Cline's agent now runs as a terminal-native CLI with headless and piped modes, enabling parallel agent sessions in tmux and CI scripting rather than a single IDE sidebar.
Key takeaways · AI-distilled
In the new terminal UI, Tab switches between Plan and Act modes and shift+tab turns on auto-approve; dropping a markdown file such as pr-review.md into custom workflows creates a matching slash commandA named, reusable prompt invoked with a leading slash, turning a workflow you repeat into one word you type.Full definition →.
Each Cline CLI instance keeps its own state, conversation, and model configuration, so separate instances can work on different branches without sharing state.
The -y flag runs Cline with full autonomy and no TUI, streamingSending a model's response token by token as it is generated, so the reader sees text immediately instead of waiting for the whole answer.Full definition → to stdout; it accepts piped input, supports a --timeout option, and --json emits structured outputForcing a model's response to match a schema, so downstream code can parse it instead of guessing at prose.Full definition → for building tools on top.
The --acp flag makes Cline an Agent Client Protocol agent, which Cline says lets it run inside JetBrains, Zed, Neovim (via CodeCompanion or avante.nvim), Emacs, and other editors that speak the protocol.
cline config can set plan modeA read-only agent mode that investigates and proposes a plan without editing anything, so you approve the approach before any code changes.Full definition → to use a different model than Act mode, and --config points an instance at a separate settings directory, so one terminal can plan with one model while another implements with a faster one.
Terms in this piece · Glossary
slash command — A named, reusable prompt invoked with a leading slash, turning a workflow you repeat into one word you type.
streaming — Sending a model's response token by token as it is generated, so the reader sees text immediately instead of waiting for the whole answer.
structured output — Forcing a model's response to match a schema, so downstream code can parse it instead of guessing at prose.
plan mode — A read-only agent mode that investigates and proposes a plan without editing anything, so you approve the approach before any code changes.
