Cline

  • ID: cline
  • Stores (two generations, one harness):
  • modern CLI/SDK: ${CLINE_SESSION_DATA_DIR:-${CLINE_DATA_DIR:-${CLINE_DIR:-~/.cline}/data}/sessions}/<sessionId>/<sessionId>.messages.json with a <sessionId>.json manifest beside it
  • legacy VS Code extension (saoudrizwan.claude-dev): <host globalStorage>/tasks/<taskId>/api_conversation_history.json with state/taskHistory.json supplying title, cwd and timestamp; Code, Code Insiders, VSCodium, Cursor and Windsurf host roots are probed
  • Read overrides: DEJA_CLINE_ROOT (modern sessions dir), DEJA_CLINE_ROOTS (path list of legacy extension roots)
  • Format: whole-file JSON rewritten on change (not append-only) — full re-parse after atomic replacement, no incremental offsets. A change to the manifest alone, as cline history update --title makes, re-reads the session too (#4319), and so does a change to the task's own entry in state/taskHistory.json (#4446)

user/assistant turns are indexed for their text, from string content or

type:"text" blocks; thinking, images and non-lead agents are skipped by

design. A compaction leaves messages.json whole and writes its summary to

<sessionId>.compaction.json beside it, as the message whose metadata.kind

is compaction_summary; metadata.summary is indexed under the summary role,

and a change to that file re-reads the session (#4795). Tool calls are read as well: run_commands becomes a

command record, the file tools a files record, and the editor's two sides

(old_text, new_text) the replaced span and the hashed written lines; an

editor call with only new_text creates or inserts, and gives the written

side alone. apply_patch takes its patch under input and gives the files,

removed lines and added lines its headers name. A tool result is indexed as tool

output whether it is a string or the CLI's list of

{query, result, error, success} entries that run_commands and

read_files write; an error the result does not already carry is kept with

it (#4315). A command carries → exit N from its result: the entry's

success or its "Command exited with code N" error, or the extension's

"Command failed with exit code N." (#4502). The legacy extension's store takes

the Roo path for those, since its tools are Roo's — see

Roo Code for the SEARCH/REPLACE shape and the workspace-relative

paths. Two spellings are Cline's own: replace_in_file blocks are marked

------- SEARCH / ======= / +++++++ REPLACE (each a whole line, a run of

three or more, Roo's < and > too), and apply_patch names its

patch input where Roo's names it patch. The legacy <task>...</task> user envelope is unwrapped so the tags are

not indexed.

  • MCP: deja install cline writes mcpServers.deja into

${CLINE_MCP_SETTINGS_PATH:-$CLINE_DATA_DIR/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json}

(flattened command/args shape, accepted by current Cline; existing entries

preserved).

  • Auto, skill, command: deja install cline also writes a plugin to

${CLINE_DIR:-~/.cline}/plugins/deja/. It registers a rule whose content is

session-start recall, a message builder that adds recall for each prompt and

a repair after a failed command, the /deja command, and the

deja-history skill bundled in the plugin. A package.json listing

index.js under cline.plugins makes the directory a plugin package, which

is the only way Cline loads its skills/ (#4316). Cline's own hooks cannot

carry context back, so the plugin is the channel.

  • Resume: cd <cwd> && cline --id <sessionId> for modern sessions only;

cline --id reopens the transcript from anywhere but runs its tools in the

current directory, so the command runs in the manifest's cwd (#4318).

Legacy VS Code tasks reopen from the extension UI.

  • Handoff: cline <prompt> runs directly.

Specified by the community in

#253 with synthetic samples

and upstream source references.

Last verified: 2026-07-28

deja reads this format and thirty-seven others, and turns what it finds into memory your agents can search. See the harness matrix for what is wired where, or install it and search your own history.

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