Alternatives to Twinny
An open-source AI coding assistant for VS Code that works with local or hosted models. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Twinny
An open-source AI coding assistant for VS Code that works with local or hosted models.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Twinny.
Kilo Code
An open-source AI coding agent for VS Code, JetBrains, the terminal and the cloud.
Kilo Code is an MIT coding agent that works in JetBrains, the terminal and the cloud as well as VS Code, with at-cost model usage.
Aider
AI pair programming in a terminal, working directly on your git repository and committing as it goes.
Aider moves from a VS Code extension to terminal pair programming that commits every change to git, with local model support.
OpenCode
Work with an AI coding assistant from your terminal.
OpenCode is an MIT terminal coding assistant supporting multiple model providers, replacing the editor extension with a command-line workflow.
Crush
Terminal coding agent that works with whichever large language model you point it at.
Crush is an MIT terminal coding agent for any OpenAI- or Anthropic-compatible API, with language-server context and mid-session model switching.
Claude Code
Agentic coding tool that reads a codebase, edits files and runs commands.
Claude Code is a closed source agent requiring a paid Claude plan or API credits, working in terminals, IDEs, desktop and web.
Open Interpreter
A command-line coding agent built to work with open language models such as Kimi and GLM.
Open Interpreter is a terminal coding agent designed around open-weight models, running code on your machine rather than inside VS Code.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Ollama
The simplest way to pull down an open language model and run it on your own machine, from one command or a desktop app.
LM Studio
A polished desktop app for downloading, running and chatting with local language models, with an OpenAI-compatible server built in.
llama.cpp
The C++ engine most local AI apps are built on, running language models on ordinary hardware.
TabbyAPI
A lightweight, OpenAI-compatible API server for running ExLlama-format language models on your own hardware.
