Cline MCP settings for a project backlog

Add the Autoplans MCP server to Cline as a streamableHttp server, edited from the MCP Servers panel rather than by path.

The configuration

File: ~/.cline/data/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json, opened from the MCP servers icon → Configure → Configure MCP Servers · Transport: Streamable HTTP or stdio

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "autoplans": {
      "type": "streamableHttp",
      "url": "https://autoplans.dev/api/v1/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer apk_live_..." }
    }
  }
}

The endpoint is https://autoplans.dev/api/v1/mcp. Create the key in the dashboard under Settings → API keys; see Accounts and API keys.

Step by step

1
Create an API key in the dashboard under Settings → API keys.
2
Click the MCP servers icon in the Cline toolbar and open the Configure tab.
3
Press Configure MCP Servers at the bottom of that tab to open the settings file, and add the block under mcpServers.
4
Save the file, then check the Configure tab shows autoplans connected; restart it from there if it does not.
5
Add the tools you are happy for Cline to call unattended to autoApprove, and leave the rest to be confirmed each time.
6
Ask Cline what is next on the backlog.

Specific to Cline

•The transport value here is streamableHttp, not http. Omitting type falls back to SSE for backwards compatibility, and this endpoint does not serve SSE — a GET with Accept: text/event-stream is answered with 405 — so the field is not optional.
•Cline's own documentation gives two paths for this file: ~/.cline/data/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json, described as global across the IDE extension, CLI and SDK, and ~/.cline/mcp.json on the CLI configuration page. Opening it from the Configure tab is more reliable than typing either.
•The Configure tab also has a Remote Servers form, but the documented fields are a name, a URL and a transport type — no request header. A server authenticated with a bearer token is added as JSON instead.
•Cline's own remote example carries "disabled": false and an "autoApprove" array alongside the server. autoApprove is the list of tool names Cline may call without asking; its documentation says to limit it to safe tools, which here means read-only ones such as list_tasks and get_task, not the ones that delete.
•Cline keeps its own server list. If you also run GitHub Copilot in the same editor, the .vscode/mcp.json file is read by Copilot and not by Cline, so the server has to be added in both places.

What the agent can do once connected

Around forty tools: list and create projects, read the whole task graph in one list_tasks call, ask code_agent_get_task_with_dependencies whether a task is blocked, move it to in progress, comment on it, and mark it done. Every tool and its arguments is in the MCP tools reference; the server itself is described on the MCP server page.

curl -s https://autoplans.dev/api/v1/mcp \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -H "authorization: Bearer $AUTOPLANS_API_KEY" \
  -d '{"jsonrpc":"2.0","id":1,"method":"tools/list"}'

Questions

Where are the Cline MCP settings stored?

In a JSON file with an mcpServers object, opened from the MCP servers icon → Configure → Configure MCP Servers. The documentation names it in two places and not identically: ~/.cline/data/settings/cline_mcp_settings.json, shared across the extension, the CLI and the SDK, and ~/.cline/mcp.json on the CLI configuration page. Opening it from the panel avoids having to pick.

What goes in cline_mcp_settings.json for a remote server?

An entry under mcpServers with "type": "streamableHttp", the url, and a headers object carrying your bearer token — the block above is a complete example. Cline's own example also carries "disabled": false and an "autoApprove" array. Local servers use command and args instead, and those are the ones that also take env.

Does Cline support Streamable HTTP?

Yes, and it is the recommended transport for a remote server; "type": "sse" remains for older servers, and a missing type is treated as SSE. That default is an easy way to break a first attempt against Autoplans: the endpoint is Streamable HTTP only and answers an SSE handshake with 405, so the connection fails before any tool is listed.

Cline shows the server as disconnected. What should I check?

Check type is streamableHttp, then restart the server from the Configure tab. If it still fails, test the key outside Cline with a tools/list request against the endpoint: 401 means the key is wrong or missing, and 403 means the account is on the free plan, since the hosted MCP server is a paid capability.

Checked against the Cline documentation on 2026-08-28.