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Up to 4 tools, same rows for each: what it is, what it really costs, the trap, and how to wire it up. The URL carries your picks — send it to anyone.
Sourcegraph AmpAiderCline
Quick read
- Free with no card: Aider, Cline.
| Field | Sourcegraph Ampampcode.com | Aideraider.chat | Clinecline.bot |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Sourcegraph's agent, running in the terminal, an editor extension, the browser and on a phone. Long-lived remote machines called orbs keep working after you close the laptop. Amp deliberately tracks the frontier, deleting old workflows rather than accumulating settings, and exposes low, medium, high and ultra effort modes. | 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. | 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. |
| Category | AI IDEs & coding agents | AI IDEs & coding agents | AI IDEs & coding agents |
| Cost tier | mixed | free | free |
| Pricing | Free ~$10/day · $20/mo Megawatt · $200/mo Gigawatt · PAYG and BYOK | Free and open source (Apache 2.0) · BYO API key | Free and open source (Apache 2.0) · BYO key or pay-as-you-go credits |
| Why builders pick it | Best for delegating long unattended jobs: start an orb, close the lid, review from your phone later. The free tier grants around $10 of usage a day, unusually generous for an agent that needs no BYO key. | 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. | 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. |
| Watch out for | Amp removes features aggressively and pins you to its chosen frontier models, so workflows shift under you. Free daily allowances are being tightened for older clients and inactive users. | No GUI and no MCP-style tool ecosystem; the interaction model is chat plus file mentions, which feels dated next to fully autonomous agents. | BYO-key means costs are unbounded and easy to underestimate — one long agent session on a frontier model can run to several dollars. |
| How to wire it up | curl -fsSL https://ampcode.com/install.sh | bash | python -m pip install aider-install && aider-install | Install 'Cline' from the VS Code marketplace |
| Editor's pick | No | No | No |
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# Tool comparison — Sourcegraph Amp 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. ## Sourcegraph Amp (sourcegraph-amp) - URL: https://ampcode.com - Category: AI IDEs & coding agents - Cost: mixed — Free ~$10/day · $20/mo Megawatt · $200/mo Gigawatt · PAYG and BYOK - What it is: Sourcegraph's agent, running in the terminal, an editor extension, the browser and on a phone. Long-lived remote machines called orbs keep working after you close the laptop. Amp deliberately tracks the frontier, deleting old workflows rather than accumulating settings, and exposes low, medium, high and ultra effort modes. - Why builders pick it: Best for delegating long unattended jobs: start an orb, close the lid, review from your phone later. The free tier grants around $10 of usage a day, unusually generous for an agent that needs no BYO key. - Trap: Amp removes features aggressively and pins you to its chosen frontier models, so workflows shift under you. Free daily allowances are being tightened for older clients and inactive users. - Wiring: curl -fsSL https://ampcode.com/install.sh | bash - Full dossier: /api/public/tools/sourcegraph-amp ## 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 ## Quick read - Free with no card: Aider, 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=sourcegraph-amp,aider,cline