Roo Code

AI-powered dev team inside your editor, boosting productivity.

Roo Code embeds an AI‑powered development team directly into VS Code, offering natural‑language code generation, refactoring, debugging, documentation, and customizable modes to accelerate any programming workflow.

Overview

Roo Code is designed for developers who want AI assistance without leaving their editor. Whether you are a solo programmer, a small team, or an educator, the extension brings a virtual development team into VS Code, letting you interact with code through plain English.

Features

The extension supports multiple modes: Code for everyday edits, Architect for system design and migrations, Ask for quick explanations, Debug for tracing issues, and Custom modes that let you define specialized workflows. It can generate code from specifications, refactor existing files, add documentation, and automate repetitive tasks, all driven by AI models you configure.

Getting Started

Installation is handled via VS Code’s extension marketplace or by building a VSIX package with pnpm. Once installed, Roo Code indexes your workspace, enabling instant AI‑powered queries and actions. A vibrant community on Discord, Reddit, and GitHub provides support, tutorials, and feature requests, ensuring the tool evolves with real‑world feedback.

Highlights

Multi-mode AI assistance (Code, Architect, Ask, Debug, Custom)

Natural-language code generation and refactoring

Automated documentation and repetitive task handling

Remote task control via Roomote integration

Pros

Brings a full AI dev team directly into VS Code
Extensible through user-defined custom modes
Supports a wide range of programming and natural languages
Active community and extensive tutorials

Considerations

Relies on external AI services, incurring latency or cost
Requires VS Code; not available for other editors
AI suggestions may need manual review for accuracy
No built-in offline model; internet connection required

Managed products teams compare with

When teams consider Roo Code, these hosted platforms usually appear on the same shortlist.

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CodeGPT

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Looking for a hosted option? These are the services engineering teams benchmark against before choosing open source.

Fit guide

Great for

Solo developers seeking rapid code scaffolding
Small teams needing AI-assisted design and debugging
Educators demonstrating AI-driven coding concepts
Developers looking to automate documentation generation

Not ideal when

Organizations with strict data-privacy policies prohibiting external API calls
Projects that must run entirely offline
Teams using non-VS Code editors exclusively
Low-bandwidth environments where API latency is problematic

How teams use it

Generate feature from description

AI creates functional code snippets that match the specification, reducing implementation time.

Debug runtime errors

AI traces the issue, suggests fixes, and inserts necessary logs, speeding up troubleshooting.

Create up-to-date API docs

Documentation is automatically generated from code comments, ensuring consistency without manual effort.

Batch refactor legacy code

AI applies consistent refactoring across the codebase, improving readability and maintainability.

Tech snapshot

TypeScript99%

CSS1%

JavaScript1%

Shell1%

HTML1%

Frequently asked questions

How does Roo Code integrate with my editor?

It is distributed as a VS Code extension; install from the marketplace or via a VSIX package, then it runs inside the editor.

Is there a free tier or open-source model?

The extension is open source under Apache‑2.0; you can connect it to any compatible AI model, many of which offer free usage tiers.

Can I create my own custom mode?

Yes, the Custom Modes feature lets you define prompts and workflows to tailor the AI’s behavior to your specific tasks.

Does Roo Code store my code or send it elsewhere?

The extension runs locally; only the prompts you send to the configured AI service are transmitted, subject to that service’s privacy policy.

What programming languages are supported?

Roo Code works with any language supported by VS Code, and its UI offers prompt translation in dozens of natural languages.

Project at a glance

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LicenseApache-2.0

Repo age1 year old

Last commit2 days ago

Primary languageTypeScript

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