Plugins

<Warning> This feature currently only applies to Cline SDK, CLI, and Kanban. This feature is not applicable on VSCode and JetBrains Extension for now. </Warning>

Plugins extend Cline with custom tools, lifecycle hooks, slash commands, and more. They can be installed globally (available in all sessions) or per-project.

Installing Plugins via CLI

The cline plugin install command installs plugins from three source types:

<Tabs> <Tab title="Git Repository"> ```bash cline plugin install https://github.com/owner/repo.git cline plugin install [email protected]:owner/repo.git ```

The installer clones the repository, installs production dependencies, and registers the plugin entry files.

To install a specific branch or tag, append `@ref`:

```bash
cline plugin install https://github.com/owner/[email protected]
cline plugin install https://github.com/owner/repo.git@main
```

</Tab> <Tab title="npm Package"> ```bash cline plugin install npm:@scope/my-plugin cline plugin install --npm my-plugin ``` </Tab> <Tab title="Local Path"> ```bash cline plugin install ./my-plugin cline plugin install ~/plugins/my-tool cline plugin install /absolute/path/to/plugin.ts ```

Local installs copy the file or directory into the plugin store. Both single `.ts`/`.js` files and directories with a `package.json` are supported.

</Tab> </Tabs>

Additional flags:

Flag	Description
`--force`	Replace an existing install for the same source
`--json`	Output the result as JSON (useful for scripting)
`--cwd <path>`	Install to `<path>/.cline/plugins` instead of the global directory

After installation, confirm the plugin is loaded by running cline config and checking the plugin tab.

The typescript-lsp-plugin is a good reference for how plugins work. It adds a goto_definition tool that uses the TypeScript Language Service API to resolve symbol definitions through imports, re-exports, and type aliases.

Install it with:

bash

cline plugin install https://github.com/cline/typescript-lsp-plugin.git

Once installed, Cline can call goto_definition with a file path and line number to find where symbols are defined, which is much more precise than text search.

Plugin Manifest Format

For a repository or npm package to be installable as a Cline plugin, its package.json should include a cline field that declares plugin entry points:

json

{
  "name": "my-cline-plugin",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "cline": {
    "plugins": [
      {
        "paths": ["./index.ts"],
        "capabilities": ["tools", "hooks"]
      }
    ]
  }
}

The cline.plugins array accepts:

Format	Example
Object with `paths` array	`{ "paths": ["./src/plugin.ts"], "capabilities": ["tools"] }`
Plain string	`"./index.ts"`

Each path should point to a .ts or .js file that exports an AgentPlugin (either as the default export or a named export).

If no cline.plugins field is present, the installer falls back to auto-discovery: it looks for standard entry points, then recursively scans for .ts and .js files (skipping node_modules and .git).

Host-Provided Dependencies

Dependencies under the @cline/ scope (like @cline/core, @cline/shared) are provided by the host runtime. The installer automatically strips these from the plugin's dependency list before running npm install, so you should declare them as peerDependencies:

json

{
  "peerDependencies": {
    "@cline/core": "*"
  },
  "peerDependenciesMeta": {
    "@cline/core": {
      "optional": true
    }
  }
}

Plugin Directory Structure

Plugins are stored in the plugins directory at two levels:

~/.cline/
  plugins/                     # Global plugins
    _installed/                # Managed by `cline plugin install`
      npm/                     # npm-sourced plugins
      git/                     # git-sourced plugins
      local/                   # local-sourced plugins

.cline/                        # Project root
  plugins/                     # Project-scoped plugins

Global plugins (~/.cline/plugins/) are available across all sessions. Project plugins (.cline/plugins/ in your repo) are available only when working in that project.

Writing Plugins

For a guide on building plugins with the SDK, see Writing Plugins. For the plugin API reference, see SDK Plugins.

Installing Plugins via CLI

Example: TypeScript Navigation Plugin

Plugin Manifest Format

Host-Provided Dependencies

Plugin Directory Structure

Writing Plugins