Enterprise AI coding that uses your infrastructure, not ours

Most AI coding tools require sending code through their servers. For healthcare systems protecting patient records, banks safeguarding transaction data, and defense contractors working with sensitive or classified code, that approach fails immediately.

Security teams block the tool. Developers revert to manual workflows. Productivity drops, not because AI is ineffective, but because the architecture was wrong from the start.

Cline takes a different approach. Your code never leaves your environment. You connect directly to AI providers you already trust. You retain the compliance certifications you already maintain.

This is not about trading security for productivity. It is about designing the system so you never have to choose.

Client-side execution means exactly what it sounds like

Every line of code stays on your machine. Cline runs entirely inside your IDE. There are no uploads, no external indexing, and no opaque cloud processing. When you ask Cline to refactor a function or debug an API endpoint, the analysis happens locally using your selected AI provider over a direct connection.

That distinction matters in regulated environments. Under HIPAA, PCI-DSS, FedRAMP, or NIST 800-171, the moment code or sensitive context leaves your boundary, you introduce compliance risk. Cline avoids that problem by design.

The codebase is open source, so security teams can inspect exactly how data flows, how requests are made, and how policies are enforced. There are no black boxes and no trust-us claims that collapse during audit.

Use the AI infrastructure you already vetted

Most enterprises already went through extensive security reviews for their cloud providers. Healthcare systems negotiated HIPAA agreements. Banks completed vendor risk assessments. Defense contractors achieved FedRAMP authorization.

Cline connects directly to AWS Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, Azure OpenAI, or any other provider your organization already uses. You're not paying markup on inference costs. You're not adding another vendor to your compliance matrix. You're using the infrastructure you already trust, with the rates you already negotiated.

This also resolves data residency requirements. GDPR, CCPA, and sector-specific mandates all hinge on where processing occurs. Because you control the provider and region, you control where data is handled. European data stays in the EU. Government workloads stay in authorized US regions. The infrastructure choice is yours.

Enterprise identity without scattered API keys

Personal API keys create distributed risk. Credentials live on laptops, get copied into scripts, and sometimes land in public repositories. Offboarding becomes brittle and slow.

Cline integrates with Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, Google Workspace, and AWS IAM Identity Center. Developers authenticate with corporate credentials. Security teams manage access through existing identity systems. When someone leaves, their access revokes immediately across all systems, including Cline.

This aligns with real compliance needs. Healthcare organizations need auditable access to systems touching PHI. Financial institutions require separation of duties. Defense contractors need enforced MFA and role-based access controls for CMMC and NIST requirements. These controls are inherited from the identity systems you already rely on.

Real-time monitoring and audit trails

Security, compliance, and finance teams all need visibility, for different reasons.

Cline exports telemetry through OpenTelemetry to whatever observability platform you already use. Datadog, Splunk, Grafana Cloud, New Relic – if you're already sending logs there, you can send Cline's data there too.

You can track model usage, project-level costs, user activity, configuration changes, and tool executions. The audit trail is complete and centralized. For regulated organizations, this is not a bonus feature. It is a prerequisite for operating AI tooling at scale.

Centralized governance that actually works

When thousands of developers use AI tools, policy cannot be optional or manual.

Cline provides centralized remote configuration so platform teams define rules once and apply them everywhere. Policies are defined in code and enforced consistently. You can require security scans before execution, enforce logging for external calls, mandate approvals for sensitive operations, or set spending limits by role or team.

This makes regulatory requirements enforceable. Preventing prompts that include patient identifiers, requiring approvals for production deployments, or enforcing classified data handling procedures stops being guidance and becomes system behavior.

Deploy where your data needs to be

Not every organization can use shared cloud environments. Some require on-prem deployment. Others require fully air-gapped systems with no external connectivity.

Cline supports cloud, on-premises, and air-gapped deployments. You can deploy in multiple regions for sovereignty or availability, or isolate entirely for classified workloads.

Healthcare organizations can keep EU data in EU regions. Defense contractors can operate in air-gapped environments that meet higher CMMC levels. Organizations handling Controlled Unclassified Information can deploy behind their own security boundary and satisfy NIST 800-171 requirements.

Compliance through infrastructure choice

Cline does not introduce a new compliance surface because your code never touches our servers. Compliance is inherited from the AI provider you select.

If you need HIPAA eligibility, use a provider willing to sign a Business Associate Agreement. If you need FedRAMP High, deploy in AWS GovCloud or Azure Government. If you need SOC 2 Type II coverage, rely on the same providers already approved for production workloads.

This mirrors how regulated industries already manage risk. You trust the infrastructure vendors you run your systems on today. Cline fits into that model instead of trying to replace it.

Transparent costs without markup

Many AI coding tools hide inference economics behind seat licenses. Costs appear later, disconnected from usage.

Cline exposes real-time cost tracking by team, project, and model. You can set budgets, enforce limits, and generate reports that map usage to business justification.

If you already benefit from enterprise pricing or cloud credits, you keep them. Usage-based billing reflects actual work performed. Lightweight tasks cost little. Heavy refactors cost more. Finance teams get clarity instead of surprises.

Productivity with proper controls

Security tools fail when developers bypass them.

Cline gives developers full AI-assisted workflows while preserving control. Developers can modify code, run commands, and test changes, but every action is visible. Sensitive operations can require approval. Policies cannot be bypassed locally.

Auto-approval rules let organizations define what is safe to run automatically and what requires review. This balance enables speed without sacrificing accountability.

Built on open source transparency

Closed-source AI tools force security teams to trust claims they cannot verify.

Cline’s open source foundation allows full inspection of authentication, data handling, and policy enforcement. There is no hidden telemetry, no undocumented behavior, and no vendor lock-in.

For regulated organizations, this transparency often matters more than feature lists. Being able to demonstrate exactly how the system works turns audits into verification instead of negotiation.

Bringing AI to regulated industries shouldn't require choosing between productivity and compliance. The right architecture eliminates that tradeoff.

Cline runs client-side, connects to infrastructure you already trust, integrates with existing identity systems, exports full telemetry, and enforces centralized policy. The architecture eliminates the tradeoffs instead of managing their fallout.

Healthcare teams ship faster while protecting patient data. Financial institutions move quickly with full auditability. Defense contractors use AI without exposing sensitive code.

The economics work because you use infrastructure you already pay for. The compliance works because you are not adding new vendors to your risk surface. The security works because data never leaves your control.

If your security team has blocked AI tools for valid reasons, show them an architecture that addresses those concerns. If developers want AI assistance but are constrained by compliance, show them a system designed for those constraints. If finance needs cost clarity, show them transparent usage.

Learn more about Cline Enterprise, explore provider configuration options, or join the conversation at https://discord.gg/cline to hear how other organizations in regulated industries are using Cline. The architecture makes it possible. The implementation makes it practical.