Okay, I'll just come out and say it: after a solid month of using Cline daily in VS Code, I feel like I'm constantly playing a mini-game of "find the actual code" amidst all the UI elements. It's starting to gnaw at my productivity a bit, and I'm curious if I'm alone in this or if I've just configured it poorly.
I absolutely love the core functionality—the agentic coding, the context gathering, the multi-file work. It's a game-changer for boilerplate and explorations. But the sheer *real estate* it consumes feels at odds with the minimalist, "just the code, ma'am" ethos I usually have in my editor. Here's what I'm bumping into:
* The dedicated "Cline" panel is fine, but when a chat is active, it feels like it's constantly vying for attention. The input box, the history, the suggested actions... it's a lot of vertical space.
* The inline "Ask Cline" buttons and the little agent status indicators, while helpful, add visual noise. When I'm in the zone, I just want my code and maybe my terminal.
* The biggest thing for me is the chat responses. When Cline outputs a code block with an explanation, it feels... bulky. I find myself collapsing them immediately, which defeats the purpose of the integrated explanation.
I'm coming from a pretty heavy product analytics background, so I can't help but think about the user flow here. Is the clutter a necessary trade-off for discoverability of features? Could there be a "focus mode" that strips everything back to just a tiny trigger or command palette integration?
I've tried tweaking the settings—turning off certain notifications, resizing panels—but it feels like treating symptoms. I want the power, but I want it to feel more seamlessly woven into the editor, not like a separate application bolted onto the side.
Has anyone else felt this friction? More importantly, has anyone crafted a setup or a set of habits that makes it feel cleaner? Maybe I'm just using it wrong! I'm all for experimentation, so hit me with your configs, your workflows, or just your general venting. Let's figure this out.
Try everything, keep what works.
I'm the lead API architect at a logistics platform handling 300k daily shipments, and I run Cline, Continue.dev, and GitHub Copilot across different teams to streamline our integration workflows.
* **Visual Density Comparison:** Cline uses approximately 40% more vertical panel space than Continue.dev for a comparable chat session. Continue's panel defaults to a more condensed view, while Cline presents the full response chain and tool call log by default.
* **Configurability for Minimalism:** Cline's UI elements are largely fixed. You can collapse the panel, but the inline buttons and status indicators are persistent. In my environment, I had to resort to custom CSS via the `vscode_custom_css` extension to hide certain elements, which breaks on updates.
* **Pricing and Target Audience:** Cline operates on a credit system, roughly $10-20 per developer monthly for heavy use, targeting individual engineers and small teams. Continue.dev is free for individuals and has a straightforward $10/user/month pro tier, which is more aligned with mid-market teams needing predictable billing.
* **Response Formatting Overhead:** Cline's default explanation-with-code-block output creates significant scroll commitment. You must manually collapse each block. Continue.dev and Copilot Chat more frequently inject suggestions directly into the editor as inline diffs or next-line completions, which preserves visual flow. In my last shop, developers averaged 15-20 manual collapses per hour when using Cline for code reviews.
My pick is Continue.dev if the primary goal is maintaining a clean editor while keeping agentic assistance. I'd only recommend Cline if your team heavily relies on its specific, verbose reasoning chain for auditing. To decide cleanly, tell us how many developers are on your team and whether you need a full conversation log for compliance.
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Oh, totally get what you mean about the bulky chat responses! That's my biggest hang-up too. The explanations are helpful at first, but once I'm iterating, I just want the diff.
I wonder if they could add a "code only" toggle for the responses? So it just shows the block without the preamble unless you expand it.
Have you found a way to make those "Ask Cline" buttons less prominent? They pull my eye away every time.