Open sourceTypeScript · ≈24k stars · Apache-2.0
Roo Code
The VS Code/Cursor agent with custom modes.
Roo Code is the popular VS Code/Cursor extension in the Cline lineage — an approval-gated agent with custom modes and a strong MCP story. Now archived upstream; its community moved on to Kilo Code and forks.
What the community says
User reports from Hacker News, Reddit, GitHub and reviews, as of Oct 29, 2026. Not our verdict.
Pros people report
- Multiple agent modes (orchestrator/architect, boomerang) went beyond plan/act and were liked by users.Hacker News 1Hacker News 2
- Good subagent/orchestration harness and features like .worktreeinclude.Hacker News 1Hacker News 2
- Model-agnostic in VS Code; worked well with OpenRouter and local models.Hacker News 1Hacker News 2
Cons people report
- Shut down in April 2026 (team moved to Roomote); GitHub repo archived (last push May 15, 2026).Hacker NewsGitHub
- Default prompts criticised as poor.Hacker News
- Diff edit format confused some models (for example Gemini 2.5 Pro).Hacker News
- Local-model experience could be limited and frustrating.Hacker News
- Best for
- No new adoption; forks such as Kilo Code (and community Zoo-Code) carry it on.
- Watch out for
- Unmaintained; beware look-alike extensions when installing forks.
Adopting an open-source harness? Read the best-practices guide.
People
Developer relations
Community / maintainer
Open harnesses
Co-founder / lead
Open harnesses · Cursor & IDE agents
Neighbours on the workbench
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Maintained by Matt Pocock (AI Hero)
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affaan-m/ECC
Agent harness performance optimization system: skills, instincts, memory and security for coding agents.
Maintained by Affaan Mustafa
Connections
Relations from the Harness Hub knowledge graph, as charted in the State of Harness reports.
Maintained by · 1
- RooCodeIncOrganisation
Built on · 1
- Model Context ProtocolProject
Similar entries · 1
- Kilo CodeProject
