Stop guessing which one. Put them side by side.

The grid says what these tools are. This says what builders did about it — one decision per person, changeable whenever you change your mind.

# Tool comparison — Roo Code (now ZooCode) vs Aider vs Cline

Source: Kbaise, a directory of tools that work with Lovable projects.
Pick one and tell me why before writing any integration code.

## Roo Code (now ZooCode) (roo-code)
- URL: https://github.com/RooCodeInc/Roo-Code
- Category: AI IDEs & coding agents
- Cost: free — Free and open source (Apache 2.0) · BYO key
- What it is: A Cline fork that added named modes (Architect, Code, Debug, Ask and custom personas) plus an Orchestrator that dispatched subtasks between them. Roo Code Inc archived the extension on 15 May 2026 and pivoted to Roomote, a hosted cloud agent. ZooCode is the community fork carrying the Apache-2.0 codebase forward.
- Why builders pick it: Its mode system is still the cleanest way to force an agent to plan as an architect before it writes code, with every prompt editable. If you want that workflow maintained use ZooCode; if you want the biggest ecosystem, go back to Cline.
- Trap: The original extension is dead — the repo is read-only and the marketplace listing is an archive. Do not start new work on it; upstream ships no security or model updates.
- Wiring: Install 'ZooCode' from the VS Code marketplace
- Full dossier: /api/public/tools/roo-code

## Aider (aider)
- URL: https://aider.chat
- Category: AI IDEs & coding agents
- Cost: free — Free and open source (Apache 2.0) · BYO API key
- What it is: The original terminal AI pair programmer, Apache-2.0 with roughly 48k stars and still actively developed. It builds a repo map of your codebase, edits files in place, runs linters and tests, and auto-commits every change with a written message. Works with almost any LLM, including local models.
- Why builders pick it: Git-native discipline: every AI edit lands as its own commit, so git diff and git revert are your undo button. It is the cheapest serious option because you pay only raw API tokens, and it scripts cleanly into CI.
- Trap: No GUI and no MCP-style tool ecosystem; the interaction model is chat plus file mentions, which feels dated next to fully autonomous agents.
- Wiring: python -m pip install aider-install && aider-install
- Full dossier: /api/public/tools/aider

## Cline (cline)
- URL: https://cline.bot
- Category: AI IDEs & coding agents
- Cost: free — Free and open source (Apache 2.0) · BYO key or pay-as-you-go credits
- What it is: An Apache-2.0 autonomous coding agent with roughly 64k GitHub stars, shipping as a VS Code and JetBrains extension, a CLI, an SDK and a web kanban board. Its Plan/Act split makes the agent draft an approach before touching files, and every diff and terminal command needs approval by default.
- Why builders pick it: The transparency pick: you see every diff and every command before it runs, and you pay providers directly with no markup. Works with Claude, GPT, Gemini, Ollama and 200+ models via OpenRouter, so nothing is locked in.
- Trap: BYO-key means costs are unbounded and easy to underestimate — one long agent session on a frontier model can run to several dollars.
- Wiring: Install 'Cline' from the VS Code marketplace
- Full dossier: /api/public/tools/cline

## Rules
1. Prefer the free tier when no budget was stated, and say what the ceiling is.
2. Read the full dossier before integrating.
3. Fetch /api/public/models before writing any AI model ID.

Agents can fetch the same thing: GET /api/public/compare?slugs=roo-code,aider,cline