We present a controlled quantum secure direct communication protocol by using cluster states via swapping quantum entanglement and local unitary operation. In the present scheme, the sender transmit the secret message to the receiver directly and the secret message can only be recovered by the receiver under the permission of the controller.Keywords Controlled secure direct communication · Cluster state · Entanglement swappingQuantum key distribution (QKD) is probably one of the most promising concepts in quantum information theory, in which two remote legitimate users (Alice and Bob) establish a shared secret key through the transmission of quantum signals and use this key to encrypt (decrypt) the secret messages. Since Bennett and Brassard presented the pioneer QKD protocol in 1984 [1], a lot of QKD protocols have been advanced [2][3][4][5][6]. Recently, a novel branch of quantum communication, quantum secure direct communication (QSDC) has been proposed and actively pursued [7-10]. Different from QKD whose object is to generate a private key between two remote parties, QSDC can transmit the secret messages directly without creating a key to encrypt them beforehand.Beige et al. [7] have proposed that messages can be read out only after the transmission of an additional piece of classical information for each qubit. Boströem et al. [8] have proposed a quasi-secure ping-pong QSDC protocol. Deng et al. [9] have proposed a two-step quantum direct communication protocol using Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) pair, which attracted a great deal of attention. Wang et al.[10] proposed a protocol for quantum secure direct communication with cluster states, which is easily processed by a one-way quantum computer. Recently, Xia et al. [11] have present a controlled quantum secure direct communication