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 27.5k stars under MIT as of 2026-10-07, most recently pushed within a day of verification; component tags ship on their own clocks (the newest stable is v7.8.3, published October 1, 2026, following the v7.8.2 prerelease earlier the same day, and a v7.8.7 prerelease appeared on October 7).
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.
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 2026-10-06 (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.
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 2026-10-07
https://kilo.ai/pricing - tiers, Kilo Pass, credit model, and the Anaconda acquisition banner, as of 2026-10-06 (re-verified unchanged)
https://www.anaconda.com/blog/anaconda-acquires-kilo-code - the acquisition announcement primary source
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43483802 - the launch-era community record (98 points)