feat(cline): add ZERO-294 Cline adapter

[spencercharest]

Summary

• Adds zero-cline, a Cline project-template adapter for ZERO-308 under ZERO-294.
• Ships .cline/skills/zero/SKILL.md, .clinerules/workflows/zero.md, and a mergeable Cline MCP fragment at .cline/zero/mcp.json.
• Adds scripts/build-cline.sh, guides/cline.md, README install link, and a 1.4.0 version bump through make minor.

guides/agent-install.md is intentionally not modified in this PR.

Official Sources Used

• Cline skills: https://docs.cline.bot/customization/skills.md
• Cline MCP overview: https://docs.cline.bot/mcp/mcp-overview.md
• Cline remote servers: https://docs.cline.bot/mcp/configuring-mcp-servers/remote-servers
• Cline workflows: https://docs.cline.bot/features/slash-commands/workflows
• Cline SDK plugins: https://docs.cline.bot/sdk/plugins.md
• Cline hooks customization: https://docs.cline.bot/customization/hooks
• Cline v3.36 hooks announcement: https://cline.bot/blog/cline-v3-36-hooks
• Current Cline CLI package: cline@3.0.24

Install / Update Surfaces

Human in-harness flow:

• Enable Skills in Cline settings if needed.
• For MCP only, use the MCP Servers panel and Marketplace if Zero is listed.
• Otherwise add the remote MCP server manually:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "zero": {
      "url": "https://mcp.zero.xyz",
      "disabled": false,
      "autoApprove": []
    }
  }
}

Terminal/project-template flow:

curl -fsSL https://zero.xyz/install.sh | bash
rm -rf /tmp/zero-plugins
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/officialzeroxyz/zero-plugins /tmp/zero-plugins
/tmp/zero-plugins/scripts/build-cline.sh
cp -R /tmp/zero-plugins/dist/zero-cline/. .

Cline CLI MCP merge:

mkdir -p ~/.cline
test -f ~/.cline/mcp.json || printf '{"mcpServers":{}}\n' > ~/.cline/mcp.json
tmp="$(mktemp)"
jq -s '.[0] * .[1]' ~/.cline/mcp.json .cline/zero/mcp.json > "$tmp" && mv "$tmp" ~/.cline/mcp.json

Update flow: rerun the standalone runner installer and rebuild/copy dist/zero-cline/.

Proposed guides/agent-install.md Notes

Do not apply these in this PR; collect them when the runbook is reworked.

• Add a Cline section covering .cline/skills/zero/SKILL.md, .clinerules/workflows/zero.md -> /zero, and the Cline MCP server fragment.
• Mention .cline/skills/ as the recommended project skill path. Cline also has compatibility paths such as .clinerules/skills/ and .claude/skills/, but this template intentionally emits one skill copy to avoid duplicate /zero entries.
• For MCP, document the UI/Marketplace flow first. For Cline CLI, merge the Zero fragment into ~/.cline/mcp.json.
• Keep autoApprove empty by default. Do not auto-approve paid Zero fetches or wallet operations.
• Do not document hooks as installed for the Cline editor extensions yet. Current Cline SDK plugin/hook docs apply to SDK, CLI, and Kanban surfaces and are explicitly not applicable to VS Code/JetBrains extensions, so the adapter waits on extension hook/plugin support.
• Keep standalone runner install/update as curl -fsSL https://zero.xyz/install.sh | bash.

Verification

Local checks:

• make minor -> bumped all manifests to 1.4.0.
• scripts/build-cline.sh --tar dist/zero-cline.tgz
• jq -e . plugins/zero-cline/manifest.json plugins/zero-cline/cline/zero/mcp.json
• make version -> 1.4.0
• tar -tzf dist/zero-cline.tgz
• cmp -s plugins/zero/skills/zero/SKILL.md dist/zero-cline/.cline/skills/zero/SKILL.md
• git diff -- guides/agent-install.md -> no diff

Docker Cline template smoke:

• Image: node:24-bookworm
• Installed cline@3.0.24.
• Applied dist/zero-cline/ into /work/project.
• Merged .cline/zero/mcp.json into ~/.cline/mcp.json with jq.
• Validated file set:
  • ./.cline/skills/zero/SKILL.md
  • ./.cline/zero/mcp.json
  • ./.clinerules/workflows/zero.md
  • ./manifest.json
• Verified merged MCP URL: https://mcp.zero.xyz.

Docker Cline headless smoke:

• Used ~/zeroclick/env OpenAI key with cline -P openai -m gpt-4.1-mini -k "$OPENAI_API_KEY" --json.
• Prompt: Say exactly ZERO-308 Cline headless smoke.
• Result: completed successfully with output ZERO-308 Cline headless smoke.

Docker Cline + copied-auth Zero E2E:

• Image: node:24-bookworm
• Copied host ~/.zero into the container as $HOME/.zero.
• Installed cline@3.0.24 and container-local @zeroxyz/cli@latest.
• Applied dist/zero-cline/ into /work/project.
• Merged .cline/zero/mcp.json into ~/.cline/mcp.json.
• Ran Cline headlessly with OpenAI provider/key, --auto-approve true, and an explicit instruction to use the Zero skill/workflow and not run zero review.
• Cline executed the required Zero flow through shell tools:
  • zero search "cdn.withzero.xyz upload txt file" --json
  • zero get cdn-withzero-xyz-static-site-file-cdn-upload-a0d9f22f
  • zero fetch --json --capability cdn-withzero-xyz-static-site-file-cdn-upload-a0d9f22f https://cdn.withzero.xyz/api/v1/uploads -d @/tmp/zero-cdn-body.json --max-pay 0.001
  • curl verification of returned URL
• run ID: run_DZVTt4o7ELxHOtaUT1K_w
• returned URL: https://cdn.withzero.xyz/LolkTqxW/agent-harness-e2e-cline-docker-20260615T002250Z.txt
• payment: 0 USDC
• verification: returned content matched the uploaded text exactly.

Claude-style plugin compatibility and simpler install option

Full Claude Code plugin package support: No. Cline reads Claude-compatible skills such as .claude/skills/, but the current VS Code/JetBrains extension surface does not document installing Claude Code .claude-plugin packages directly.

What this means for users:

• The custom Cline adapter is mostly a convenience wrapper around skill + MCP marketplace/config guidance.

• The lowest-friction consumer path is Cline's own UI/Marketplace for MCP plus a prebuilt or copied skill:

  curl -fsSL https://zero.xyz/install.sh | bash
  # add the Zero skill under .cline/skills/zero or .claude/skills/zero
  # add Zero MCP through Cline's Marketplace/UI or merge the MCP fragment

• Do not ask consumers to build locally. If this adapter remains, publish the generated files as a release artifact and document extract/merge steps only.

GitHub Releases / no-build install check

Result: No native Gemini-style GitHub Release install path. Cline's documented low-friction install surface is the MCP Marketplace/UI or manual MCP config. The docs do not show installing skills/workflows/hooks from GitHub Release assets.

Best no-build consumer path:

Cline MCP Servers -> Marketplace or Remote Servers -> add https://mcp.zero.xyz

plus a prebuilt/copyable Zero skill under .cline/skills/zero or .claude/skills/zero.

A GitHub Release tarball can package the skill/workflow/MCP fragment to avoid local builds, but it should be documented as manual download/extract. For Cline, a marketplace MCP listing likely gives more user value than a custom release artifact.

Status

Ready for review. Full Cline CLI harness E2E passed in Docker. Editor-extension MCP/Marketplace listing still needs product-side submission, but the project-template adapter and CLI path are verified.

[spencercharest]

Folded into #63 as a matrix entry (cline in plugins/zero/agents.json) — standalone skills + MCP (path updated to ~/.cline/data/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json per current docs). No hooks fragment: Cline's hook surface is in flux (TS SDK plugins / executable-file dirs, no JSON config), as this PR anticipated; #63 tracks the revisit (AgentPlugin publication or marketplace listing). The adapter-template work here stays available on this branch if we later ship per-host templates.