Cline
Open-source autonomous coding agent for VS Code
Overview
Cline (formerly Claude Dev) is an open-source autonomous coding agent for VS Code — reads files, edits multiple files, runs terminal commands, recovers from errors. Bring-your-own-key for OpenAI/Anthropic/local models. Strong adoption in the developer-tooling community.
Pricing
Pricing shown for reference only. These figures reflect RECATOOLS research as of 19 May 2026 and may be out of date or incomplete. This is not financial or purchasing advice — always confirm the current price on the provider’s official website before making any decision.
Use cases
What you can produce with Cline
- Delegate a multi-file feature or refactor and have the agent read the codebase, edit files, and iterate until it compiles.
- Review a step-by-step plan in Plan mode and approve it before the agent makes any changes in Act mode.
- Let the agent run terminal commands - installing packages, running tests, starting dev servers - and react to the output to fix errors.
- Point the agent at any model via your own API keys, from Claude and GPT to local models, with per-request cost displayed.
- Connect MCP servers so the agent can pull context from databases, browsers, issue trackers, and other external tools mid-task.
- Have the agent capture browser screenshots and console logs to debug a web app it just modified.
- Roll back any change using workspace checkpoints when an agent run goes in the wrong direction.
ASEAN Perspective
Cline in Southeast Asia
ASEAN-region availability and pricing notes coming soon. Drop the editorial team a note via /contact/ if you can supply local context (Singapore/Malaysia/Indonesia/Thailand/Vietnam).
Cline is an open-source autonomous coding agent for VS Code that plans, edits files, runs terminal commands and uses MCP tools, with bring-your-own-key support across Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter and local models. For developers who want a transparent, model-agnostic agent and full control over cost, it is one of the strongest open options and a credible Cursor/Copilot alternative.
It suits hands-on developers comfortable supplying their own API keys and reviewing agent actions; non-technical users and those wanting a turnkey subscription will find it raw. Honest caveats: BYOK token costs can spike quickly on large tasks, and autonomy means you must review diffs and approvals carefully. Being open source, there is no formal API/SDK product, but extensibility via MCP is excellent. Globally usable from ASEAN; your cost depends on whichever model provider you choose.
What people say
Cline, which began life in 2024 as the open-source project Claude Dev, has graduated into a funded company: it raised $32 million in seed and Series A funding led by Emergence Capital in July 2025 and launched Cline Teams, an enterprise platform, while keeping the core agent Apache 2.0 open source. The company cites millions of installs and enterprise users including Samsung and SAP, and the agent has expanded beyond VS Code to JetBrains and a CLI.
Developers consistently praise three things: transparency, control, and the Plan/Act workflow. Because it is bring-your-own-key, you see exactly what every request costs and can point it at Anthropic, OpenAI, OpenRouter, or a local model with no markup - a sharp contrast to opaque subscription tools. Plan mode, which lets you shape an approach before the agent touches files, is frequently cited as the feature that makes autonomous multi-file edits trustworthy, and its MCP support is regarded as among the best of any coding agent.
The dominant complaint is token burn. Cline is verbose by design - it reads context, loops, and self-corrects - so a single complex task on a frontier model can cost a dollar or more, a full day of heavy use runs $5-40 depending on model, and power users report monthly API bills in the hundreds. Community discussions note that flat-fee tools can work out cheaper for heavy users, and that setup - managing keys, choosing models, understanding Plan/Act - is less friendly than managed alternatives. Output quality is entirely a function of the model you pay for.
Cline fits developers who already have API access, want an open-source agent they can inspect and self-host, and value spend visibility. Those wanting predictable flat pricing and zero configuration are better served by subscription assistants.
Summary of public user & expert reviews, compiled by RECATOOLS.
About this listing
This entry was compiled from publicly available data including Cline's official website, press releases, documentation, and reputable third-party publications. RECATOOLS is not affiliated with Cline unless explicitly stated.
Third-party AI tools update their pricing, features, availability, and policies frequently. Information here may be outdated by the time you read this — we make reasonable efforts to keep listings current, but cannot guarantee absolute accuracy.
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