Cline

Cline is an open-source AI coding assistant for VS Code with full agentic capabilities -- file editing, terminal commands, and browser use. It has excellent support for custom OpenAI-compatible endpoints.

Setup

1. Install Cline from the VS Code Extensions marketplace
2. Click the Cline icon in the Activity Bar (sidebar)
3. Click the gear icon to open provider settings
4. Select "OpenAI Compatible" from the provider dropdown
5. Fill in:
   • Base URL: https://api.modelbridge.dev/v1
   • API Key: mb_live_your_key_here
   • Model ID: claude-sonnet-4-6
6. Send a test message to verify the connection

VS Code settings.json

You can also configure Cline directly in your VS Code settings:

{
  "cline.apiProvider": "openai-compatible",
  "cline.openAiCompatible.baseUrl": "https://api.modelbridge.dev/v1",
  "cline.openAiCompatible.apiKey": "mb_live_your_key_here",
  "cline.openAiCompatible.modelId": "claude-sonnet-4-6"
}

Features that work with ModelBridge

• Chat and code generation -- Full conversation with context
• File editing -- Cline can read, create, and edit files in your project
• Terminal commands -- Cline can run shell commands with your approval
• Tool use -- Cline sends OpenAI-format tools definitions, which ModelBridge supports natively
• Token usage tracking -- Cline displays per-message token counts when the response includes usage data

Tips

• Cline shows a green checkmark when the connection is valid
• You can switch providers in Cline's settings without losing previous configurations
• After selecting the model, you can customize max output tokens, context window size, and per-token pricing for cost tracking