🧩 Cline vs 🦘 Roo Code

Cline is fully open-source and free to install, and it works inside VS Code as a sidebar that reads your entire project before it touches anything. Its Plan/Act workflow lets it explore and propose a plan first, then execute with your approval on every file edit and terminal command, so you stay in control instead of watching a black box. Because you connect your own model provider, you decide how capable and how costly each build session is.

Roo Code is a genuinely open-source agent that lives inside VS Code and works with almost any model you point it at — Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, or a local one — because you bring your own API key. Its standout feature is control: custom modes let you spin up focused "personalities" (a planner, a copywriter, a debugger), and plain-markdown rules files let you pin down exactly how it behaves on your project. For operators who want a free, transparent tool they can shape rather than a black box, that combination is hard to beat.