Kilo Code is an open-source (MIT) agentic coding assistant for VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, and the terminal, born in early 2025 as a feature-merge fork of Cline and Roo Code and acquired by Anaconda on July 15, 2026.
Kilo Code is the live continuation of the Roo-and-Cline extension lineage now folded into an enterprise Python vendor’s portfolio, and the open question after that acquisition is whether extension-first users keep first-class status.
What it is #
One MIT codebase delivered as VS Code and JetBrains extensions plus a CLI, carrying the Plan/Act discipline, approval gates, checkpoints, and rule-file conventions of its two ancestors.
The docs stack superset features on top: custom subagents (built-in ones included), MCP servers, skills with remote paths, hooks, git worktrees per task, cloud agents and tasks, and a schedule builder that compiles to raw cron.
Rules are portable: it reads AGENTS.md natively, supports .kilocoderules, and imports .cursorrules and .windsurfrules.
Any-model BYOK works alongside Kilo’s own metered credits, with local models via Ollama or LM Studio documented.
Status #
Active under new ownership.
The repository shows about 27.6k stars under MIT as of 2026-10-15, most recently pushed on the day of verification; component tags ship on their own clocks (the newest stable is v7.8.17, published October 23, 2026, a no-notes bump after the v7.8.16 prerelease restricted browser links and MCP OAuth authorization URLs to HTTP(S) and fixed unsafe URL handling on Windows, on top of v7.8.15 (October 19), which made the browser_open permission prompt able to remember a choice as an always-allow rule for the current or all origins and listed browser_open in Auto-Approve settings, after v7.8.12 routed Kilo Gateway traffic through ai-gateway.kilo.ai by default with a KILO_AI_GATEWAY_URL override, and the jetbrains component riding its own train at v7.1.12, published October 22, which added project-scoped agent usage aggregation, custom auto routers, and a session host registry with a Kilo Cloud session adapter).
Anaconda announced the acquisition on July 15, 2026 and already lists Kilo among its products; kilocode.ai redirects to kilo.ai, where the vendor positions it as an all-in-one agentic engineering platform.
On October 6, 2026 Anaconda announced new capabilities across its AI Dev Factory with Kilo as the primary AI workspace: agent swarms reaching VS Code through Kilo, a Kilo Desktop app for local AI development (500+ models, local model execution, live notebook sessions), Sign in with ChatGPT across every Kilo surface, and 13,000+ newly source-built packages (press release).
Strengths #
- The broadest feature surface of any editor-native open agent in this section: subagents, cloud tasks, scheduled runs, hooks, skills, worktrees in one install.
- AGENTS.md-first rules portability eases moving between harnesses.
- Documentation depth is unusual: hundreds of pages including troubleshooting and cost-control guides.
- A genuinely free usage path exists, not just a trial.
Cautions #
- Popularity claims are ahead of observable evidence: earlier README versions called it “the most popular open source coding agent”, a claim gone from the README by the 2026-09-02 re-verification, though it survives in the repository description as of 2026-09-21, and its star count trails Cline and OpenCode by wide margins, so treat installs-dependent claims as marketing until independently confirmed.
- Acquisition direction risk: Anaconda sells enterprise governance, so priorities may drift from extension developers toward platform buyers.
- Brand churn during the transition (Kilo Code to Kilo, domain move) means links and guidance written before July 2026 rot fast.
- Community footprint stayed modest across five launches: the biggest thread remains the 98-point March 2025 speedrun launch, and the acquisition drew 16 points in July 2026.
Pricing #
Free and open source for individuals; model usage is billed separately via your own keys or prepaid Kilo credits. Teams: $15/user/month adding shared agent modes, analytics, centralized billing, and shared BYOK. Enterprise: custom SSO/OIDC/SCIM, audit logs, private gateway, SLAs. Costs split three ways (platform plan, AI inference, cloud compute), quoted separately. Kilo Pass, an optional monthly credit subscription (Starter $19, Pro $49, Expert $199) with up to 50% bonus credits, now sits alongside pay-as-you-go Kilo Gateway on the pricing page, as of 2026-10-11 (re-verified unchanged).
Price history #
| Date | Plan | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09 | Teams | Baseline: individuals free and open source (BYOK or prepaid credits), Teams $15/user/mo, Enterprise custom. |
Compared to #
- Roo Code: the ancestor kept here as a sunset record; where Roo pivoted away, Kilo carried the extension forward.
- Cline: the other parent lineage, leaner and more conservative; Kilo bets on supersets, Cline on restraint.
- Claude Code: the integrated-platform rival; choose Kilo when you want editor-native control on your own keys.
Bottom line #
Recommended for engineers who want the Cline-Roo toolset with every modern agentic attachment, under MIT, in the editor they already use. Not for teams needing a stable multi-year vendor story right now, because ownership just changed twice in effect (product into Anaconda, brand into Kilo), and I would let the post-acquisition roadmap settle before standardizing on it.
Changes #
- 2026-08-27 - Created from the new-entrant scan, recording the Cline-Roo lineage, the Anaconda acquisition, and pricing.
- 2026-09-02 - Recorded that the README no longer carries its popularity claim.
- 2026-09-16 - Refreshed repository state (pushed 2026-09-16) and recorded the new latest release v7.7.2 (September 15).
- 2026-09-20 - Recorded the new latest release v7.7.5 (September 18).
- 2026-09-20 - Added the Price history section tracking price changes in a table, per the new owner rule.
- 2026-09-22 - Recorded the v7.7.7 release (September 22) and refreshed repository state.
- 2026-09-22 - Documented the Kilo Pass credit subscription (Starter $19, Pro $49, Expert $199, up to 50% bonus credits) shown on the pricing page.
- 2026-09-24 - Recorded releases moving to v7.7.12 (September 24, prerelease) with v7.7.9 (September 23) the latest stable, and re-verified pricing unchanged.
- 2026-09-26 - Recorded releases moving to v7.8.1 (September 25), now the latest stable after the v7.8.0 prerelease, and refreshed repository state; pricing re-verified unchanged.
- 2026-10-02 - Recorded releases moving to v7.8.3 (October 1), now the latest stable after the v7.8.2 prerelease, and refreshed repository state; pricing re-verified unchanged against the live pricing page.
- 2026-10-06 - Corrected the stale harness count in the See-also matrix line.
- 2026-10-07 - Added the Kilo-Org/kilocode star history chart to the Status section.
- 2026-10-07 - Recorded the component-tag train moving to a v7.8.7 prerelease (published October 7), with v7.8.3 still the latest stable, and refreshed repository scale.
- 2026-10-08 - Recorded the v7.8.8 stable release (published October 7), now the newest stable after the v7.8.7 prerelease, with the jetbrains/v7.1.9 component on its own train, and refreshed repository scale.
- 2026-10-12 - Recorded Anaconda’s October 6 AI Dev Factory announcement, which names Kilo the primary AI workspace, launches Kilo Desktop for local development, brings agent swarms to VS Code through Kilo, and adds Sign in with ChatGPT across Kilo surfaces; pricing re-verified unchanged against the live page.
- 2026-10-13 - Recorded the v7.8.9 prerelease (published October 13) following the v7.8.8 stable, and refreshed repository scale.
- 2026-10-17 - Recorded the stable train reaching v7.8.12 (published October 15, routing Kilo Gateway traffic through ai-gateway.kilo.ai by default with a KILO_AI_GATEWAY_URL override), the v7.8.13 and v7.8.14 prereleases (October 16), and the jetbrains component reaching v7.1.11 (October 16).
- 2026-10-20 - Recorded v7.8.15 as the newest stable (October 19), which added always-allow choices and an Auto-Approve listing for the browser_open permission prompt.
- 2026-10-24 - Recorded v7.8.17 as the newest stable (October 23, a no-notes bump after the v7.8.16 prerelease restricted browser and MCP OAuth URLs to HTTP(S) with Windows URL-handling fixes) and the jetbrains component reaching v7.1.12 (October 22, project-scoped usage aggregation, custom auto routers, session host registry with a Kilo Cloud adapter).
See also #
- Roo Code - the ancestor’s sunset record, the before-picture of this note
- Cline - the sibling lineage that stayed independent
- Harness Feature Matrix - where this column sits against the category’s other members
- Agentic Coding Tools Landscape - the map that places this consolidation
References #
https://github.com/Kilo-Org/kilocode - repository scale, license, description as of 2026-10-17
https://kilo.ai/pricing - tiers, Kilo Pass, credit model, and the Anaconda acquisition banner, as of 2026-10-12 (re-verified unchanged)
https://www.anaconda.com/press/agent-swarms-red-team-agents-ai-dev-factory - the October 6, 2026 AI Dev Factory announcement naming Kilo the primary AI workspace and launching Kilo Desktop
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43483802 - the launch-era community record (98 points)