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There are already a bunch of open source, free, and popular "AI coding agent" extensions for VS Code: 1) Cline (1.4mil downloads) 2) Roo Code (a fork of Cline

There are already a bunch of open source, free, and popular "AI coding agent" extensions for VS Code: 1) Cline (1.4mil downloads) 2) Roo Code (a fork of Cline, 450k downloads) Still a drop in the bucket compared to Cursor in terms of # of users, but they're growing pretty fast. Disclaimer: I maintain Kilo Code, which competes with 1) and 2) so I'm pretty familiar with this space/the growth patterns.

htrp 1y ago
How are you differentiating from the cline/roo's of the world?
- boleary-gl 1y ago
  Our plan is to be a superset of Cline and Roo's features (we already have all the major features from both) [0] We also have our own provider, which means no need to bring your own API keys (you can if you like, but it is batteries included by default) and we're not charging anything on top of the API pricing. Instead of monetizing on individual developers, we want it to be free for them and make money eventually off enterprise contracts [1] [0]: https://blog.kilocode.ai/p/roo-or-cline-were-building-a-superset https://blog.kilocode.ai/p/roo-or-cline-were-building-a-supe... [1]: https://kilocode.ai https://kilocode.ai
  - alasano 1y ago
    I can't find any reference to Cline/Roo charging anything on top of API pricing. Not sure how they'd do it considering you bring your own API keys. Can you link me to a resource?
    - oofbaroomf 1y ago
      GP didn't say Cline/Roo charged anything on top.
      - alasano 1y ago
        The comparison table on the kilo site says "OpenRouter without 5% markup" and only puts a checkbox next to kilo.
        jychang 1y ago
        Roo/Cline doesn't offer Openrouter, markup or not.
        theturtletalks 1y ago
        You can most definitely use Openrouter with Roo and Cline. Openrouter leaderboards are dominated by these 2 apps.
        jychang 1y ago
        But they don't OFFER Openrouter a paid product... You cannot give roo/cline dollars and get openrouter api access.
        boleary-gl 1y ago
        Yes - with our built-in provider, we provide all the models that OpenRouter provides but without OpenRouter's 5% markup. We provide them at cost (the AI provider cost)
  - UncleOxidant 1y ago
    maybe you could answer a question about kilo usage: If I choose Google Gemini as the API provider and give it my Gemini API key, why does it say that I'm low on credits (and I get API request failures immediately)? As far as I understand gemini 2.5 pro preview is free to use. (and in Cline I'm able to choose Google Gemini as the API provider & provide my API key and it will successfully make API requests)
    - hadesarchitect 1y ago
      It looks like a bug to me. Did you report it on GitHub?
    - hadesarchitect 1y ago
      We added it to the issues: https://github.com/Kilo-Org/kilocode/issues/349 https://github.com/Kilo-Org/kilocode/issues/349
    - hadesarchitect 1y ago
      Hey, we can't reproduce it. Could you maybe jump in and give some more details? https://github.com/Kilo-Org/kilocode/issues/349 https://github.com/Kilo-Org/kilocode/issues/349
tomrod 1y ago
Continue.dev as well
- nick__m 1y ago
  I happy to know that I am not the only one that know about continue.
  - wkat4242 1y ago
    It's used a lot by self hosters like myself because you can modify their plugin to talk to your local LLM.
    - rizky05 1y ago
      roo and cline also can use local llm
      - wkat4242 1y ago
        Ah thanks I might look at those too then. I'm not coding very much anyway though.
dhc02 1y ago
I am constantly surprised how seldom aider is mentioned in threads like this. I understand that it's not directly integrated into the editor, but the "editor + parallel CLI tool chain" paradigm feels so natural to me because we drop to terminal for so many other parts of building software. If you haven't tried it (particularly the architect/editor modality), it's worth a couple of hours of experimenting.
- PantaloonFlames 1y ago
  Aider doesn’t provide any interface that’s integrated into the editor tool, as you point out. That might be true for other similar side-by-side tools that I am not aware of. But, if you tell aider to watch your files, you can drop a specially formatted comment into your file, and aider will see that and use it as a prompt. So the integration is sort of “implicit”. Which sounds kinda like the cheap way to go, in comparison to the current brand name tools that have their own chat boxes, dropdowns with mode selectors (ask, edit, agent), and so on. But look further into the future and an ambient interface is probably where we end up. Something where the Ai agent is just watching what you do, maybe even watching your eyes and seeing what you’re attending to, and then harmonizing its attention to what you are attending to. But I dunno, i’m just guessing
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- senko 1y ago
  Tight editor integration means better diffs (right in your editor), easier context manager, and other convenience features that CLI-only tools can't have. This doesn't mean that aider, claude code, etc. aren't very good tools, but it does make sense to distinguish between built-in tools vs external ones. A similar non-AI example is debugging or linting: IDE integration makes it much easier than using a separate tool.

htrp 1y ago

How are you differentiating from the cline/roo's of the world?

boleary-gl 1y ago
Our plan is to be a superset of Cline and Roo's features (we already have all the major features from both) [0] We also have our own provider, which means no need to bring your own API keys (you can if you like, but it is batteries included by default) and we're not charging anything on top of the API pricing. Instead of monetizing on individual developers, we want it to be free for them and make money eventually off enterprise contracts [1] [0]: https://blog.kilocode.ai/p/roo-or-cline-were-building-a-superset https://blog.kilocode.ai/p/roo-or-cline-were-building-a-supe... [1]: https://kilocode.ai https://kilocode.ai
- alasano 1y ago
  I can't find any reference to Cline/Roo charging anything on top of API pricing. Not sure how they'd do it considering you bring your own API keys. Can you link me to a resource?
  - oofbaroomf 1y ago
    GP didn't say Cline/Roo charged anything on top.
    - alasano 1y ago
      The comparison table on the kilo site says "OpenRouter without 5% markup" and only puts a checkbox next to kilo.
      - jychang 1y ago
        Roo/Cline doesn't offer Openrouter, markup or not.
        theturtletalks 1y ago
        You can most definitely use Openrouter with Roo and Cline. Openrouter leaderboards are dominated by these 2 apps.
        jychang 1y ago
        But they don't OFFER Openrouter a paid product... You cannot give roo/cline dollars and get openrouter api access.
      - boleary-gl 1y ago
        Yes - with our built-in provider, we provide all the models that OpenRouter provides but without OpenRouter's 5% markup. We provide them at cost (the AI provider cost)
- UncleOxidant 1y ago
  maybe you could answer a question about kilo usage: If I choose Google Gemini as the API provider and give it my Gemini API key, why does it say that I'm low on credits (and I get API request failures immediately)? As far as I understand gemini 2.5 pro preview is free to use. (and in Cline I'm able to choose Google Gemini as the API provider & provide my API key and it will successfully make API requests)
  - hadesarchitect 1y ago
    It looks like a bug to me. Did you report it on GitHub?
  - hadesarchitect 1y ago
    We added it to the issues: https://github.com/Kilo-Org/kilocode/issues/349 https://github.com/Kilo-Org/kilocode/issues/349
  - hadesarchitect 1y ago
    Hey, we can't reproduce it. Could you maybe jump in and give some more details? https://github.com/Kilo-Org/kilocode/issues/349 https://github.com/Kilo-Org/kilocode/issues/349

tomrod 1y ago

Continue.dev as well

nick__m 1y ago
I happy to know that I am not the only one that know about continue.
- wkat4242 1y ago
  It's used a lot by self hosters like myself because you can modify their plugin to talk to your local LLM.
  - rizky05 1y ago
    roo and cline also can use local llm
    - wkat4242 1y ago
      Ah thanks I might look at those too then. I'm not coding very much anyway though.

dhc02 1y ago

I am constantly surprised how seldom aider is mentioned in threads like this. I understand that it's not directly integrated into the editor, but the "editor + parallel CLI tool chain" paradigm feels so natural to me because we drop to terminal for so many other parts of building software. If you haven't tried it (particularly the architect/editor modality), it's worth a couple of hours of experimenting.

PantaloonFlames 1y ago
Aider doesn’t provide any interface that’s integrated into the editor tool, as you point out. That might be true for other similar side-by-side tools that I am not aware of. But, if you tell aider to watch your files, you can drop a specially formatted comment into your file, and aider will see that and use it as a prompt. So the integration is sort of “implicit”. Which sounds kinda like the cheap way to go, in comparison to the current brand name tools that have their own chat boxes, dropdowns with mode selectors (ask, edit, agent), and so on. But look further into the future and an ambient interface is probably where we end up. Something where the Ai agent is just watching what you do, maybe even watching your eyes and seeing what you’re attending to, and then harmonizing its attention to what you are attending to. But I dunno, i’m just guessing
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
senko 1y ago
Tight editor integration means better diffs (right in your editor), easier context manager, and other convenience features that CLI-only tools can't have. This doesn't mean that aider, claude code, etc. aren't very good tools, but it does make sense to distinguish between built-in tools vs external ones. A similar non-AI example is debugging or linting: IDE integration makes it much easier than using a separate tool.