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

Only user/assistant turns with string content or type:"text" blocks are

indexed. Tool payloads, thinking, files, images, compaction artifacts and

non-lead agents are skipped by design. 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).

  • Resume: cline --id <sessionId> for modern sessions only; legacy VS

Code tasks reopen from the extension UI.

  • Handoff: paste.

Specified by the community in

#253 with synthetic samples

and upstream source references.

Last verified: 2026-07-28

deja reads this format and nineteen 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.