.clinerules website screenshot

.clinerules

.clinerules is the rule-file convention used by the Cline open-source AI coding agent. Projects expose persistent guidance to Cline by placing a .clinerules/ directory at the repository root containing one or more Markdown or text files. Each file may declare optional YAML frontmatter to scope its instructions to glob patterns so the agent only loads context relevant to the active task. The format is interoperable with AGENTS.md, .cursorrules, and .windsurfrules conventions, providing a cross-tool standard for codifying coding conventions, architectural decisions, and behavioural constraints for AI coding agents.

.clinerules is profiled on the APIs.io network. Tagged areas include AI Agents, Cline, Coding Standards, Configuration, and Developer Workflow.

The .clinerules catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

.clinerules’ developer surface includes documentation and 7 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub
19.7/100 emerging ▬ flat Agent 0/100 human only Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5
0 APIs
AI AgentsClineCoding StandardsConfigurationDeveloper WorkflowPrompt Engineering

Kin Score

Kin Score Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5
Composite quality — 19.7/100 · emerging
Contract Quality 2.4 / 25
Developer Ergonomics 1.7 / 20
Commercial Clarity 0.0 / 20
Operational Transparency 0.0 / 13
Governance 8.8 / 12
Discoverability 6.8 / 10
Agent readiness — 0/100 · human only
Machine-Readable Contract 0 / 18
Agentic Access Contract 0 / 15
MCP Server 0 / 12
Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 10
Idempotency 0 / 9
Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8
Request/Response Examples 0 / 7
Rate-Limit Signaling 0 / 7
Typed Event Surface 0 / 6
Agent Skills 0 / 5
Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4
Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3
Improve this rating by publishing the missing artifacts — every area above can be raised, and the full rubric is at apis.io/rating/. This rating is computed from github.com/api-evangelist/clinerules: open an issue to ask a question, or submit a pull request to add artifacts. Want it done for you? Prioritized profiling — $2,500 →

Semantic Vocabularies 1

JSON-LD contexts and semantic vocabularies used across these APIs.

Clinerules Context

3 classes · 5 properties

JSON-LD

Spectral Rules 1

Spectral governance rulesets for linting and validating these APIs.

.clinerules API Rules

4 rules · 3 warnings 1 info

SPECTRAL

JSON Schema 1

Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.

Cline Rule File

2 properties

JSON SCHEMA

Security Posture 2

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Clinerules Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DNSSEC · DMARC

SECURITY

Clinerules Vulnerability Disclosure

Bugcrowd · security.txt · contact published

SECURITY

Resources

Documentation 2

Reference material describing how the API behaves

Documentation
Documentation
 JSONSchema
JSONSchema

Agent Surfaces 1

MCP servers, agent skills, and machine-readable catalogs

LlmsText
LlmsText

Design & Contract 1

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

JSONLDContext
JSONLDContext

Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

GitHubRepository
GitHubRepository

Access & Security 2

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

VulnerabilityDisclosure
VulnerabilityDisclosure
 DomainSecurity
DomainSecurity

Company 1

The organization behind the API

Website
Website

Source (apis.yml)

apis.yml Raw ↑ 
aid: clinerules
name: .clinerules
url: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/clinerules/refs/heads/main/apis.yml
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Unknown
  confidence: low
  source: []
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
created: '2025-01-01'
modified: '2026-04-27'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
type: Index
access: Public
position: Consumer
kind: standard
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/clinerules.png
tags:
- AI Agents
- Cline
- Coding Standards
- Configuration
- Developer Workflow
- Prompt Engineering
description: .clinerules is the rule-file convention used by the Cline open-source AI coding agent. Projects expose persistent
  guidance to Cline by placing a .clinerules/ directory at the repository root containing one or more Markdown or text files.
  Each file may declare optional YAML frontmatter to scope its instructions to glob patterns so the agent only loads context
  relevant to the active task. The format is interoperable with AGENTS.md, .cursorrules, and .windsurfrules conventions, providing
  a cross-tool standard for codifying coding conventions, architectural decisions, and behavioural constraints for AI coding
  agents.
apis: []
common:
- type: VulnerabilityDisclosure
  url: security/clinerules-vulnerability-disclosure.yml
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/clinerules-domain-security.yml
- type: Website
  url: https://cline.bot
- type: Documentation
  url: https://docs.cline.bot/features/cline-rules
- type: GitHubRepository
  url: https://github.com/cline/cline
- type: JSONSchema
  url: json-schema/clinerules-rule-schema.json
- type: JSONLDContext
  url: json-ld/clinerules-context.jsonld
- type: LlmsText
  url: https://docs.cline.bot/llms.txt
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com