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Mrunal Meshram
Mrunal Meshram

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🚀 Supercharge Your VS Code with Cline – The Local AI Coding Assistant

#opensource #vscode #tooling #ai

AI-powered coding assistants have become essential in modern development — but most rely on cloud APIs or subscriptions.
What if you could bring a fully customizable, privacy-friendly AI assistant directly into your Visual Studio Code workspace?

Meet Cline — your intelligent, open-source coding companion that connects seamlessly with local or remote LLMs like Ollama, OpenAI, LM Studio, and more.
It’s built for developers who want smart code assistance, offline flexibility, and zero data leaks.

🧠 What Is Cline?

Cline (Code Line Intelligence) is an open-source AI coding assistant for VS Code.
It integrates directly into your editor and lets you:

  • 💬 Chat with your local or cloud AI model
  • ⚙️ Run contextual commands on selected code (explain, refactor, test, etc.)
  • 🧩 Use local models (via Ollama or LM Studio)
  • 🧠 Work with multiple files and understand full project context

It’s like having ChatGPT inside VS Code — but completely under your control.

🛠️ Installation Guide

Follow these simple steps to get started with Cline Client in VS Code.

🔹 Step 1: Install the Cline Extension

You can install Cline directly from the VS Code Marketplace.

👉 Option A: From Marketplace UI

  1. Open VS Code
  2. Go to Extensions (or press Ctrl + Shift + X)
  3. Search for “Cline”
  4. Click Install

👉 Option B: Using Command Line 

ext install saoudrizwan.claude-dev
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Once installed, you’ll see a small Cline icon appear on your sidebar.

🔹 Step 2: Set Up a Model Backend

Cline needs an AI backend (local or cloud) to function. You can use either:

🧩 Local AI (Recommended)

Ollama or LM Studio lets you run models entirely offline on your machine.

✅ Install Ollama 
# macOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh

# Windows (PowerShell)
iwr https://ollama.com/download/OllamaSetup.exe -OutFile OllamaSetup.exe
Start-Process OllamaSetup.exe
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Then pull your favorite model:

ollama pull llama3
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This will download and serve llama3 locally at http://localhost:11434.

☁️ Cloud Backends (Optional)

You can also connect to:

  • OpenAI (GPT-4, GPT-4o)
  • Anthropic (Claude)
  • Mistral
  • Gemini

You’ll just need the appropriate API key.

🔹 Step 3: Configure Cline in VS Code

After installing the extension:

  1. Click the Cline icon on the sidebar
  2. Open the Settings (⚙️) panel
  3. Choose your Backend Type
  • ollama for local
  • openai, anthropic, etc. for cloud
    1. Set your model name (e.g., llama3, gpt-4o)
    2. Add API key if required
    3. Save the configuration

You can also tweak:

  • Max tokens
  • Temperature (creativity)
  • Prompt style

Once done, restart VS Code or reload the window.

💡 How to Use Cline in VS Code

Cline is deeply integrated into your coding workflow — no need to leave the editor.

🧠 1. Chat with Your AI Assistant

Click the Cline icon on the sidebar to open the chat panel.

You can now type natural-language questions like:

“Explain how this function works.”

Or directly reference your open files:

“Refactor the login service to use async/await.”

Cline will respond contextually — understanding your open files, selections, and structure.

🧩 2. Use Inline Commands

Highlight any piece of code, right-click, and select:

Cline → Explain / Refactor / Document / Test

Example:
If you highlight this snippet:

function calculateDiscount(price, percentage) {
  return price - (price * percentage / 100);
}
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And choose “Document Code,” Cline might generate:

/**
 * Calculates discounted price.
 * @param {number} price - Original price.
 * @param {number} percentage - Discount percentage.
 * @returns {number} - Discounted price.
 */
function calculateDiscount(price, percentage) {
  return price - (price * percentage / 100);
}
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🔧 3. Run Commands from the Command Palette

Press:

Ctrl + Shift + P
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Then search for:

“Cline: Ask”
“Cline: Refactor Selection”
“Cline: Explain Code”

These commands make it easy to trigger AI actions from anywhere in VS Code.

🧠 4. Multi-file Understanding

Cline can understand your entire workspace (not just one file).
You can ask:

“Find where getUserData() is used and optimize it.”

It will search contextually and even suggest improvements across files.

⚙️ 5. Use Custom Prompts

You can create custom prompt templates for repetitive actions.

For example:

{
  "promptName": "Add XML Docs",
  "promptText": "Add XML documentation to this C# method."
}
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Access them directly from the Cline command menu or chat.

🧩 Example Workflow

Let’s say you’re debugging a .NET Web API:

  1. Select your controller method: 
   public IActionResult GetUser(int id)
   {
       return Ok(_context.Users.FirstOrDefault(u => u.Id == id));
   }
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  1. Right-click → Cline → Add Error Handling

Cline suggests:

public IActionResult GetUser(int id)
{
    try
    {
        var user = _context.Users.FirstOrDefault(u => u.Id == id);
        if (user == null)
            return NotFound($"User {id} not found");
        return Ok(user);
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        _logger.LogError(ex, "Error fetching user data");
        return StatusCode(500, "Internal Server Error");
    }
}
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A perfect productivity boost. ⚡

🔐 Why Developers Love Cline

✅ Works with local and cloud models
✅ 100% privacy-friendly (local AI support)
✅ Seamless VS Code integration
✅ Custom prompts and shortcuts
✅ Supports multiple AI providers
✅ Fully open source

🔗 Useful Resources

🧭 Final Thoughts

Cline brings the power of AI into your development environment — not the other way around.
Whether you’re using local models like Ollama or cloud APIs like GPT-4, it adapts to your setup and workflow.

If you want a coding assistant that’s private, customizable, and developer-first,
try Cline for VS Code today — and redefine how you code. 🧑‍💻✨

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