Connectors

Connectors let you chat with your agent from messaging platforms. Each incoming message creates or continues an agent session, and the agent's response is sent back to the conversation.

Setup Wizard

Run cline connect to open an interactive wizard that guides you through platform selection, credential entry, security configuration, and advanced options (provider, model, system prompt, agent mode).

cline connect

Supported Platforms

Telegram

Create a Telegram bot

Open Telegram and start a chat with @BotFather. Send /newbot and follow the prompts:

1. Enter a display name (e.g., "Cline")
2. Enter a username ending in bot (e.g., cline_myname_bot). Must be unique across Telegram.
3. BotFather responds with your bot token (looks like 7123456789:AAH...)

Start the connector

cline connect telegram -k <BOT-TOKEN>

The connector discovers the bot username from the token. Use --bot-username only if you need to override it.

Chat with your bot

Open Telegram, search for your bot's username, and send a message. The agent processes it and replies in the chat.

Security

By default, anyone who finds your bot can message it and it will execute tasks on your machine. The cline connect wizard asks whether to restrict Telegram access and can configure this for you.

Get your Telegram user ID

Message @userinfobot on Telegram. It replies with your numeric user ID immediately.

Use the wizard

cline connect

Choose Telegram, enter the bot token, answer yes to access restriction, then enter your user ID.

Or pass the flag manually

Replace 12345 with your Telegram user ID:

cline connect telegram -k <BOT-TOKEN> \
  --allowed-user-id 12345

Use --hook-command only when you need custom access logic. The hook receives each incoming message with sender info via stdin. Your script returns {"action": "allow"} or {"action": "deny", "message": "reason"}. Without --allowed-user-id or --hook-command, everything is auto-approved, so restrict Telegram bots that can reach a running Cline instance.

Slack

Slack supports webhook mode and socket mode. Each Slack thread maps to an agent session, so the agent maintains conversation context within a thread.

Webhook mode requires a bot token, signing secret, and public base URL:

cline connect slack \
  --bot-token <BOT-TOKEN> \
  --signing-secret <SECRET> \
  --base-url <URL>

Configure the Slack app's event subscription and interactivity request URLs to /api/webhooks/slack.

Socket mode requires a bot token and an app-level token with the connections:write scope:

cline connect slack \
  --bot-token <BOT-TOKEN> \
  --app-token <APP-LEVEL-TOKEN>

Enable Socket Mode in the Slack app. Socket mode does not need a public request URL and is single-workspace only.

Discord

Requires a Discord application ID, bot token, public key, and public base URL. The connector listens for Discord interactions at /api/webhooks/discord and also starts a Discord gateway listener for mentions, replies, reactions, and DMs.

Create a Discord application and bot

Open Discord Developer Portal and create an application.

1. In General Information, copy the Application ID and Public Key.
2. In Bot, create a bot if one does not exist, then reset and copy the bot token.
3. Enable Message Content Intent if you want normal messages, replies, and DMs to include text content.

Expose a public base URL

For local development, use a tunnel such as ngrok:

ngrok http 8788

Copy the HTTPS forwarding URL. This is your connector base URL, for example https://1234-5678.ngrok-free.app.

Start the connector

cline connect discord \
  --application-id <ID> \
  --bot-token <TOKEN> \
  --public-key <KEY> \
  --base-url <URL> \
  --port 8788 \
  --cwd /path/to/repo

--app-id is an alias for --application-id, and --token is an alias for --bot-token.

The agent can inspect files, run commands, edit code, and prepare PRs from Discord. Add --no-tools if the bot should only chat.

Configure the Discord interactions endpoint

In the Discord Developer Portal, set Interactions Endpoint URL to:

<base-url>/api/webhooks/discord

For example:

https://1234-5678.ngrok-free.app/api/webhooks/discord

You can verify the connector is reachable with:

curl <base-url>/health

Invite the bot to a test server

In OAuth2 > URL Generator, select the bot and applications.commands scopes, then give the bot permission to send messages and read message history. Open the generated URL and install the bot into your test server.

Chat with the bot

Mention the bot in a server channel, reply in a bot-created thread, or DM the bot. Each Discord conversation keeps its own agent session and context.

Discord Command Reference

Send these commands in Discord:

Normal messages are treated as agent tasks. If a task is already running, normal messages steer the active task.

Discord Security

By default, anyone who can reach the bot can ask it to run tasks. Restrict access with --hook-command. The hook receives the Discord user as a participant key such as discord:user:123456789.

cline connect discord \
  --application-id <ID> \
  --bot-token <TOKEN> \
  --public-key <KEY> \
  --base-url <URL> \
  --hook-command 'jq -r ".payload.actor.participantKey" | grep -q "discord:user:123456789" && echo "{\"action\":\"allow\"}" || echo "{\"action\":\"deny\",\"message\":\"unauthorized\"}"'

Google Chat

Requires a service account credentials JSON file and public base URL.

cline connect gchat --credentials-json <JSON> --base-url <URL>

WhatsApp

Requires a phone number ID, access token, app secret, webhook verify token, and public base URL.

cline connect whatsapp --phone-number-id <ID> --access-token <TOKEN> --app-secret <SECRET> --verify-token <VERIFY_TOKEN> --base-url <URL>

Linear

Requires an API key, webhook signing secret, and public base URL.

cline connect linear --api-key <KEY> --webhook-secret <SECRET> --base-url <URL>

Managing Connectors

# Stop all connectors
cline connect --stop

# Stop a specific connector
cline connect --stop telegram

# Restart a connector, with the options you started it with
cline connect --restart telegram -k <BOT-TOKEN>

Hook Command Protocol

The --hook-command pattern works across all connectors. The script receives a JSON payload via stdin:

{
  "payload": {
    "actor": {
      "participantKey": "telegram:id:12345",
      "displayName": "User Name"
    },
    "message": "The incoming message text"
  }
}

Return {"action": "allow"} or {"action": "deny", "message": "reason"}.

Running Multiple Connectors

Multiple connectors can run simultaneously. They all share the same hub:

# Terminal 1
cline connect telegram -k $TELEGRAM_TOKEN

# Terminal 2
cline connect slack --bot-token $SLACK_TOKEN --signing-secret $SECRET --base-url $URL

Connectors require the hub. Start it with cline hub start if it doesn't auto-start.