Analyzing Cline: How Does a Coding Agent That Lives in Your Editor Detach Its Core From the Host?
Cline is a coding agent that lets you approve every action inside VS Code and roll back at any time. It also detaches its core from the host via a protobuf/gRPC boundary (ProtoBus + HostBridge), so the same core runs in the editor and in a terminal CLI. We analyze Plan/Act approval, checkpoints, and the host abstraction, contrasting them with OpenCode's headless engine.