codeburn/docs/providers/cline-cli.md

Cline CLI

The Cline command-line agent (npm cline, 3.x). Separate from the Cline provider, which reads the VS Code extension's task tree.

• Source: src/providers/cline-cli.ts
• Loading: eager (src/providers/index.ts)
• Test: tests/providers/cline-cli.test.ts

Where it reads from

One root, resolved exactly as the CLI resolves it — each level independently overridable:

Level	Env var	Default
sessions	CLINE_SESSION_DATA_DIR	<data>/sessions
data	CLINE_DATA_DIR	<root>/data
root	CLINE_DIR	~/.cline

A directory is a session only when it contains <sessionId>/<sessionId>.json. probeRoots() reports the resolved sessions dir, so codeburn doctor distinguishes "CLI not installed" from "override pointing somewhere else".

Storage format

sessions/<sessionId>/
  <sessionId>.json           metadata + rolled-up usage
  <sessionId>.messages.json  per-message metrics

<sessionId>.json carries session_id, provider, model, cwd, workspace_root, started_at / ended_at, messages_path, and a metadata.usage rollup (inputTokens, outputTokens, cacheReadTokens, cacheWriteTokens, totalCost).

<sessionId>.messages.json holds { version, updated_at, agent, sessionId, messages[], system_prompt }. Assistant messages carry Anthropic-style content blocks (thinking / text / tool_use) plus:

"modelInfo": { "id": "z-ai/glm-5.2", "provider": "cline-pass" },
"metrics": { "inputTokens": 6937, "outputTokens": 213,
             "cacheReadTokens": 0, "cacheWriteTokens": 0, "cost": 0.002108502 }

One metrics block becomes one parsed call. Dedup key: cline-cli:<sessionId>:<messageId>.

Caching

None at the provider level; the metadata file is the cached source path and the normal parser/cache layers apply.

Quirks

• provider in the session file is the upstream LLM route (e.g. cline-pass), not the tool. The codeburn provider name is always cline-cli.
• Model strings are not normalized by the CLI. The same model appears as z-ai/glm-5.2, cline-pass/glm-5.2, and GLM-5.2 across sessions, so pricing lookups may need a model-alias.
• Cost is reported per message, so costIsEstimated is false on the normal path; it falls back to calculateCost only when a message omits cost.
• Rollup fallback. A session whose messages carry no metrics (interrupted, or an older layout) emits a single call from metadata.usage. This reads usage, deliberately not aggregateUsage / aggregatedAgentsCost, which fold in spawned subagents that are themselves separate session directories and would double count.
• messages_path is absolute and goes stale when a session directory is copied between machines, so the co-located <sessionId>.messages.json is preferred and messages_path is only the fallback.
• Tool names differ from the extension's. run_commands, read_files, search_codebase, editor, apply_patch, fetch_web_content, skills, spawn_agent, and the team_* family. run_commands carries a JSON-encoded array of command lines in a single string field.

When fixing a bug here

1. Reproduce with a minimal session directory: <id>.json plus <id>.messages.json.
2. Run tests/providers/cline-cli.test.ts.
3. This provider shares no code with vscode-cline-parser.ts — changes here cannot affect Cline, KiloCode, or IBM Bob.