TLDR
- VSCode with Cline
- Github Copilot LLM with Google Gemini Pro 2.5
- Custom Cline rules
- Custom Cline instructions
- Reasonable amount of MCP servers
Setting up the Developer Environment
There are three real options for Coding Agents:
Cursor
Cursor was the first player to the game and made took the copilot concept to the coding agents level. Initially Cursor has a generous free tier but now its more limited and you will have to pay to get access to better Models even then their use is limited.
On the plus side it is a fork of VSCode, so if you are used to VSCode and all the exentions that come with it, migrating Cursor won’ be an issue.
Since I find it limiting and being caution of the limited free tier I have not used it much.
Windsurf
I have heard a lot of good things about it and the expecirnce is widely different to Cursor in terms of their offering and workflow. Again didn’t look into this tool as to use it properly means buying another AI subscription.
Cline
It should be obvious that this is my choice of tool. It does mean using VSCode (RIP NeoVim), the plugin offers a lot of features and that list is growing slowly but surely.
NeoVim: As much as I love NeoVim, all the different plugins that can enable agentic coding are not as the same level as Cline. I’m hoping cline extends their offering to support NeoVim in the future.
Setting up Cline
Installing cline is the first step. You will need to use VS Code and install the Cline extension. Cline itself provide cutting edge ways of working for GenAI coding.
- Context Window
- Plan and Act
- MCP integrations
- Cline Rules
- Memory Bank
At the start I was unaware of these Cline features and used Cline as in-editor ChatGPT, this made for an inefficient workflow and gave false-negative experience of the tool. Once I started to use all the cline features as a whole, it all started to click and the promise of Agentic Coding making me productive was being realised. Before we start jump into using Cline, we need to understand all the feature components that make cline so useful and productive.
Context Window
Plan and Act Modes
Cline Commands
New Tasks
smol
MCP Integrations
Cline Rules
Memory Bank
Initiating the Agent
The first step is to initiate the Memory bank, this is done by going to cline command and pasting the following command:
initiate memory bank
If you follow the standard memory-bank setup, which is recommended for the first time, you will be asked to provide a projectBrief markdown file. The rest of the markdown file as defined in the cline rules will be generated.