthier — one of the original AI-pair-programmer CLIs (2023). Architect/Editor modes; repo-map for context; uses any LiteLLM-compatible model. Memory via CONVENTIONS.md and .aider.conf.yml — author-edited markdown. Distinct from the separate Aider memory-row in "Coding-agent memory"; this row characterises the harness itself.
- Amazon Q Developer T1
Amazon's developer-focused agent — formerly CodeWhisperer (renamed 2024-Q4). Available as IDE plugins (VS Code, JetBrains, Visual Studio, Eclipse), in AWS Console, and CLI. Strong AWS-tooling integration: Q can read CloudWatch, troubleshoot IAM, suggest AWS-SDK code. Companion to Kiro for spec-driven flows.
- Anthropic Computer Use T1
Anthropic's API-surface capability that lets Claude control a virtual desktop — see screenshots, type, click. Launched 2024-10 as a public beta. Not a finished IDE itself; it's the substrate that other harnesses (and Anthropic's own Claude apps) use to operate a computer.
Related systems
References (2)
- Model Context Protocol (MCP spec) depends on at runtime — adjacent-infrastructure cell: OpenAI-compatible API; MCP
- OpenAI GPT family (GPT-5 / GPT-4o / o3 / o4) depends on at runtime — VS Code extensions; multi-model via standard OpenAI-compatible APIs.