GitHub repos
Open-source coding agents on GitHub: OpenCode, Cline, OpenHands, Aider
OpenCode, Cline, OpenHands and Aider: what each open-source coding agent does, its licence, its stars and its GitHub activity, with figures checked on October 20, 2026.
Of the 20 repositories in our AI GitHub repositories ranking, seven are coding agents. They do not all have the same status: some are independent open-source projects, others are vendor tools released under an open-source licence, and one heavily starred repository is not open source at all. Figures recorded via the GitHub API on 2026-10-20.
Four independent open-source agents
- OpenCode (anomalyco/opencode): “the open source AI coding agent”, according to its README. It installs from the command line (script, npm, Homebrew, Arch, Nix) and also ships as a desktop app, in beta, for macOS, Windows and Linux. MIT licence, 218,744 stars, 29,184 forks. Latest release published on GitHub: v1.19.3, on October 16, 2026 (GitHub); v2 is distributed on npm (see the OpenCode page).
- Cline (cline/cline): an agent available as a CLI (with a headless mode for CI/CD and scripting), a desktop app for macOS and Windows, a VS Code extension (with human approval of actions), a JetBrains plugin and a Node.js SDK to build your own agents, according to its README. Apache-2.0 licence, 70,722 stars, 7,727 forks, last push on October 20, 2026. See the Cline page.
- OpenHands (OpenHands/OpenHands, formerly All-Hands-AI): the README introduces “Agent Canvas”, a self-hosted control centre that runs the OpenHands agent or third-party agents (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Pi, OpenCode, or any ACP-compatible agent), locally by default, or on Docker, VMs or company infrastructure. MIT licence, 91,404 stars, 12,125 forks. Release v1.28.1 published on October 19, 2026 (GitHub).
- Aider (Aider-AI/aider): AI pair programming in the terminal. The README highlights a repository map, automatic Git commits, more than 100 languages, linting and testing after each change, and support for cloud or local models. Apache-2.0 licence, 49,663 stars, 5,088 forks. Latest release: v0.86.0, on August 9, 2025 (GitHub); last push on May 22, 2026. See the Aider page.
Vendor CLIs under open-source licences
- Codex CLI (openai/codex): OpenAI's agent “that runs locally on your computer”, according to the README, which also points to the editor extension, the desktop app and Codex Web. Apache-2.0 licence, 130,181 stars, 20,519 forks. See the Codex page.
- Gemini CLI (google-gemini/gemini-cli): an open-source agent that brings Gemini to the terminal. Apache-2.0 licence, 107,470 stars, 14,744 forks. Its README states that, for unpaid-tier and Google One users, Gemini CLI was replaced by Antigravity CLI on June 18, 2026, and that it is not optimised for Gemini 4 Argon.
A public repository, but not open source
Claude Code (anthropics/claude-code) has 152,673 stars and 26,709 forks, but its licence file reads “© Anthropic PBC. All rights reserved” and makes use subject to Anthropic's commercial terms. The repository hosts issue tracking, release notes and plugins. See the Claude Code page.
What the figures show
- OpenCode far ahead: with 218,744 stars, it alone exceeds the combined total of Cline, OpenHands and Aider (211,789).
- Recent repositories: OpenCode, Codex CLI and Gemini CLI were created in April 2025 and Claude Code in February 2025, according to the API. Cline dates from July 2024, OpenHands from March 2024 and Aider from May 2023.
- Two permissive licences: the six open-source agents use MIT (OpenCode, OpenHands) or Apache-2.0 (Cline, Aider, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI). Both licences allow commercial use and modification; Apache-2.0 adds an explicit patent licence.
- Different rhythms: six of the seven repositories received a push on October 20, 2026. Aider is the only one with no published release in more than a year.
Things to check before adopting an agent
- Check maintenance status: two popular agents are no longer active. The Continue README (36,273 stars) states the repository is no longer actively maintained and is read-only; Roo Code (24,273 stars) is archived on GitHub.
- Tell a public repository from free software: a visible repository does not grant the right to modify or redistribute the code. Read the LICENSE file.
- Follow the distribution channels: OpenCode publishes v1 on GitHub and v2 on npm; Gemini CLI redirects part of its users to another tool.
Limits
Stars and forks measure interest in repositories, not the quality of the agents or their results on real code. To compare features and pricing, see the OpenCode, Aider and Cline comparison and our October 2026 ranking of AI GitHub repositories.
Takeaway: the most-starred open-source coding agents use MIT or Apache-2.0, but a repository's popularity guarantees neither its licence nor its maintenance.
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