Where Does Cline Store Settings?
Cline's .cline data root, settings files, secrets, and per workspace state locations.
Last updated
Cline keeps agent state in a .cline folder in your home directory, shared across VS Code, CLI and JetBrains clients. Global settings, provider keys, MCP servers and task history each get their own JSON file below it.
Older extension versions also wrote into VS Code global storage, but current builds migrate once into the file store and treat it as canonical. That makes the home folder copy the one to back up.
Where Cline stores this, by platform
%USERPROFILE%\.cline\data\settings
Root is %USERPROFILE%\.cline. Providers in settings/providers.json, global settings in global-settings.json, MCP in cline_mcp_settings.json. Secrets in data/secrets.json with restricted permissions.
~/.cline/data/settings
Same layout. Task history in data/tasks/taskHistory.json and per workspace toggles in data/workspaces/<hash>/workspaceState.json. Override root with CLINE_DATA_DIR.
~/.cline/data/settings
Same layout. Global rules, hooks, skills and agents resolve directly under ~/.cline, with ~/Documents/Cline kept for compatibility.
Frequently asked questions
Where are my Cline API keys?
In ~/.cline/data/secrets.json on Mac and Linux or the same tail under your user folder on Windows. It uses tight file permissions, so copy it securely or re-enter keys.
How do I use a custom Cline config directory?
Launch with cline --config /path/to/dir or set CLINE_DATA_DIR. That relocates the whole data tree including settings, tasks and workspace state.
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