Use Claude Code skills with Cline

Cline is a VS Code extension that runs an autonomous coding agent against the model of your choice — Claude, GPT, local, you pick. It reads .clinerules/ as its native rule directory and natively also picks up .cursorrules and .windsurfrules when present. That makes Cline the most permissive consumer of SKILL.md-shaped content in 2026.

Cline rule-file format (2026)

Cline supports both the modern .clinerules/ directory (one file per rule, plain Markdown) and the legacy single-file .clinerules. It also natively reads .cursorrules and .windsurfrules as fallbacks — useful if you're sharing a repo across teams that use different editors.

Modern (2026)	Legacy fallback
.clinerules/<rule-name>.md	.clinerules (single file)

Upstream docs: https://docs.cline.bot/

SKILL.md → Cline field mapping

SKILL.md field	Cline equivalent
name	→ implicit from filename
description	→ optional top-of-file Markdown heading (Cline parses the whole file)
allowed-tools	→ no direct equivalent — Cline routes through its own approval flow
user-invokable	→ all rules are always loaded

Worked example

Pick any ClaudSkills SKILL.md from the catalog. Strip the YAML frontmatter; drop the body into the file shown below:

# File: .clinerules/security-audit.md

# Security audit

When the user asks for a security review or pentest scope, follow the workflow below.
Apply OWASP Top 10 categories, scan for injection vectors, etc.

Save, restart your editor session, and the skill becomes available to Cline's agent on the next prompt.

Recommended skills for Cline users

From the 6 skills below, pick the one or two that match your project's most-common workflows. Each links to the full SKILL.md on ClaudSkills.

• security-audit Comprehensive security auditing workflow covering web application testing, API security, penetration testing, vulnerability scanning, and security hardening.
• code-reviewer Comprehensive code review skill for TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Swift, Kotlin, Go. Includes automated code analysis, best practice checking, security scanning, and review check
• beck-test-driven-development Develop software in the style of Kent Beck, creator of Test-Driven Development and Extreme Programming. Emphasizes red-green-refactor, tests-first design, small steps, and emergent
• owasp-top-10 Revisa código contra as 10 falhas mais comuns antes de merge
• incident-response Run an incident response workflow — triage, communicate, and write postmortem. Trigger with "we have an incident", "production is down", an alert that needs severity assessment, a
• deploy-checklist Pre-deployment verification checklist. Use when about to ship a release, deploying a change with database migrations or feature flags, verifying CI status and approvals before goin

Limitations to know about

• Cline loads all rule files into context at session start — no on-demand loading like Claude Code's user-invokable. Watch token cost when porting large skills.
• Cline runs against any model — Claude, GPT, local. If a skill assumes Claude-specific tool-use semantics, it may not behave the same against GPT.
• Cline's approval flow (per-tool-call confirmation) is its own scope mechanism. Skills with detailed allowed-tools sections still work; the user just confirms each tool call manually.

FAQ

Do I need to convert SKILL.md to a different format for Cline?

Strip the YAML frontmatter and save the body as .clinerules/<name>.md. That's it. Cline's loader treats the file as plain Markdown system context.

Can Cline use the same SKILL.md as Claude Code in the same repo?

Yes. Keep SKILL.md in your skill folder and symlink (or just copy the body) into .clinerules/<name>.md. Both tools see the content; neither tool conflicts with the other's loader.

Will switching from Claude to GPT in Cline change how my skill behaves?

Sometimes. Skills that depend on specific Claude tool-use idioms (XML tags in Claude's tool-use format, specific Claude refusal patterns) may behave differently with GPT. Test with both models.

Keep reading

• All integrations — the full landscape across Cursor, Cline, Roo, Windsurf, Codex, Continue
• Claude Code skill catalogs compared — 5 catalogs head-to-head
• How to write a Claude Code skill
• SKILL.md frontmatter reference
• Browse 69,000+ skills