Cline released the Cline Desktop beta, an app built around open-weight models

Archive entry: this covers an event from September 14, 2026, and we published it on November 8, 2026. The details come from sources dated at the time and may have changed since.

On September 14, 2026, Cline announced Cline Desktop in a post by Etisha Garg, Cline Desktop: An open-source app for open-weight models. It was an early beta app for Mac and Windows that ran the same agent harness as Cline's VS Code extension and CLI.

What changed

• The harness was rebuilt on the Cline SDK, and sessions were linked across the CLI, the extension and the desktop app.
• Cline said the Mac app was fully open source, just like the extension and CLI.
• Models could come from the Cline provider with 300+ models, ClinePass for open-weight models, local models, or the user's own API key for 50+ providers.
• Features included parallel sessions, cron-style scheduled automations, a marketplace for plugins, MCP servers and skills, and importing sessions from Claude Code or Codex.
• Cline said its harness scored 82.02% on Terminal-Bench 2.0 with Kimi K3 (CLI, pass@1); the post noted that these were harness results, not a separate Desktop evaluation.

What it means for builders

Developers who wanted an open-source agent app built around open-weight and local models got a standalone option outside VS Code. Cline said it was used by more than 11 million developers.

Availability and pricing

The beta was offered for download at cline.bot/desktop. The post stated no pricing for Cline Desktop or ClinePass.

Sources

• Cline Desktop: An open-source app for open-weight models (Cline, September 14, 2026, official)

Written with AI assistance, strictly from the sources listed above. Before it went live, automated checks verified its dates, sources and every language edition.