Multi-Agent Teams - Cline

Multi-agent teams let you break complex work across multiple agents that coordinate through a shared task board. One agent acts as the coordinator, delegating subtasks to specialist agents and merging their results.

Enabling Teams

Teams are a ClineCore feature. Enable them in the session config:

typescript

import { ClineCore } from "@cline/sdk"

const cline = await ClineCore.create({ clientName: "team-app" })

const session = await cline.start({
  prompt: "Plan and implement a user authentication module with tests",
  config: {
    providerId: "anthropic",
    modelId: "claude-sonnet-4-6",
    apiKey: process.env.ANTHROPIC_API_KEY,
    systemPrompt: "You are a coordinator for a multi-agent coding team.",
    cwd: "/path/to/project",
    workspaceRoot: "/path/to/project",
    enableTools: true,
    enableSpawnAgent: true,
    enableAgentTeams: true,
    teamName: "auth-sprint",
  },
})

How Teams Work

When teams are enabled, the coordinator agent gets additional tools:

Tool	Description
`team_spawn_teammate`	Create a new agent with a specific role and task
`team_delegate_task`	Assign a task to an existing teammate
`team_check_status`	Check the status of delegated tasks
`team_get_result`	Retrieve the result of a completed task

The coordinator decides how to split work, which agents to create, and how to combine results.

Team Persistence

Team state persists across sessions:

~/.cline/data/teams/[team-name]/
  task-board.json      # Current tasks and their status
  mailbox.json         # Inter-agent messages
  mission-log.json     # Team activity history

Resume a team's work in a new session:

bash

cline --team-name auth-sprint "Continue -- pick up incomplete tasks"

Via CLI

bash

# Start a new team
cline --team-name auth-sprint "Plan and implement user auth with tests"

# Resume work
cline --team-name auth-sprint "What's the status? Continue with unfinished tasks."

# Different team for a different workstream
cline --team-name perf-sprint "Profile the API endpoints and optimize the slowest 3"

Sub-Agents vs Teams

The SDK offers two levels of multi-agent coordination:

Feature	Sub-Agents	Teams
Enable with	`enableSpawnAgent: true`	`enableAgentTeams: true`
Persistence	Within session only	Across sessions
Coordination	Parent-child	Peer-to-peer with task board
Shared state	None	Task board, mailbox, mission log
Best for	One-off delegation	Complex, multi-session projects

Sub-agents are lighter weight. The parent agent spawns a child, waits for its result, and continues. No persistent state, no task board.

typescript

// Sub-agents: simple delegation within a single session
const session = await cline.start({
  config: {
    enableSpawnAgent: true,  // Agent can spawn sub-agents
    // ...
  },
  // ...
})

Teams are for bigger efforts where work spans multiple sessions and agents need to coordinate asynchronously.

When to Use Teams

Teams add overhead. Use them when:

The task naturally decomposes into independent subtasks
Different subtasks benefit from different system prompts or specializations
Work spans multiple sessions or days
You want a persistent record of task delegation and completion

For simpler cases, a single agent with good tools is usually more efficient than a team.