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ToolAnaconda (Kilo Code Inc.)/10 trustVerified
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Kilo Code

Open-source AI coding agent for VS Code, JetBrains, CLI, and cloud

Acquired — still operating

acquired by Anaconda Jul 2026

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About

Kilo Code is an open-source (MIT), model-agnostic AI coding agent that generates and modifies code, executes terminal commands, debugs software, and performs development tasks from natural language. Launched in March 2025 as a fork of Roo Code (itself derived from Cline), it became the maintained successor after Roo Code was discontinued and archived in May 2026. It runs in VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, as a CLI, through cloud agents, and via a mobile app. Founded by Scott Breitenother, Emilie Schario, and GitLab co-founder Sid Sijbrandij; raised an $8M seed round in December 2025 and was acquired by Anaconda on July 15, 2026. Its gateway exposes hundreds of models, and it supports BYOK (up to 30 pre-existing provider subscription plans), OpenRouter, and local models via Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM, and SGLang. Ships with specialized modes/agents (Code, Plan, Ask, Debug) and an MCP server marketplace.

What it can do

  • • Agentic code generation, editing, and refactoring across VS Code, JetBrains, CLI, cloud agents, and a mobile companion app
  • • Specialized agents/modes: Code (default), Plan, Ask (read-only Q&A), Debug, plus custom agents
  • • Model-agnostic: hundreds of models via the Kilo Gateway; BYOK with up to 30 pre-existing provider subscription plans; OpenRouter; local models via Ollama/LM Studio/vLLM/SGLang
  • • MCP server marketplace for extending the agent; subagents and parallel agent runs across git worktrees
  • • Automated AI code reviews on pull requests; cloud agents that work without a local machine

Setup

  1. VS Code: install the Kilo Code extension from the VS Code Marketplace (publisher kilocode, item Kilo-Code), then create a Kilo account.
  2. CLI: run npm install -g @kilocode/cli (or curl -fsSL https://kilo.ai/cli/install | bash, or brew install Kilo-Org/tap/kilo on macOS/Linux), then run kilo in any project directory.
  3. JetBrains: search "Kilo Code" in Settings → Plugins (JetBrains Marketplace plugin 28350) and install.
  4. Choose your model path: use the Kilo Gateway (account-based, pay provider rates), connect your own API keys / subscription plans, or point it at a local server (Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM, SGLang).
  5. (Optional) Set up cloud agents at app.kilo.ai/cloud or automated PR code reviews at app.kilo.ai/code-reviews.

Prerequisites

VS Code or a JetBrains IDE (for the editor surfaces) or a terminal (for the CLI); a Kilo account for the hosted gateway, OR your own LLM API keys/subscription plans, OR a local inference server (Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM, SGLang); Node.js for the npm CLI install.

Use cases

codeautomation

Works with

Any agent (.md)Generic APImcp

Trust score — 9/10

/10 trustVerified

Scored 9/10 (verified tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: 27,580 GitHub stars (log-scaled vs catalog peers); last push 0d ago; 100 releases/12mo; 603 open issues. Manual review: Roo Code successor (acquired by Anaconda Jul 2026); telemetry posture unverified — assume on; model/pricing claims provider-only. License: MIT.

★ 27,580 GitHub stars

How the trust score is built

Full methodology →
Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
8.3/10
Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
9.1/10
Openness · license + docs
10.0/10
Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
8.0/10
  • · 27,580 GitHub stars (log-scaled vs catalog peers)
  • · last push 0d ago; 100 releases/12mo; 603 open issues
  • · manual review: Roo Code successor (acquired by Anaconda Jul 2026); telemetry posture unverified — assume on; model/pricing claims provider-only

Sources

Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.