Open-source AI coding agent

Roo Code

by Roo Code

Roo Code is an open-source VS Code agent that started as a fork of Cline and grew its own architecture. It uses role-scoped modes - Code, Architect, Ask, and Debug - each with its own system prompt, tool permissions, and optional model, so you can route cheap questions to a light model and hard implementation to a frontier one. Boomerang Tasks let an orchestrator spawn specialized subagents for parallel work.

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Best for

  • Teams that want to assign different models to different tasks
  • Developers doing complex, multi-step project execution
  • Users who want a local-first, open-source agent

Not best for

  • Teams that want a single global model with no mode routing
  • Developers who prefer a hosted subscription over BYO keys
  • Workflows that need a tightly managed single-vendor stack