Best open-source alternatives to Claude Code - CLI

Codex CLI is a locally running coding agent from OpenAI designed to assist with software development tasks on a user's computer. The README positions it as part of a broader Codex ecosystem, with related experiences available in IDEs and as a desktop app, while also pointing users to a separate cloud-based Codex Web product. The project is aimed at developers who want an agentic coding assistant that can be installed on macOS, Linux, or Windows. Installation is supported through shell scripts, npm, Homebrew, and downloadable release binaries. For authentication, it works either through a ChatGPT account or, with extra setup, an API key.

OpenCode is an open source AI coding agent aimed at developers who want AI assistance for code-related work. It provides an interactive agent experience and includes multiple built-in agents for different tasks, such as a default build agent for full-access development work and a plan agent for read-only analysis and code exploration. The project can be installed via a shell install script, common package managers, or built from source, and it is also available as a beta desktop application for macOS, Windows, and Linux. The README points users to documentation for configuration and to a docs page describing the agent system, suggesting it is meant both as a command-line tool and as a desktop companion for coding workflows.

Cline is an open source coding agent designed to work inside an IDE or from the terminal. It targets developers who want an assistant that can read a codebase, propose changes, run commands, and help fix errors while keeping the user in control through approval-based workflows. The project is organized into multiple surfaces: a CLI, a Kanban-style web task board for parallel agent work, editor integrations for VS Code and JetBrains, and an SDK for building custom agents and tools. It supports headless automation for CI/CD, scheduled agents, plugins, MCP servers, and integrations with messaging platforms, making it suitable for both interactive development and repeatable automation across projects.

Continue is an open-source coding agent aimed at developers who want AI-assisted tooling in their editor or terminal. The README presents it as available in three forms: a CLI, a VS Code extension, and a JetBrains plugin, with a recommendation to use the CLI over the JetBrains plugin. The project documentation focuses on how to configure, understand, and customize the agent. The README also notes that this repository is a final, read-only release of the Continue 2.0.0 codebase and that anonymous telemetry was removed and authentication was pulled out in that release.

omp is a coding agent that integrates deeply with an IDE-like workflow and is designed to help developers edit, search, debug, and coordinate code changes from a terminal-style interface. It is positioned as a powerful agent surface with many built-in tools, broad model support, and a focus on getting changes right on the first attempt. The project targets users who want an agent that can do more than basic chat: it can execute code in persistent Python and Bun environments, interact with language servers, drive debuggers, manage subagents, and inject stream rules when the model drifts off task. It also supports collaboration features, shell completions, and multiple installation paths across macOS, Linux, Windows, Bun, Nix, Homebrew, and one-line installer scripts.

Hermes Agent is a self-improving AI assistant designed for people who want an agent that can remember, adapt, and operate across multiple interfaces. It supports a terminal-first workflow as well as messaging platforms such as Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, and email, making it suitable for both individual use and unattended automation. The project emphasizes persistent memory, autonomous skill creation, and cross-session continuity. It can run with a variety of model providers, including hosted APIs and custom endpoints, and it includes features for scheduled jobs, tool usage, and parallel subagents. The README positions it as a flexible system for users who want an agent that can live on a local machine, VPS, or cloud/serverless environment while remaining controllable from chat or the CLI.

Pi Agent Harness is a monorepo for the Pi project, centered on a self-extensible coding agent. It includes an interactive CLI, a runtime for tool calling and state management, a terminal UI library, and a unified LLM API layer that can work with multiple providers such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. The project is aimed at developers building or using coding agents, especially in local or self-hosted workflows. The README emphasizes running Pi with the permissions of the launching user and suggests containerization or sandboxing for stronger isolation. It also documents development commands, test scripts, and a workflow for publishing OSS agent sessions, indicating that the project is meant to be actively developed and used in open-source coding-agent work.

Orca is a desktop application for coordinating AI coding agents across multiple worktrees and workflows. It is aimed at developers who want to run tools like Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and other terminal-based agents in parallel while keeping their work organized in one interface. The project combines an editor-like workspace, terminals, browser-assisted design mode, issue and PR browsing, SSH-backed remote worktrees, and a mobile companion for monitoring agents on the go. It also includes a CLI for scripting common actions, making it useful both as an interactive control center and as an automation tool for agent-driven development.

Paseo is a self-hosted platform for coordinating AI coding agents across several interfaces, including desktop, mobile, web, and a command-line client. It is aimed at developers who want to run agents on their own machines and keep their existing tools, configs, and credentials in place while switching between surfaces as needed. The project centers on a local daemon that manages agent execution and exposes connectivity for clients to attach to it. The README describes support for multiple agent providers, voice interaction, device pairing, remote access over TCP or VPN, and a skill system that helps agents hand work off to one another. It also includes a Docker deployment path and a CLI workflow for headless or remote use.

OpenClaude is a terminal-based coding agent designed for people who want to work with multiple AI model providers from one CLI. It supports both cloud APIs and local backends, including OpenAI-compatible APIs, Gemini, GitHub Models, Codex OAuth, Codex, Ollama, Atomic Chat, and other supported providers. The tool emphasizes a single workflow for prompting, tool use, agent-driven tasks, MCP integration, slash commands, and streaming output. The project is aimed at developers who want a unified command-line interface for coding assistance and model orchestration without switching between provider-specific tools. It includes guided provider setup, saved profiles, session resume/forking, background jobs, and a bundled VS Code extension for launch integration and theming. It is distributed as an open-source CLI and can be installed via npm or from the Arch AUR, with source builds available for development.