Compare agents

An owner without developer skills can export the agent and restore it working on a runtime or host the provider does not operate, within minutes of asking and without provider approval. Running the runtime on the owner's own machine counts as not provider-operated.

All agent state is in local files whose layout is documented (~/.cline/, ~/Documents/Cline, project .cline/). Export is therefore available immediately, but there is no export/import action: the in-app task export produces Markdown only, and restoring means copying folders by hand. Sources

Export is immediate (the agent is one .adf file; copying it and using Open is documented), but restoring a working agent on another machine takes several documented steps: import the owner seed phrase to unlock sealed keys, re-add a model provider key (app-level keys are not in the file), re-register app-level MCP servers, then review and accept the file. One shortfall (restore is not a single action). Sources

The export contains everything that defines the agent: configuration, instructions, memory, action history, logic, schedules and triggers, files, any identity, and credentials or a way to re-link each integration without any provider-registered client or broker. Derived data (embeddings, indexes, summaries) is accompanied by the source it was derived from.

The following all live locally under ~/.cline/data and ~/.cline in JSON, Markdown or SQLite: configuration (globalState.json, providers.json), credentials (secrets.json), rules, skills, workflows, hooks, MCP settings and session history. Checkpoints are git refs in the workspace repository. The Cline account holds only billing and credits, not agent-defining state. Per-workspace state is keyed by a hash of the absolute workspace path, so it re-attaches only at the same path; this is recorded, not counted. MCP OAuth supports owner-supplied or dynamically registered clients. Sources

The spec places config, instructions, memory, loops, timers, triggers, lambdas, files, messages, audit, logs, sealed identity keys and per-agent credentials in the .adf file; the project holds nothing. Items outside the file (app-level provider keys, app-scoped MCP credentials, WhatsApp session directory, runtime settings) can be re-linked by the owner without any ADF-registered client (MCP OAuth uses dynamic client registration; subscriptions use OpenAI/xAI client ids). A customised global base prompt is an app setting and does not travel; recorded, not counted, because the default install uses the shipped prompt. Sources

With a non-provider model configured per P4, the exported agent runs indefinitely without any service, account, licence or payment controlled by the original provider, and the owner holds a perpetual, irrevocable right to run it. No provider action, inaction or disappearance can disable or degrade it.

The extension is Apache-2.0 and runs with BYOK or local models without a Cline account. Feature flags fall back to coded defaults. However, the ToS define the 'Service' to include 'Cline Extensions' and grant only a 'freely revocable' licence that Cline 'may terminate … at any time, for any reason or no reason'. No technical path enforces that termination. Sources

The runtime is MIT-licensed with no licence check, account or ADF-run relay; the only ADF-project endpoints (GitHub update check, MCP registry, skill catalog, online docs) are optional, have off switches or bundled fallbacks, and are not needed to start or act. Mesh uses LAN, tailnet or owner-chosen addresses. Desk grade; a provider-blocked run is required at certification. Sources

The owner can choose any model that meets a documented minimum, including a local open-weight model, without provider involvement, and every capability of the agent (tools, triggers, messaging, memory, automation) keeps working. A swap may lower reasoning quality but never removes a capability.

The owner can choose from 200+ providers, including Ollama and LM Studio, with runtime-executed tools. The web_search and image_generation tools are added only for models that natively support them (supportsModelTool), so they are lost on other models, including local ones. Sources

Tool calling is the documented minimum and local open-weight models (Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM, llama.cpp) are first-class provider options; triggers, timers, lambdas and middleware run in the runtime. However, video input is implemented by injecting OpenAI-format video_url parts and is documented only for hosted providers (OpenRouter, Gemini), and no test against a local model is published, so under G12 at least one capability is not shown to survive a local model. Sources

Whatever the P2 export contains stays obtainable, current to the moment of termination, after account suspension or ban, a lapsed subscription, a price change, an acquisition, or the provider shutting down.

Agent state is written to the owner's machine by default (~/.cline/data), so a current copy is always in the owner's hands whatever happens to the Cline account or company. Sources

State is local-first: the agent is a SQLite file on the owner's disk with no ADF account or hosted copy, so no termination, ban or shutdown by the project can remove access to it. Sources