Config

Cline configuration lives in two scopes:

• Global configuration in ~/.cline/ (applies globally across all Cline applications, including IDE, CLI, and SDK)
• Project configuration in .cline/ (applies only to the current workspace)

Configuration Directory Layout

Cline stores shared configuration across a few well-known locations. The primary root is ~/.cline/, with structured app state under ~/.cline/data/:

~/.cline/
  data/
    settings/
      providers.json           # API keys and provider configuration
      global-settings.json     # Global settings
      cline_mcp_settings.json  # MCP settings
    teams/                     # Team state
    sessions/                  # One folder of messages per session
    db/                        # SQLite databases (sessions.db, cron.db, ...)
    logs/                      # CLI and hub logs
  rules/                       # Global rules
  workflows/                   # Global workflows
  hooks/                       # Global hooks
  skills/                      # Global skills
  agents/                      # Global agent definitions
  plugins/                     # Global plugins (.js, .ts)
  cron/                        # Global cron specs

Additional global search paths supported by the code:

~/Documents/Cline/
  Rules/                       # Additional global rules
  Hooks/                       # Additional global hooks
  Plugins/                     # Additional global plugins
  Workflows/                   # Additional global workflows

Project-level configuration lives in .cline/ at your repository root:

.cline/
  rules/                       # Project rules
  workflows/                   # Project workflows
  skills/                      # Project skills
  hooks/                       # Lifecycle hooks
  agents/                      # Project agent definitions
  plugins/                     # Project plugins

Notes:

• Global provider settings, global settings, and MCP settings are stored under ~/.cline/data/settings/.
• Global rules, workflows, hooks, skills, agents, plugins, and cron specs resolve directly under ~/.cline/.
• Rules, hooks, plugins, and workflows may also be discovered from ~/Documents/Cline/ for compatibility.
• In a project, Cline also reads the older .clinerules/ layout (rules, plus its workflows/, skills/ and hooks/ folders), AGENTS.md at the project root, and skills in .agents/skills/. Globally, it also reads ~/.agents/AGENTS.md and skills in ~/.agents/skills/.

What Goes Where?

• Use global (~/.cline/) for defaults shared across all Cline applications (IDE, CLI, SDK) on your machine.
• Use project (.cline/) for team-shared behavior that should travel with the repo.

Commit .cline/ files you want to share with your team. Keep secrets out of the repo.

Configure Through the CLI

Use the interactive config UI:

cline config

From there, you can view/edit:

• Settings (global + workspace)
• Rules
• Skills
• Hooks

Useful Configuration Commands

Use a custom configuration directory:

cline --config /path/to/custom/config "your task"

Or via environment variable:

export CLINE_DIR=/path/to/custom/config
cline "your task"

Open the CLI log file (~/.cline/data/logs/cline.log, or the file CLINE_LOG_PATH names) when troubleshooting:

cline doctor log

Environment Variables

CLINE_DATA_DIR

export CLINE_DATA_DIR=/custom/path/to/cline
cline "your task"

Related Docs

• Rules
• Skills
• Hooks
• Plugins
• .clineignore (deprecated)

Security Notes

Hooks and plugins can execute code. Review them like any other executable artifact before adding them globally or to a project.