The plant-specific TEOSINTE BRANCHED1, CYCLOIDEA, and PCF (TCP) transcription factors are classified into two classes, class Ⅰ and class Ⅱ TCPs according to the shared bHLH TCP domain. Accumulating evidences demonstrate that a subgroup of class Ⅱ CINCINNATA-like (CIN-like) TCP transcription factors plays a vital role in the establishment of plant architecture through modulating hormone biosynthesis and signaling. Recent advances have revealed their unexpected roles in mediating pathogenic effectors-triggered immunity (ETI), suggesting that the widely recognized developmental modulators are involved in fine-tuning plant immunity as well. Although the dissection of the regulatory pathway of CIN-like TCP proteins has begun to shed light on their mechanism of action, a unified and updated view based on the available information is urgently needed. This review aims to summarize the current knowledge about the functions of CIN-like TCPs in various regulatory cascades, and their roles as effector targets with an emphasis on the characterization of the available mutants, TCP interacting factors and the interconnected hormonal networks. Future perspectives for the research of these proteins are also discussed.