Adding Context

Use @ mentions and drag & drop to bring files into your conversations.

Cline works best when it has the right context, not just more context. @ mentions let you pull in the files and folders that matter for your task — no copying, no pasting, no context switching.

You can add context two ways:

• Type @ in the chat input and select a file or folder
• Click the + button in the bottom left to browse files or images

Quick Reference

What you want	Syntax	Example
File content	@/path/to/file	@/src/index.ts
Folder contents	@/path/to/folder/	@/src/components/

For other context — git history, web pages, terminal errors — just describe it. Cline will run git log, fetch the URL, or read the output itself.

File Mentions

Reference any file with @/path/to/file. Cline sees the complete file content, including imports, related functions, and surrounding context.

Can you refactor the error handling in @/src/api/users.ts?

Folder Mentions

Reference entire directories with @/path/to/folder/ (note the trailing slash). Cline sees the folder structure and all file contents.

Explain how the components in @/src/components/auth/ work together.

In multi-root workspaces, prefix paths with the workspace name: @workspace-name:/path/to/file

Drag & Drop

Drag files directly into the chat input to add them to your conversation.

In VS Code, hold Shift while dragging files into the chat input.

Dragging workspace files automatically creates file mentions. You can also drag files from Finder or File Explorer directly into Cline.

Supported File Types

Cline supports text files from your workspace, plus images, PDFs, CSVs, and Excel files from your file system.

Images require a multimodal model. Check the model selector to see which models support image inputs.

Context Menu Commands

Right-click on selected code to access Cline without typing. This is the fastest way to get help with specific code since it automatically includes the selected text and its file location as context.

Code Editor Commands

Command	When to Use
Add to Cline	Ask questions about code, get suggestions, or start a conversation with specific code as context
Fix with Cline	Quick fixes for errors, bugs, or issues in the selected code
Explain with Cline	Understand unfamiliar code, complex logic, or code you’re reviewing
Improve with Cline	Get refactoring suggestions, performance improvements, or cleaner implementations

Fix with Cline also appears in the lightbulb menu (Quick Fix) when your cursor is on an error or warning, making it easy to fix issues inline.

Terminal Commands

Right-click in the terminal to “Add to Cline” and get help with:

• Build errors and failed commands
• Test failures and stack traces
• Configuration issues
• Any terminal output you need help interpreting

Source Control Commands

In the Source Control panel, use “Generate Commit Message” to create AI-powered commit messages from your staged changes. Cline analyzes the diff and writes a descriptive commit message following conventional commit patterns.