AI coding tools
Cline Operating Card
Use Cline with a deliberate Plan-to-Act transition, reviewed approvals, independent Git history, and checkpoint-aware recovery.
- Format
- Reference
- Level
- Beginner
- Audience
- Practitioner, Developer
- Owner
- Project42 Editorial
- Review cadence
- Every 30 days
- Prerequisites
- A supported editor with Cline installed; A version-controlled working copy; An approved model-provider path
Separate planning from authorized action
Cline provides Plan and Act workflows inside an editor and can read files, propose changes, run tools, and request approvals. Use Plan mode to clarify approach and evidence before enabling mutating actions.
Review every requested action against the task boundary. Checkpoints are an additional recovery aid and do not replace the repository's real Git history, branch policy, backups, or independent review.
Approve the smallest useful action
Open the intended project folder, provide repository instructions, list protected paths, and define the tests that demonstrate success. Move to Act only when the plan is specific enough to review.
Compare checkpoint diffs and the actual Git diff before accepting. Avoid broad auto-approval for command execution, external tools, or consequential writes.
Task: [one bounded result]
Scope: [workspace and allowed paths]
Permissions: [Plan/Act boundary and approval rules]
Protected paths: [secrets, generated data, unrelated areas]
Verification: [tests, diff, and runtime observation]
Stop conditions: [unexpected tool, target, or destructive action]
Recovery: [Cline checkpoint plus Git checkpoint]Expected evidence and verification
Expected evidence includes the approved plan, action history, checkpoint or file comparisons, final Git diff, and verification output. Confirm the project folder and provider configuration were the intended ones.
For recovery, stop new approvals, preserve the failing output, compare the checkpoint with Git, and restore only the affected scope before retrying.