Kilo Code

Kilo Code is an open-source AI coding agent that runs in the three places most engineers already work: a VS Code extension, a native JetBrains plugin, and a terminal CLI (@kilocode/cli), with a cloud agent and a Slack entry point layered on top. The project is MIT-licensed on GitHub, and it deliberately exposes its prompts, context window and decision logic instead of hiding them behind a black box.

Modes instead of one giant prompt

Work is split into task-shaped modes — Code for production changes, Architect for planning a feature before any file is touched, Debug for tracking down a failure, plus custom modes you define yourself. Each mode gets a narrower brief and a smaller context to reason over, which is a different bet from the single-prompt agents it competes with.

Bring your own model, at cost

Kilo routes to 500+ models and charges zero markup on inference — you pay the provider's own rate through Kilo, or plug in your own API keys. There is a free tier that needs no credit card, a Kilo Pass tier that routes between Efficient, Frontier and Free model classes, and an AWS Marketplace listing for teams that want an annual contract.

Parallel agents, isolated worktrees

The JetBrains plugin was rewritten in Kotlin and Swing rather than wrapping the VS Code webview in an IDE panel, and the September 2026 release turned it into a multi-agent control room: several agents running at once, each in its own git worktree, with diffs, existing Run Configurations and GitHub pull requests visible in one IDE frame. The CLI offers the same parallel execution from a terminal, and installs via npm, Homebrew, the AUR or a curl script.

Who it is for

Teams that want an agent they can audit and self-direct — open source, no inference markup, and no lock-in to a single editor. Kilo reports more than 5 million users; the company is based in Amsterdam and has been acquired by Anaconda.