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Most developers clutter their context with rules when they should build workflows. Workflows inject instructions on-demand and consume tokens only when invoked, while clinerules append to every system prompt.
For the first time, local models are powerful enough to run Cline effectively on a laptop.
The Cline Context Playbook: when to use Deep Planning, Focus Chain, Auto Compact, /smol, /newtask, and Memory Bank
Whether it be an Anthropic API key or using the Cline provider for inference, you can expect to pay what the provider charges for their inference, and none more. Cline doesn't charge any platform fees.
Why hitting the reset button will actually save you time instead of fighting an upstream context current.
Tap into your existing Claude Max or Pro subscription to use Cline without paying per-message pricing.
When you first dive into a powerful tool like Cline, it's natural to wonder, "What's the best way to set this up?" The beauty of Cline is that it's designed to adapt and grow with you. There isn't a one-size-fits-all answer, but rather a spectrum of configurations that can match your immediate needs and the complexity of the tasks you're tackling. This post will walk you through three common setup approaches – Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. My goal is to help you find what works best for
As Product Marketing Manager at Cline, I often experiment with ways to fine-tune Cline's behavior for different tasks. For a while, I relied on a system of .clinerules/ and clinerules-bank/ folders, manually dragging rule files back and forth to activate different instruction sets. Honestly? It was kind of annoying – difficult to keep track of which rules were active, easy to forget to switch them, and just generally cumbersome. But I did get tremendous value from the "modular" nature of these .
Ever wondered why a simple "Hi" to Cline might seem to use more resources than expected? Or perhaps you've noticed performance subtly changing during a long coding session? The answer often lies in a crucial, yet sometimes misunderstood, concept: the context window. Understanding it is key to unlocking Cline's full potential while managing performance and cost effectively. Think of the context window as the AI's short-term memory. It's the space where all the information relevant to your curren
Context windows have been both the power and limitation of AI coding assistants. They enable the contextual understanding that makes tools like Cline so useful, but their finite nature has always imposed constraints on complex, long-running tasks. With Cline's latest features, we've created a solution that fundamentally changes how developers can work with AI assistants on complex projects. 0:00 /0:27 1× The Context Window Problem We implemented the
For developers using Cline, the gap between AI-assisted coding and direct database management just closed. Developers have been clamoring for it, and it's finally here: the official Supabase MCP Server is now live in the Cline MCP Marketplace. No more context switching between your editor, the Supabase dashboard, and SQL clients. You can now interact with your database – execute queries, manage schemas, fetch configurations, and more – all orchestrated by Cline, right where you code.
Cline is already transforming how developers approach complex coding tasks, acting as an autonomous agent within your IDE. But what if you could push its capabilities even further? What if Cline could not only write and refactor code but also conduct deep web research, generate UI components on the fly, convert documents, and even interact with creative software? That's what we envision for Model Context Protocol (MCP). MCP servers are like power-ups for Cline, allowing it to securely connect a
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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