Securing Cline and Roo Code: VS Code AI Agent Privacy Controls

Autonomous AI Agent Risk in VS Code

VS Code extensions like Cline (formerly Claude Dev) and Roo Code have shifted developer AI assistance from autocomplete to autonomous agency. These extensions read local codebases, construct and execute bash commands, and connect to local services to solve bugs.

However, when an autonomous agent searches your repository for context, it frequently opens log files, credentials, and API handler code. Without endpoint filtering, all read file contents — including database connection keys, customer metrics, and PII — are passed directly to OpenAI, Anthropic, or OpenRouter.

Similar to how Cursor AI Source Code Leaks occur during context aggregation, Cline and Roo Code expose raw workspace data. Inserting a local Model Context Protocol (MCP) server filters this data in memory before transmission.

Configuring the MCP Server in Cline

Cline manages its MCP servers via a global settings file. To add PrivacyScrubber, edit your local config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "privacyscrubber": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["/absolute/path/to/@privacyscrubber/mcp-server/index.js"]
    }
  }
}

Configuring the MCP Server in Roo Code

Roo Code matches Cline's architecture but stores settings under its own extension path:

Centralized Security for VS Code Fleets

While individual developers can secure their own workstations, enterprise environments require uniform compliance controls. If your team is preparing for a SOC 2 audit or managing data sovereignty under GDPR regulations, relying on developers to manually maintain local exclusions is a liability.

The PrivacyScrubber TEAMS plan addresses this with Shared Regex Governance. The security lead defines proprietary credential formats, log patterns, and sensitive database field structures once, distributing them cryptographically to all local Cline and Roo Code instances. This establishes a verifiable, local-only compliance boundary that never transmits telemetry to external servers.