Cline CLI in NeuroSquadCline CLI,with a canvas around it
Run as many Cline sessions as you need, each in its own card with the real Cline terminal. A NeuroSquad plugin inside Cline reports every turn and every approval it waits for, arrows hand it browsers, terminals and notes, and its sessions and costs stay in view.
Official sitecline.bot/cli- The real
cline, your own login - Nothing written to
~/.cline - Free, for Windows 10 and 11
It knows when Cline is done — and when it’s waiting for approval
Cline 3 loads plugins from its config folder. Each card gets its own folder with a NeuroSquad plugin in it, and the plugin’s hooks report the turn — including the moment a tool call stops at Cline’s approval prompt.
beforeRunplugin hookThe turn starts. The card’s icon spins, the Squad status card counts it as working, and the toast from its last question is taken down.
beforeTool + 700 msplugin hookbeforeTool runs before Cline’s approval check. A call that isn’t auto-approved and hasn’t started 700 ms later is waiting on you: the card pulses and the toast names the tool and its input.
afterRunplugin hookThe turn is over — completed, cancelled or failed. The next queued prompt goes out, the journal gets the answer, and a toast says it’s done.
Questions count too
When Cline uses ask_question, the card waits on you with “Cline is asking: …” and the question itself.
Only the main agent moves the status
Subagents and team members inherit the plugin but carry a parent id, so their turns don’t end yours — their approval prompts still reach you.
Your setup is kept
The card’s config folder links in your own rules, skills, workflows and plugins from ~/.cline, so nothing of yours goes missing.
Three things you’ll do every day
Replicas of the app, played step by step. When Cline waits for approval, the answer is yours.
Cline fixes a failing test through a connected terminal, stops for your approval before editing a file, and finishes — the journal writes itself.
Everything Cline CLI can do in NeuroSquad
Cline CLI gets the same depth as Claude Code, mostly through its own plugin system. Here is all of it — and, in the last group, what NeuroSquad has to work around.
- 01
Knows its state
A NeuroSquad plugin inside Cline reports every turn, every approval and every question.
Finished and waiting are different
The plugin’s
Docs: Finished and waiting are differentbeforeRunmarks the card working andafterRunfinished. Waiting on you is emulated: a tool call that hasn’t started 700 ms afterbeforeToolis sitting at Cline’s approval prompt.A notification that says what it needs
The toast leads with the tool and its input —
Docs: A notification that says what it needsCline needs your permission: run_commands — rm -rf dist— orCline is asking: …. One per agent; a click flies to the card.Every card is its own session
Docs: Every card is its own session--idwith the card’s id starts a session with exactly that id the first time and continues it after./clearstarts a new one, and the plugin reports its id so the card follows.The Squad status card
Every AI agent of the workspace on one card, with Cline’s model from its last request (before that, your last-used provider’s model) and the live time of its turn.
Docs: The Squad status cardCustom cards can follow it
Cards built with the Card SDK see the same statuses and turn events, and read Cline’s last answer from its session files.
Docs: Custom cards can follow it
- 02
Works through the canvas
An arrow from the card is a set of tools, served by NeuroSquad’s MCP server.
Arrows are tools
An arrow to a browser, terminal, note or another agent gives Cline
Docs: Arrows are toolsneurosquad__browser_*,terminal_*,note_*oragent_*. The plugin pre-approves them — the arrow you drew is the consent.It can add cards itself
Docs: It can add cards itselfcanvas_spawn_cardlets it open a terminal, a browser, a note or a helper agent next to itself, joined by an arrow. A Cline helper gets its first prompt as soon as its screen is ready.Canvas mode
The plugin removes
Docs: Canvas moderun_commands,fetch_web_contentandweb_searchfrom every request and refuses them if called — before Cline’s approval policy, so it holds even with--auto-approve true.MCP servers from the registry
Install a server from the official MCP Registry once, then give it to an agent with an arrow. It isn’t pre-approved, so Cline asks before every call, and its secrets never leave NeuroSquad.
Docs: MCP servers from the registrySkills from skills.sh
An arrow to a skill card gives Cline
Docs: Skills from skills.shskill_loadwith each skill and when to use it — from the card’s next start.
- 03
Built for long runs
Full contexts, failed requests and long queues are handled on the card.
Context meter and Compact
The ring shows the last request’s prompt and output against the model’s window (from OpenRouter’s catalogue — Cline keeps its own only in memory). Compact sends
Docs: Context meter and Compact/compact.Continues after a limit
A turn that failed after Cline’s own retries shows the limit on the card, with the reset time when the error names one, and “continue” goes out then.
Docs: Continues after a limitPrompt queue
Line up the next messages: each goes out when the plugin says the turn is finished — never mid-thought. Tested with a prompt queued during a 20-second turn. Daily prompts too.
Docs: Prompt queueHand off to a fresh agent
When a session is full, start a new agent beside it — Cline or any other CLI — with a summary of the work typed in, ready for you to send.
Docs: Hand off to a fresh agentJournal
Each finished answer is added to a connected note, read from Cline’s own session file.
Docs: Journal
- 04
Works in a team
Several Cline agents — or a mix of CLIs — on one project without stepping on each other.
Isolated worktrees
Give an agent its own git worktree, so parallel agents never edit the same files. A setup command and files to copy, like
Docs: Isolated worktrees.env, prepare it before Cline starts.Add a reviewer
One click starts an agent on a different CLI in the same worktree, with an arrow from the author and a prompt to review without editing anything.
Docs: Add a reviewerDangerous mode, per card
Cline’s own default is to approve everything. A card passes
Docs: Dangerous mode, per card--auto-approve false, so it asks; dangerous mode is--auto-approve true.Roles
Reviewer, tester, researcher, architect, writer or your own: the role is typed in as a first prompt you can see and edit, and never re-sent behind your back.
Docs: RolesAGENTS.md, read natively
Cline reads the workspace’s AGENTS.md by itself. NeuroSquad’s session instructions go in as a plugin rule, because Cline ignores an MCP server’s own instructions.
Docs: AGENTS.md, read natively
- 05
Cost, control and access
What it spends, what it may spend, which model it runs on, and how you reach it.
Usage and cost per card
Every request from Cline’s session files — cache reads and writes kept apart, subagents credited to their session, and Cline’s recorded cost when it priced the call.
Docs: Usage and cost per cardBudget brake
A limit per workspace. Past it, each agent is stopped — Cline with Escape — and automatic prompts stop. Raise the limit and it’s lifted; your own typing is never blocked.
Docs: Budget brakeOpenRouter models, no key on disk
Cline only starts a session with a key saved in its files. So an OpenRouter card gets a placeholder there and a relay in NeuroSquad that puts the real key on each request — never in a file or an argument.
Docs: OpenRouter models, no key on diskDictation into the prompt
Hold a hotkey and speak. Speech is recognised on your machine and typed into Cline’s input.
Docs: Dictation into the promptFrom your phone
Scan a QR code and the whole canvas opens in the phone’s browser: read Cline’s terminal, answer its approval, send the next prompt.
Docs: From your phone
- 06
What NeuroSquad works around
Where Cline’s defaults would get in a card’s way — and the one thing it can’t do.
A config folder per card
Emulated.
Docs: A config folder per card--configpoints each card at its own folder with the plugin; your~/.clinerules, skills, workflows and plugins are linked in, never copied over or written. Removing the card removes the links, not your folders.Kept out of the shared hub
Without
Docs: Kept out of the shared hub--data-dir, Cline runs sessions in a shared background hub — outside the card’s terminal, with someone else’s environment, outliving the card. The card always passes it, so the session lives and ends with the card.New arrows: next start
Impossible live. Cline lists an MCP server’s tools once per session and doesn’t listen for changes, so an arrow drawn on a running card applies when it next starts.
Docs: New arrows: next startEscape, never Ctrl+C
Ctrl+C on an idle Cline card quits Cline (measured). The budget brake and every stop the app sends use Escape, which cancels the turn and keeps the session.
Docs: Escape, never Ctrl+CSubagents don’t end your turn
Docs: Subagents don’t end your turnspawn_agenthelpers inherit the plugin, but their hooks carry a parent id — only the main agent moves the card’s status. Their approval prompts still count.
Who’s waiting, and what it cost
Two cards that answer the questions you ask most when several Cline sessions run at once.
The Squad status card
Every agent of the workspace with its status, model and turn time. The one waiting on you comes first, with the tool it wants to run. Tap a status to filter.
- coupon-fixCline CLIclaude-sonnet-4-6Cline needs your permission: run_commands — rm -rf distNeeds you2:34
- api-migrationCline CLIclaude-sonnet-4-6Move routes to the new clientWorking13:41
- db-indexesCline CLIgpt-5-miniAdd the missing indexesWorking7:59
- docs-passCline CLIgpt-5-miniUpdate the READMEFinished4 min. ago
Usage & cost
Read from Cline’s own session files on your disk and matched to the card by session id. The rows always add up to the total.
| Agent | Tokens | Cost | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| coupon-fix | 986,240 | $2.41 | ||
| api-migration | 701,553 | $1.68 | ||
| docs-pass | 190,862 | $0.09 | ||
| Total | 102 | 1,878,655 | $4.18 |
The real Cline CLI, plus a few arguments
NeuroSquad starts the same Cline you run yourself — the real `cline.exe`, not through npm’s wrapper — in a terminal in the card. This is everything it adds:
Nothing written to ~/.cline
The plugin, the MCP file and the config folder are per-card files in NeuroSquad’s own data folder.
Your login, your provider
Cline runs with the provider and key you set up in it. Your NeuroSquad account is separate and never sees it.
Found where npm put it
The npm wrapper is skipped and Cline’s own executable started directly, so nothing sits between the card’s terminal and Cline.
Cline CLI in NeuroSquad, answered
Give Cline CLI a canvas
Free for Windows 10 and 11. Your code, your login and your costs stay on your machine.