Cline is an open-source AI coding assistant for VS Code that features dual Plan/Act modes, terminal execution capabilities, and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) for custom tool creation. It serves as a fully collaborative AI partner for developers.

How is Cline different from GitHub Copilot?

Cline is open-source and offers unique features like Plan/Act modes for structured development, terminal command execution, browser automation for testing, and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) for creating custom development tools.

What programming languages does Cline support?

Cline supports all major programming languages and frameworks through its AI models and can execute terminal commands, edit files, and automate browser testing across different technology stacks.

Guides - Cline Blog

Beautiful UI Components: How to Use 21st.Dev's Magic MCP with Cline

Nick Baumann•March 20, 2025•3 min read

Frontend development has always been a careful balance between creativity and tedium. For every exciting UX innovation you bring to life, there are dozens of navbar implementations, form components, and card layouts to build along the way. The repetitive nature of these tasks is a productivity killer—until now. By combining Cline's conversational AI capabilities with 21st.dev's Magic UI MCP, we've created a workflow that eliminates the most time-consuming parts of frontend development. The resu

Build Anything You Don't Know How to Build: My Experience with Cline

Nick Baumann•March 10, 2025•3 min read

I've been using Cline since it was released, and it's completely transformed how I approach building software. As Cline's product marketer, I've had the privilege of seeing this tool evolve, but what's more exciting is how it's evolved my own thinking about what I can create. I produce music on the side, and recently I had this idea: what if I could build a Cline-like assistant for Logic Pro? Something that would let me draw MIDI files and handle mixing through conversation, so I could focus mo

Building the MCP Economy: Lessons from 21st.dev and the Future of Plugin Monetization

Nick Baumann•March 6, 2025•6 min read

The emergence of Model Context Protocol (MCP) has created something we rarely see in technology: a genuinely new market with minimal established players and tremendous growth potential. As AI agents like Cline become increasingly central to developer workflows, MCP plugins represent not just a technical opportunity, but a significant business one. While many developers are focused solely on the technical aspects of building MCP plugins, forward-thinking builders have already begun establishing

Calling All Developers: How to Build MCP Plugins with Cline

Nick Baumann•March 3, 2025•6 min read

I remember stories about the tech booms of past decades. In the late 1990s, the web revolution began. Teenagers who knew HTML were earning thousands per project, building websites for local businesses. In the late 2000s, a similar trend emerged with mobile apps. Young developers were profiting from creating applications for smartphones. "This is the future," people would say. Many were skeptical about how these basic websites or simple apps could change anything. We know how those predictions t

MCP Servers Explained: What They Are, How They Work, and Why Cline is Revolutionizing AI Tools

Nick Baumann•February 13, 2025•5 min read

Discover what MCP servers are and how they work. Learn how Cline leverages Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers to revolutionize AI tool integration and development. Read on for in-depth insights! I was at CodeGen Night in San Francisco on Tuesday and had a chance to talk with some Cline power users about MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers. These were sophisticated developers who'd heard of MCP but weren't using it because they weren't fully sure how it worked or why it mattered. This conver

Supercharge Cline: 4 Ways to Build Better with Perplexity MCP

Nick Baumann•February 10, 2025•5 min read

When building complex applications, the constant context switching between research, coding, and documentation can kill your momentum. While working on an MP3 sharing application, I discovered three powerful patterns for using Perplexity's MCP server with Cline that have transformed my development workflow. ❓ "What is Perplexity MCP?" Perplexity is an AI research assistant that excels at finding and synthesizing up-to-date information from across the web. When integrated with Cline through the

Memory Bank: How to Make Cline an AI Agent That Never Forgets

Nick Baumann•February 6, 2025•4 min read

Imagine a detective who loses his memory every time he falls asleep. To solve cases, he develops an ingenious system: tattooing critical facts on his body and keeping a carefully organized set of Polaroid photos. Each time he wakes up, he can quickly rebuild his understanding by following his own documentation system. That's the plot of Memento, and it inspired how we solved a common problem with AI coding assistants. Dont Believe His Lies Memento GIFfrom Dont Believe His Lies GIFs Here's

The 2025 Stack: How Complete Beginners Can Ship Their First Full-Stack Web App

Nick Baumann•January 31, 2025•3 min read

Picture this: You've got an amazing idea for a web app, but when you start googling "how to build a web app," you're hit with an avalanche of frameworks, tools, and conflicting advice. Should you learn React? Vue? Svelte? What even is a "backend"? And don't get me started on deployment... I get it. I've spent the last year helping complete beginners navigate this exact challenge. Here's what I've learned: The problem isn't that building web apps is hard – it's that most tutorials are teaching i

The Developer's Guide to MCP: From Basics to Advanced Workflows

Nick Baumann•January 23, 2025•4 min read

Picture this: You're deep into development with your AI assistant, trying to juggle multiple tools – GitHub issues need updating, tests need running, and documentation needs reviewing. But instead of the seamless workflow you imagined, you're stuck with manual context switching and disconnected tools. Your AI assistant, brilliant as it is, feels trapped in its chat window. This is where the Model Context Protocol (MCP) changes everything. It's not just another developer tool – it's a fundamenta

Why AI Engineers Need Planning More Than Perfect Prompts

Nick Baumann•January 21, 2025•4 min read

The best AI engineers I know follow a specific pattern. They don't obsess over prompt crafting – they obsess over planning. There's a reason for this, and it's not what most people think. The Reality Check Here's what typically happens when someone starts working with AI: 1. They throw requirements at the model 2. They get mediocre outputs 3. They blame their prompting skills 4. They spend hours "optimizing" prompts 5. They still get mediocre results Sound familiar? But here's what eli

Building Advanced Software with Cline: A Structured Approach

Daniel Steigman (Nighttrek)•January 15, 2025•6 min read

As a passionate user of Cline, I've discovered something transformative about modern software development. It's not just another tool in our engineering toolkit—it's a fundamental shift in how we approach complex problems. Through my journey of pushing the boundaries of what can be automated, I've learned that the real power lies not in complete automation, but in the synergy between human insight and AI capabilities. The more time I spend using these tools the more strongly I come to believe th