Storage Architecture

Global settings, secrets and workspace state are stored in file-backed JSON stores under ~/.cline/data/. This is the shared storage layer used by VSCode, CLI, and JetBrains.

Key Abstractions

StorageContext (src/shared/storage/storage-context.ts)

The entry point. Created via createStorageContext() and passed to StateManager.initialize(). Contains three ClineFileStorage instances:

• globalState → ~/.cline/data/globalState.json
• secrets → ~/.cline/data/secrets.json (mode 0o600)
• workspaceState → ~/.cline/data/workspaces/<hash>/workspaceState.json

ClineFileStorage (src/shared/storage/ClineFileStorage.ts)

Synchronous JSON key-value store backed by a single file. Supports get(), set(), setBatch(), delete(). Writes are atomic (write-then-rename).

StateManager (src/core/storage/StateManager.ts)

In-memory cache on top of StorageContext. All runtime reads hit the cache; writes update cache immediately and debounce-flush to disk.

⚠️ Do NOT Use VSCode's ExtensionContext for Storage

Do not read from or write to context.globalState, context.workspaceState, or context.secrets for persistent data. These are VSCode-specific and not available on CLI or JetBrains.

Instead, use:

// Reading state
StateManager.get().getGlobalStateKey("myKey")
StateManager.get().getSecretKey("mySecretKey")
StateManager.get().getWorkspaceStateKey("myWsKey")

// Writing state
StateManager.get().setGlobalState("myKey", value)
StateManager.get().setSecret("mySecretKey", value)
StateManager.get().setWorkspaceState("myWsKey", value)

Remember that your data may be read by a different client than the one that wrote it. For example, a value written by Cline in JetBrains may be read by Cline CLI.

VSCode Migration (src/hosts/vscode/vscode-to-file-migration.ts)

On VSCode startup, a migration copies data from VSCode's ExtensionContext storage into the file-backed stores. This runs in src/common.ts before StateManager.initialize().

• Sentinel: __vscodeMigrationVersion key in global state and workspace state — prevents re-migration.
• Merge strategy: File store wins. Existing values are never overwritten.
• Safe downgrade: VSCode storage is NOT cleared, so older extension versions still work.

Adding New Storage Keys

1. Add to src/shared/storage/state-keys.ts (see existing patterns)
2. Read/write via StateManager (NOT via context.globalState)
3. If adding a secret, add to SecretKeys array in state-keys.ts

File Layout

~/.cline/
  data/
    globalState.json          # Global settings & state
    secrets.json              # API keys (mode 0o600)
    tasks/
      taskHistory.json        # Task history (separate file)
    workspaces/
      <hash>/
        workspaceState.json   # Per-workspace toggles