Agent Breaking Changes_

← Cline

Cline CLI v3.0.71

2026-10-13 · official notes

Summary

• Plugins now load inside the hub instead of a separate node or bun process, so the CLI no longer needs a JavaScript runtime on your PATH to run plugins. A plugin that fails to load no longer silently l
• --thinking now applies in ACP mode (--acp). Before, ACP sessions always ran with reasoning off
• cline hook accepts agenterror events. Before, it exited with an error and no response

Full notes

- Plugins now load inside the hub instead of a separate node or bun process, so the CLI no longer needs a JavaScript runtime on your PATH to run plugins. A plugin that fails to load no longer silently loses its tools: Cline prints a warning naming the plugin and the error, `cline config tools --json` lists it as a `plugin_failure` entry, and the new `cline hub plugins` shows each plugin's status and last error (`--reload <plugin>` re-imports one without restarting the hub). Set `CLINE_PLUGIN_MODE=sandbox` to keep the old subprocess behavior
- `--thinking` now applies in ACP mode (`--acp`). Before, ACP sessions always ran with reasoning off
- `cline hook` accepts `agent_error` events. Before, it exited with an error and no response
- A provider API key set in the environment (such as `OPENROUTER_API_KEY`) now counts as configured at startup, for providers that read a single environment variable. Before, the TUI asked you to set up the provider anyway
- With no model chosen, the Cline provider now uses the first model in Cline's recommended list (Claude Sonnet 5.5)
- Turning reasoning off now works on every provider. Models that can't turn it off keep their default, and level-only Gemini models no longer reject the request with a thinking-budget error
- Screenshots and other images no longer inflate the token estimate, which made auto-compaction run long before the conversation was near its limit
- Auto-compaction uses the selected model's context window when the catalog entry has none
- Scheduled runs: queued runs now start instead of staying pending forever, a run whose model call fails (for example, a retired model) is marked failed with the error, and after downtime only the latest missed occurrence of a schedule runs instead of every one back to back
- Rule files that are symlinks now load
- Skills in `.claude/skills` are now discovered
- The editor tool no longer receives null in place of the text to replace from some models
- Refreshed the model catalog. Adds the AI/ML API, LowRouter, and Prime Inference providers. The v0 provider now offers only its default model, `v0-1.5-md`, and OpenCode Go uses its new `https://opencode.ai/inference/go/v1` endpoint. The Cline free list adds Step 5 Preview. Default models change for 302.AI, CrossModel, Cortecs, DigitalOcean, NEAR AI Cloud, and Ofox (Claude Haiku 5.5), DevPass (LLM Gateway), LLM Gateway, and Meta (Muse Wonder 1.0), Aixy (GPT-6.1 Sol), CloudFerro Sherlock and Moark (GLM 5.3), Ambient, NanoGPT, Neuralwatt, and Novita AI

**Full Changelog**: https://github.com/cline/cline/compare/cli-v3.0.70...cli-v3.0.71