Cline
Autonomous coding agent inside VS Code. Creates files, runs commands, uses the browser, and debugs visually. 5M+ installs, 60K GitHub stars. Open-source and free.
Cline is an open-source autonomous coding agent that runs as a VS Code extension. Unlike traditional coding assistants that provide suggestions, Cline executes complete workflows from a single natural language prompt. It can create and edit files, explore large projects, run terminal commands, and even launch a browser to click elements, type text, and capture screenshots for interactive debugging and end-to-end testing. Every action requires your explicit permission, keeping you in control. With 5M+ installs and 60K+ GitHub stars, it is one of the most popular AI coding extensions available. It supports any model provider including OpenRouter, Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, Cerebras, Groq, and local models through LM Studio or Ollama.
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Autonomous coding agent inside VS Code. Creates files, runs commands, uses the browser, and debugs visually. 5M+ installs, 60K GitHub stars. Open-source and free.
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