cline

Cline is an AI coding agent that lives inside VS Code and actually does things. Not autocomplete. Not suggestions in a ghost text overlay. It reads your project, edits files, runs terminal commands, launches a browser, and debugs runtime errors, all with your approval at every step. Apache 2.0 and free; you bring your own API key from Anthropic, OpenAI, or a dozen other providers.

Version 4 rebuilt the extension on a shared SDK runtime and added a plugin system with a marketplace for skills and MCP servers, so extending it no longer means hand-editing config files. GitHub Copilot is the obvious comparison, but Cline executes multi-step tasks end to end; Cursor does similar agentic work but locks you into its editor.

There's now a subscription option too: ClinePass at $9.99/mo bundles curated open-weights models at higher rate limits, an alternative to managing your own keys, not a feature gate. The extension stays free either way. Solo and small teams: free plus your own key. Organizations: an enterprise plan adds SSO, audit trails, and policy controls.

The catch: however you pay, tokens are the real bill. Complex multi-file tasks burn dollars per session, and the v4 runtime rebuild is still rolling out in stages, so expect some churn.