Cline (formerly Claude Dev) is an open-source VS Code extension that acts as an autonomous coding agent. It can:
While designed with Claude in mind, Cline supports any OpenAI-compatible API — including DeepSeek.
| Feature | Claude Sonnet (default) | DeepSeek V4 | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Code generation quality | Excellent | Excellent | — |
| Cost per token | $3/M input | $0.28/M input | 91% |
| Context window | 200K | 128K | — |
| Multi-file editing | ✅ | ✅ | — |
| Monthly cost (heavy use) | ~$50-200 | ~$5-20 | 90% |
In VS Code, search for "Cline" in the Extensions marketplace and install it.
Open Cline settings (click the Cline icon in the sidebar → settings gear):
API Provider: OpenAI Compatible
Base URL: https://eaf9553505eeb8f5-115-190-107-107.serveousercontent.com/v1
API Key: your-aitoken-api-key-here
Model ID: deepseek-v4# Recommended Cline settings for DeepSeek:
Max Tokens: 8192
Temperature: 0.7
# For simpler tasks, switch to flash:
Model ID: deepseek-v4-flash # 4x cheaper, fasterOpen Cline chat and try:
Create a REST API with FastAPI that has:
- User registration with email verification
- JWT authentication
- CRUD endpoints for a blog (posts, comments)
- SQLite database with SQLAlchemy ORM
- Input validation with Pydantic modelsCline will autonomously create files, install dependencies, and set up the project.
deepseek-r1 (best reasoning)deepseek-v4 (balanced quality/cost)deepseek-v4-flash (cheapest)qwen3.6-flash (fast and cheap)| Task | Tokens Used | Claude Cost | DeepSeek Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Create REST API (5 files) | ~25K tokens | $0.075 | $0.007 |
| Debug complex bug | ~15K tokens | $0.045 | $0.004 |
| Refactor module | ~20K tokens | $0.060 | $0.006 |
| Write tests (10 files) | ~40K tokens | $0.120 | $0.011 |
| Daily development (5 tasks) | ~100K | $0.30 | $0.03 |
| Issue | Solution |
|---|---|
| Cline says "model not supported" | Make sure to select "OpenAI Compatible" as provider, not "Anthropic" |
| Task gets stuck in loop | Reduce max_tokens to 4096 and break task into smaller steps |
| Slow response | Use flash model for simple tasks |
| Context limit hit | Start a new Cline chat for new tasks; DeepSeek has 128K context |