Open-source · Coding · 9 of 19 tools · updated Oct 17, 2026
Open-source AI tools for autonomous coding agent
OpenAI Codex leads the open-source options for autonomous coding agent at 97/100, with 129,451 GitHub stars. 9 of the 19 tools tracked for this job publish their source, so you can read it, fork it or self-host it. It is also the top-ranked tool for this job overall, open-source or not.
Same evidence score as the ranking — GitHub stars, Hacker News mentions, release activity, free access — recomputed nightly, never sold. See all 19 tools for autonomous coding agent.
Top 3
evidence / 100
+ Cloud mode runs many tasks in parallel sandboxes and opens PRs for each.
− Native Windows support in the CLI arrived late and sandboxing can block legitimate commands.
+ Free tier gives a 1M-token context window and around 1,000 requests per day.
− Less reliable at multi-step edits than Claude Code and quietly falls back to Flash under load.
+ Top-ranked open agent on SWE-bench that you can run on your own infrastructure.
− Docker-based local setup is heavy and the UI is rougher than commercial agents.
All 9, side by side
| Tool | Score | Stars | Source | Days idle | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI Codex | 97 | 129,451 | openai/codex | 0 | cli, web, vscode-extension, mac, linux |
| Gemini CLI | 96 | 107,413 | google-gemini/gemini-cli | 0 | cli, mac, windows, linux |
| OpenHands | 95 | 91,022 | All-Hands-AI/OpenHands | 0 | web, cli, linux, mac |
| GGoose | 92 | 55,352 | block/goose | 0 | cli, mac, linux, windows |
 Cline | 92 | 70,439 | cline/cline | 0 | vscode-extension, cli |
 Kilo Code | 88 | 27,625 | Kilo-Org/kilocode | 0 | vscode-extension, jetbrains-plugin, cli |
 Claude Agent SDK | 80 | 8,291 | anthropics/claude-agent-sdk-python | 0 | cli, api |
 Aider | 77 | 49,590 | Aider-AI/aider | 147 | cli, mac, windows, linux |
 Roo Code | 35 | 24,274 | RooCodeInc/Roo-Code | 154 | vscode-extension |
Open source here means the tool's own source is public, not that a vendor published an SDK. Self-hosting cost is yours.
Head to head: OpenAI Codex vs Gemini CLI OpenAI Codex vs OpenHands Gemini CLI vs OpenHands