Cline
Open-source VS Code extension that acts as an autonomous coding agent — bring your own AI model
Cline is a VS Code extension that turns your editor into an AI coding agent. Pick your AI model (Anthropic Claude, OpenAI, local models through Ollama), give it a task, and it will plan, write code, run commands, and iterate. It asks for permission before each action, so you stay in control.
The big advantage over Cursor is flexibility and transparency. You see exactly what you are paying (API costs per request), you can switch models anytime, and there is no subscription. The big disadvantage is that you have to manage all of that yourself. If you want something that just works out of the box, Cursor is easier. If you want to pick your own model and only pay for what you use, Cline is the way.
What's good
- Use any AI model (Claude, GPT-4, Gemini, local models) — you control the cost
- Can browse the web, run terminal commands, create files, and edit code autonomously
- Free and open source — no subscription, just API costs
Watch out for
- API costs are on you and can surprise you if you are not watching
- Setup takes more work than commercial alternatives — API keys, model selection, configuration
- Quality depends entirely on which AI model you pick
Alternatives
Cursor
AI code editor (VS Code fork) that lets you talk to your codebase, autocomplete across files, and refactor with a prompt
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Open-source terminal AI that edits your code and makes clean git commits automatically
Continue
Open-source AI assistant for VS Code and JetBrains — plug in any LLM, including free local models
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