Many CLI tools (like Git) use a pager such as less for interactive, scrollable output. When Cline runs commands in your terminal, that interactivity gets in the way — the pager can pause on the first page and block progress. You can configure your shell so that when a terminal is spawned by Cline, pagers are disabled and output streams through normally.

​
How it works

Cline sets an environment variable for terminals it opens to run commands:
  • CLINE_ACTIVE — non-empty when the shell is running under Cline
You can detect this variable in your shell startup file and adjust environment variables or aliases only for Cline-run sessions. This keeps your normal interactive terminals unchanged.

​
Quick setup (Zsh/Bash)

Add the following to your ~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc, or ~/.bash_profile: 
# Disable pagers when the terminal is launched by Cline
if [[ -n "$CLINE_ACTIVE" ]]; then
  export PAGER=cat
  export GIT_PAGER=cat
  export SYSTEMD_PAGER=cat
  export LESS="-FRX"
fi
  • PAGER=cat ensures generic pager-aware tools print directly to stdout
  • GIT_PAGER=cat prevents Git from invoking less
  • SYSTEMD_PAGER=cat disables paging in systemd tools (if present)
  • LESS="-FRX" makes less behave more like streaming output if a tool still calls it
This configuration only applies when CLINE_ACTIVE is set, so your normal terminals keep their usual interactive behavior.

​
Verify

  • Open a task in Cline that runs terminal commands and check:
    • echo "$CLINE_ACTIVE" prints a non-empty value
    • git log or other long outputs should stream without pausing
  • If changes don’t take effect:
    • Make sure you updated the correct startup file for your shell
    • Restart VS Code/Cursor so integrated terminals reload your shell config
    • Confirm your terminal profile sources your ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc

​
Optional tweaks

  • Prefer command-line options when you don’t want to rely on env vars:
# One-off usage (no aliases)
git --no-pager log -n 50 --decorate --oneline
systemctl --no-pager status nginx
journalctl --no-pager -u nginx -n 200
less -FRX README.md
  • You can also override paging via shell aliases scoped to Cline sessions using options rather than env vars:
if [[ -n "$CLINE_ACTIVE" ]]; then
  # Make 'less' non-interactive by default
  alias less='less -FRX'
  # Disable paging for common tools via CLI flags
  alias git='command git --no-pager'
  alias systemctl='command systemctl --no-pager'
  alias journalctl='command journalctl --no-pager'
fi
  • If you prefer environment variables, many CLIs also respect a generic or tool-specific pager variable:
    • Git: GIT_PAGER=cat
    • Systemd: SYSTEMD_PAGER=cat
    • Man pages: MANPAGER=cat (not typically needed for Cline-driven commands)
  • Aliases affect the current interactive shell, while environment variables propagate to child processes. Choose the approach that best fits your workflow.