CodeZero AI IDE vs Kilo Code
Kilo Code is a free, MIT-licensed coding agent with 500+ models, Tab autocomplete and local codebase indexing, owned by Anaconda since July 2026. CodeZero takes a different approach: a Git client, an index of your organisation’s code, and a Planned mode in which the agent cannot write to a repository until you approve its plan.
CodeZeroACTIVE
Kilo CodeACTIVE
THE SHORT VERSION
Where they overlap
The agent panel. Both offer chat, planning before building, and modes you switch between. Kilo adds custom agents, Tab autocomplete and semantic search over the open project.
What CodeZero adds
Git, and reach across the organisation. A commit graph, inline blame and history; an index covering every repository your organisation has indexed, including ones not on your disk; a cross-repo trace; shared plans; and a Planned mode in which the agent cannot write to a repository until you approve its plan.
Where Kilo Code is strong
Breadth, price and openness. An MIT licence, 500+ models at provider rates, a free tier, ten surfaces from VS Code to Slack and mobile, and, by its own account, SOC 2 documentation through its Trust Center, now Anaconda’s.
01
Where Kilo Code comes from
Kilo Code began as a fork of Roo Code, which was itself a fork of Cline, and later rebuilt its extension on OpenCode.
Key
CodeZero advantage
Kilo Code advantage
Contested
Not a contest
02
Identity and shape
ParameterCodeZero AI IDEKilo Code
Vendor
Frigga Cloud Labs
Kilo Code, Inc. — acquired by Anaconda on 15 July 2026
What it is
An AI IDE panel — Git client, agent host, org index and task system in one sidebar
An open-source coding agent, shipped to ten surfaces
Lineage
Built by Frigga Cloud Labs
Began as a fork of Roo Code (itself a Cline fork); the current extension was rebuilt on OpenCode (GA 2 April 2026), from which its MIT licence comes
Surfaces
VS Code
VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Open VSX, JetBrains, plus CLI, cloud agents, Slack, mobile and a desktop beta
Licence
Proprietary
MIT
Transparency
Closed source
“No black boxes” — prompts and context are inspectable in the UI
Backing
Frigga Cloud Labs
Anaconda — acquired 15 July 2026
Account required
Yes — a Frigga account with a CodeZero entitlement
Not to start — a $0 plan, plus BYOK and local models with no hosted credit required
Also needs
One supported agent CLI installed — Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot CLI or Cursor CLI — for agent turns only
An API key, or use the bundled free routing
03
Models and who pays
Kilo routes to 500+ models at provider rates. CodeZero adds no model bill: it runs the agent CLI you already use — Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot CLI or Cursor CLI — on that agent’s own subscription.
ParameterCodeZero AI IDEKilo Code
Owns the model layer
No, by design
Yes — 500+ models behind one router
Model breadth
Whatever the chosen agent CLI offers
500+ models — frontier, open-weight and locally hosted
Routing
You pick a provider: one of four agent CLIs, then that agent’s models
Auto Model — Efficient, Frontier or Free routing strategies
Who pays for inference
Nobody new — the developer’s existing subscription to the agent CLI they chose
The developer — models at cost, explicitly zero markup
Lock-in
Low on the model — switch between four agent CLIs; plans and the index live in the CodeZero backend
Very low — MIT, BYO key; note “zero markup” still carries a 5% processing fee on credit purchases
04
Agent behaviour and write safety
Kilo uses per-action approval with snapshots to roll back. CodeZero asks per action in Auto and Normal, and adds a Planned mode that gates every write on an approved plan.
ParameterCodeZero AI IDEKilo Code
Modes
Auto (the default) / Planned / Normal, cycled from the chat header, plus Coffee mode to run an approved plan while you are away
code / plan / ask / debug, plus user-defined custom agents
Write isolation before approval
Structural in Planned mode. Pre-approval the agent can write only
~/.code0/plans, outside every repository; the extension opens repo scope on approval, never a tool. In Auto (the default) and Normal, each pre-plan edit or command is shown to you to approvePer-action approval via allow / ask / deny rules, with snapshots at every step, revertible per message; the plan agent can edit only plan files in
.kilo/plans/Command scoping
An approved
npm test grants exactly that, not npm test && rm -rf /Allow / ask / deny rules with glob patterns
Irreversible actions
git push and opening a PR never get an “allow always” buttonUser-configurable — auto-approve can cover them
Opens pull requests
Yes, through the GitHub CLI, with your approval each time — never an “allow always”, and never while you are away in Coffee mode
Yes — cloud agents, the GitHub bot, Slack and Linear open PRs, and Kilo Desktop has a Create PR button
Browser testing
Runs your project’s own end-to-end suite, such as Playwright, as a terminal command or a plan’s declared verification; no browser of its own
A Playwright-based browser tool, opt-in in settings, — navigates, clicks and fills forms, with a screenshot after each action, to test web apps
Unattended running
Coffee mode — after approval the agent answers its own questions and runs only the commands the plan declared; declared verification runs at the end, and nothing is committed, pushed or published while you are away
Cloud agents, and CI jobs via the CLI
Agent self-approval
Blocked — the agent cannot approve its own plan
Not applicable
Planning mode
Planned mode produces a plan you approve once
The plan agent (formerly Architect mode) plans features before building
MCP
Serves its organisation index as an MCP server, to its own agent and to any MCP-capable client
Consumes MCP servers
05
Code understanding
Kilo indexes the project you have open. CodeZero indexes across the organisation.
ParameterCodeZero AI IDEKilo Code
Context scope
Open repository plus the organisation’s cloud index
The project you have open — indexed, but one project at a time
Semantic code search
Search across the organisation index; Functions traces structure rather than searching by concept
Yes — tree-sitter chunks plus embeddings, GA 4 June 2026, opt-in, with a
semantic_search toolRepos not cloned locally
Searchable, traceable and readable
Partly — the index covers the open project only, but cloud agents and the Slack and Linear bots work on connected GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket repositories
Cross-repo tracing
Functions — from an entry point through modules, services and collections, across repository boundaries; inferred links carry
file:line evidenceNot offered as a feature
Dependency graph
Graph, across every indexed org repository
No graph — semantic search over chunks, not traversable structure
Uncommitted work
Yes —
local is your working copy including uncommitted changes; cloud is the last indexed commitReads the workspace as it is
History as context
Inline blame, file history, line history
@git-changes brings uncommitted diffs into context; no dedicated history view, and the agent can run git log or git blame on requestPersistent project memory
Tasks and plans on the backend
AGENTS.md in the repo — the old memory bank is deprecated in its favour, in a file the team can reviewIndex location
Frigga’s hosted backend; self-hosted on Enterprise via
code0.backendUrlLocal vector store (LanceDB suggested); embeddings via Ollama locally, or a hosted provider that receives your code chunks
Context beyond code
The index also covers everything committed alongside the code: docs (Markdown, reStructuredText, AsciiDoc, text), config and data files (JSON, YAML, XML, TOML, INI, CSV), and CI pipelines (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Bitbucket Pipelines)
Images,
@terminal output and uncommitted diffs in chat; the index parses Markdown and splits other text files line by line, skipping binaries and images06
Git and the daily surface
CodeZero includes a full Git client. Kilo’s agents run Git, and Kilo Desktop (beta) adds a Changes view with commit, push, branches and Create PR.
ParameterCodeZero AI IDEKilo Code
Commit graph
Yes — branches, tags, stashes and the working tree in one view
No built-in view
Git write operations
Stage, commit, fetch, pull, push, branch, merge, rebase, stash, compare — as a UI you drive
Kilo Desktop (beta) has a Changes view with diffs, commit, push, branches and Create PR; in VS Code it drafts commit messages in the Source Control panel, and its agents run git and review PRs
Blame
Inline blame in the editor, plus a toggle command
No built-in view
File and line history
Yes
No built-in view
Tab autocomplete
Not offered
Shipped — Codestral by default, auto-trigger on, billed to Kilo credits or your own Mistral key
Usage analytics
Session Usage — 7 / 30 / 90 days
Team dashboards
Update mechanism
Marketplace, or a
.vsix that self-updates with checksum verificationMarketplace and Open VSX
07
Team and enterprise
ParameterCodeZero AI IDEKilo Code
Work items
Tasks and plans are organisation objects, so a colleague can open the plan you are blocked on
Teams tier; Slack as the shared surface
Third-party connectors
GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket, to index your organisation’s repositories
GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket (organisation accounts) for cloud agents and code reviews; Slack and Linear to start work from a message or an issue; DoltHub
Self-hosting
Yes, on Enterprise —
backendUrl, identityUrl and accountsUrl point the extension at your own deployment without a rebuildThe agent is local; EU data residency and EU cloud compute for cloud agents on Enterprise
Data egress
Committed code is indexed on Frigga’s backend, or yours on Enterprise; files the agent reads go to the model provider behind the agent CLI you chose
Depends on configuration — local embeddings (Ollama) keep code on the machine; a hosted embedding provider receives code chunks; cloud agents run remotely. Kilo states no retention of prompts and outputs on paid plans
About this comparison
Details for Kilo Code come from Kilo Code’s own website, documentation and pricing pages, and from published coverage, checked on 26 October 2026. Products and prices in this category change often, so check the vendor’s site for current terms. Product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners.