Ranked · Coding agents
Best Coding agents — Bring your own key
15 of 26 researched coding agents have a confirmed yes for Bring your own key. Qualified, negative, and unknown answers stay distinct.
The ranking
15 of 26 coding agents have a confirmed yes for “Bring your own key”. 8 are qualified or tier-scoped, 2 are confirmed no, and 1 remain not established. Only confirmed yes answers appear in this set; an unknown is never treated as a negative.
How we ranked these
Projected from the live listing datasheets using the tenant’s “Your own inference, your own keys, or your own cloud?” axis. Membership requires a sourced yes; partial and unknown answers are reported above but excluded from the ranking. Entries retain the directory’s paid-tier ordering, visibly labelled on every promoted card.
All picks at a glance
All 15 compared on one screen. Pick a row to jump to the full entry.
The ranking
Editor’s pick
#1
Aider
Open-source terminal pair programmer that edits files in your local git repo and commits each change.
- #2
Antigravity CLI
Terminal (TUI) surface for Google Antigravity's coding agents, with parallel subagents and headless scripting.
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Cline
Open-source coding agent for IDEs, terminal and CI, running on any model provider or your own keys.
- #5
Codex CLI
OpenAI's terminal client for Codex: inspect, edit and run a local repository from the command line.
- #7
Juggler
Open-source desktop workbench for AI coding agents with inspectable tool calls and branching threads
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Kilo Code
Open source AI coding agent for VS Code, JetBrains, CLI and cloud, with 500+ models at cost
- #11
OpenCode
Open source AI coding agent for the terminal, IDE and desktop, running any model provider
- #12
OpenHands
Open source software engineering agent with GUI, CLI, SDK and an enterprise control plane
- #14
Zed
Open-source Rust code editor with a native agent panel and ACP support for external coding agents
Side by side
All 15 compared. Scroll the table sideways, the fact column stays pinned →
| Feature | Aider | Antigravity CLI | Claude Code | Cline | Codex CLI | goose | Juggler | Junie | Kilo Code | Letta | OpenCode | OpenHands | Warp | Zed | zot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Description | Open-source terminal pair programmer that edits files in your local git repo and commits each change. | Terminal (TUI) surface for Google Antigravity's coding agents, with parallel subagents and headless scripting. | Anthropic's agentic coding tool for the terminal, IDEs, desktop, web, CI and Slack | Open-source coding agent for IDEs, terminal and CI, running on any model provider or your own keys. | OpenAI's terminal client for Codex: inspect, edit and run a local repository from the command line. | Open source AI agent that runs locally as a desktop app, CLI and API | Open-source desktop workbench for AI coding agents with inspectable tool calls and branching threads | JetBrains' coding agent for JetBrains IDEs, the terminal and CI/CD pipelines | Open source AI coding agent for VS Code, JetBrains, CLI and cloud, with 500+ models at cost | Stateful agent harness with git-backed memory, run from a CLI, desktop app, web, or SDK | Open source AI coding agent for the terminal, IDE and desktop, running any model provider | Open source software engineering agent with GUI, CLI, SDK and an enterprise control plane | Terminal and coding agent, plus a platform that runs the same agent as cloud agents | Open-source Rust code editor with a native agent panel and ACP support for external coding agents | MIT-licensed terminal coding agent shipped as one static Go binary, with 30+ model providers |
| Category | Coding agents | Coding agents | Coding agents | Coding agents | Coding agents | Coding agents | Coding agents | Coding agents | Coding agents | Coding agents, Agent frameworks | Coding agents | Coding agents | Coding agents | Coding agents | Coding agents |
| Pricing | Free (Apache 2.0) / forever | Free | Free | Free | Free | Free (self-hosted) | Free | Free | Free | $0 / month | Free | Free (Free) | Free | $0 / forever | Free |
| API | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Tags |
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This ranking
- 15 agents ranked
- 12 of 14 with known API status offer an API
- paid plans $5-$20
- 14 free or freemium
- verified September 1, 2026
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