NDDev setup manager for the Cline CLI.

This module manages Cline through an explicit isolated target directory. It does not read or modify live VS Code extension state, Cline authentication, provider credentials, npm credentials, user caches, or global Cline state.

• CLI command: cline
• CLI npm package: cline
• CLI tested version: 3.0.47
• Official CLI install channel: npm install -g cline
• Node.js preflight: 20+ required, 22 recommended
• VS Code extension metadata only: saoudrizwan.claude-dev 4.0.12
• Official documentation: https://docs.cline.bot/getting-started/installing-cline and https://docs.cline.bot/cli/cli-reference

Extension installation and extension launch are unsupported because those operations require editor-managed live state.

The content setup and permission profile are orthogonal.

• Setup: nddev-builder
• Default profile: full-auto
• Safe profile: safe

full-auto runs without Cline native sandboxing:

• HOME=<target>/home
• --config <target>/home/.cline/data/settings
• --hooks-dir <target>/home/.cline/hooks
• --auto-approve true
• CLINE_COMMAND_PERMISSIONS allows ["*"], denies [], and allows redirects
• no --data-dir
• no CLINE_DATA_DIR
• no CLINE_SANDBOX
• no --yolo

safe runs plan-first with Cline sandboxing:

• isolated HOME=<target>/home
• --plan
• --auto-approve false
• --data-dir <target>/sandbox
• CLINE_SANDBOX=1
• CLINE_COMMAND_PERMISSIONS denies command execution and redirects

There is no third permission profile.

Use an absolute target path:

python3 cli-tools/nddev_cline.py list --json
python3 cli-tools/nddev_cline.py plan --target /absolute/target --json
python3 cli-tools/nddev_cline.py install --target /absolute/target --json
python3 cli-tools/nddev_cline.py switch --profile safe --target /absolute/target --json
python3 cli-tools/nddev_cline.py migrate --profile full-auto --target /absolute/target --json
python3 cli-tools/nddev_cline.py restore --backup 0 --target /absolute/target --json
python3 cli-tools/nddev_cline.py remove --target /absolute/target --json

Target-owned CLI software management:

python3 cli-tools/nddev_cline.py software-status --target /absolute/target --json
python3 cli-tools/nddev_cline.py install-cli --target /absolute/target --json
python3 cli-tools/nddev_cline.py update-cli --target /absolute/target --json

install-cli uses npm ci from the committed public package lock in a clean target-owned staging project with isolated cache, npmrc, global npmrc, HOME, temp directory, and XDG directories. It preflights Node.js, validates the lock digest and package-lock shape against references/cline-baseline.json, disables npm lifecycle scripts and bin links, probes cline --version through the package wrapper, writes a software manifest, and swaps the software surface atomically. Retired target-owned software is represented by the target-bound cleanup journal until it is drained.

software-status is read-only and validates the manifest and tree digest without executing the target binary. status, plan, and software-status also expose valid cleanup_pending state without repairing or deleting it. launch fails closed while cleanup is pending; run a mutating manager command to drain it before spawning Cline.

Launch forwards stdio and the child exit code:

python3 cli-tools/nddev_cline.py launch --target /absolute/target -- "review this repository"

Caller-supplied posture, path, and auth override flags are rejected before launch. Provider tokens, npm tokens, Cline credential environment variables, and editor state are stripped from child environments.

During launch the manager holds the exclusive target lifecycle lock until the child Cline process completes and lock cleanup is restored. Target lifecycle mutations, including install, switch, migrate, restore, remove, install-cli, and update-cli, are denied while target software is running.

The launch handoff is a write-protected verified-path handoff. Mutating commands publish and lock a monotonic product global.lock under the fixed system temp root (/private/tmp on macOS, /tmp on Ubuntu), canonicalize the target under that coordination, then publish and lock the canonical target anchor. Read-only status, plan, and software-status create no external anchors; they either inspect a cold no-anchor namespace or open existing anchors no-create. Published external anchors are never removed by normal lifecycle cleanup. Launch then holds a persistent target-internal lock file inside a dedicated lock directory. During launch the manager temporarily removes owner-write permission only from the internal lock directory and immutable target-owned executable/software artifact directories, checks that the software manifest is current before protection, revalidates entrypoint and package-wrapper identities plus O_NOFOLLOW SHA-256 byte digests immediately before spawning the target-owned executable, then restores modes after the child exits. The managed target root, runtime HOME, config, temp, XDG, runtime, and sandbox directories remain writable for Cline runtime state. This is not portable fd execution; without a native sandbox it does not claim resistance to deliberate same-UID tampering of the bootstrap lock root or deliberate same-UID chmod attacks.

At launch-command entry, the manager captures the caller's current directory once, strictly resolves it as an existing accessible project workspace, and passes that same path as both the child process working directory and Cline's manager-owned --cwd argument. The managed target remains the isolated configuration and runtime home. Forwarded --cwd and -c forms are rejected.

Legacy 0.1.0 managed targets may be inspected, migrated, restored, or removed. They are never launched.

The nddev-builder setup projects Cline-native public content into the isolated target:

• home/.cline/skills/nddev-builder/SKILL.md
• home/.cline/skills/nddev-builder/references/*.md
• home/.cline/agents/nddev-builder.yaml
• home/.cline/plugins/nddev-builder/package.json
• home/.cline/plugins/nddev-builder/index.js
• home/.cline/rules/nddev-managed.md
• home/.cline/data/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json

The plugin uses documented cline.plugins package metadata. The MCP settings file contains an empty mcpServers object because this module does not ship a real MCP server. No marketplace, fake hook, or fake MCP server is projected.

python3 cli-tools/validate_public_contracts.py
python3 -m py_compile cli-tools/nddev_cline.py cli-tools/validate_public_contracts.py
git diff --check

These checks are module-local and side-effect-free. Private harness tests, benchmarks, platform proof, durable memory, and operational skills are not part of the public module.