Roo Code

Roo Code is the open-source AI coding agent for VS Code built around specialized agent modes: Code mode for implementation tasks, Architect mode for system design and high-level planning, and Debug mode for diagnosing and fixing issues. Originally forked from Cline and developed independently by Roo Code Inc., the extension reached 24,300 GitHub stars and 1.83 million VS Code installs before the company archived the repository on May 15, 2026. As of that date, the Roo-Code GitHub repository is read-only with no further development planned from the original team. The roocode.com domain now redirects to Roomote, a separate cloud coding agent from the same company: a BYOK, self-hostable engineering teammate that connects to your repo, runs live previews, and reviews its own changes. The Roo Code extension remains installable from the VS Code Marketplace and fully functional for existing users. Because the code is Apache-2.0 licensed, the community continued it. Zoo Code, launched in April 2026 by former Roo Code contributors, forked the project at v3.54.0 and is now the primary community-maintained continuation. It preserves the same features, settings structure, and license, with ongoing model updates and bug fixes. The specialized mode architecture remains the core differentiator: distinct modes with tailored prompts, tool permissions, and context strategies for each workflow type rather than a single general-purpose chat. Code mode handles implementation, Architect mode handles system design, and Debug mode handles diagnosis and issue isolation. Pricing is and has always been fully free: Roo Code itself carries no subscription fee, with users paying only for AI inference through their chosen provider via BYOK. The platform supported over 50 model providers including Anthropic Claude, OpenAI GPT, Google Gemini, DeepSeek, and local models via Ollama and LM Studio, with any OpenAI-compatible API endpoint also supported. This model-agnostic architecture allowed developers to optimize cost and capability per task: Claude for complex reasoning, DeepSeek for cost-sensitive operations, and local models for privacy-sensitive codebases where cloud inference is restricted. Roo Code is not the right fit for teams that need commercial support, SLA guarantees, or compliance certifications, and with the original team no longer developing it, new production deployments should weigh the maintenance risk. The extension carries no SOC 2, HIPAA, or equivalent certifications. Teams evaluating Roo Code today should look first at the maintained successors its own documentation points to. Zoo Code is the direct community fork with the same architecture; Cline is the upstream project it was forked from. OpenCode is a further open-source BYOK option with active development. Current state Q3 2026: Roo Code Inc. archived the Roo-Code GitHub repository on May 15, 2026, with a public archive banner now on the repo. The final release was v3.54.0. The repository has 24,300 stars, 3,400 forks, and 7,073 commits representing active development up to the archive date. The roocode.com domain now redirects to Roomote, a separate Roo Code Inc. product positioned as a cloud coding agent: BYOK, open-model, self-hostable, and repo-connected, with live previews and review loops, free to deploy with source available. Zoo Code published v3.54.0 to the VS Code Marketplace on May 16, 2026 and continues the extension for the community. The Roo Code extension itself remains available in the Marketplace under Apache-2.0 but is frozen at v3.54.0.