AI Coding Agents
The agents that write and edit code for you: Cline and Roo Code in VS Code, OpenAI's Codex CLI, autonomous OpenHands, Goose, Gemini CLI, Windsurf and Continue.
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How to Use Cline in VS Code
Cline is a VS Code extension that turns your editor into an autonomous coding agent: it reads your project, plans changes in Plan mode and carries them out in Act mode, showing every edit as a diff you approve. It is open source and works with your own API key or with local models.
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How to Use Roo Code
Roo Code is an open-source VS Code extension, born as a fork of Cline, that turns the editor into a team of agents with specialised modes (Code, Architect, Debug, Ask and Orchestrator). The project was archived in May 2026 at version 3.54.0, but its community continuation ZooCode keeps the same features alive.
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OpenAI’s Codex CLI
The Codex CLI is OpenAI's coding agent that works inside your terminal: you describe a task, it reads your repository, proposes the changes and runs commands inside a sandbox you control. It is open source, installs with npm and works with your ChatGPT account or with an API key.
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OpenHands: An Autonomous Coding Agent
OpenHands, formerly OpenDevin, is an open-source platform that solves programming tasks end to end: it takes a request, opens a sandbox container and edits files, runs commands and browses the web until it is done. It runs with Docker on your own machine and works with the model you choose.
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Goose: Block’s Coding Agent
Goose is an open-source AI agent created at Block that runs on your own machine as a desktop app, CLI and API. It reads and writes files, runs commands and tests, and works with more than fifteen model providers and MCP extensions. It is free, licensed under Apache 2.0, and you pay only for model usage.
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Gemini CLI: An Agent in Your Terminal
Gemini CLI is Google's coding agent for the terminal: open source, with a one-million-token context window and the Gemini 3 model. Since 18 June 2026 its free tier for individuals moved to Antigravity CLI, but the tool still works with an API key from AI Studio or an enterprise licence.
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Windsurf: The Agentic Editor
Windsurf is the agentic code editor created by Codeium: a VS Code fork whose Cascade agent reads your project, plans and edits several files with your approval. In July 2025 Cognition, the company behind Devin, bought it, and in 2026 it was renamed Devin Desktop, though it keeps Cascade and its SWE models.
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Continue: The Open-Source Coding Assistant
Continue is an open-source coding assistant for VS Code and JetBrains that brings chat, autocomplete, inline editing and an agent mode into a single panel. Under the Apache 2.0 licence it works with more than a hundred models, including ones you run locally with Ollama, so you pick the model and keep control of your code.