We’ve spent the last year building the best VS Code extension for agentic engineering. A million downloads later, we’ve learned how important an end-to-end experience is. Developers don’t live in one tool. They live in terminals, on remote servers - in environments where opening an IDE isn't even an option. The tools that earn a permanent spot in a developer's workflow are the ones that show up in all of those places, not just the comfortable ones. That realization is what led us to Kilo CLI 1.0. Getting here meant making a call to throw out our old CLI and start over. The Original Approach When we first shipped a CLI, we did what made sense at the time. We built it on top of the same architecture as our VS Code extension. It worked, but it also meant we were handling IDE-shaped assumptions in a terminal-native context. Dependencies that made sense in VS Code became friction in the CLI, so iteration wasn’t as fast. Terminal-native tools deserve terminal-native foundations. That's not a philosophical stance, it's just engineering pragmatism. Finding the Right Foundation in OpenCode When we decided to rebuild, we weren't starting from a blank slate. We looked for the best open-source foundation we could find, and we found it in OpenCode. OpenCode OpenCode is an MIT-licensed CLI for agentic coding with a beautifully-designed TUI and an active community that clearly cares about the craft. The people building it understand what developers actually want from a terminal tool: speed, extensibility, and a UI that doesn't get in the way. We've integrated Kilo CLI deeply into our platform while preserving the OpenCode foundation, and we're contributing our improvements back upstream. That's how open source is supposed to work, and it's a commitment we're taking seriously. At Kilo, we believe software should be open by default. That's not just a marketing position. It's reflected in how we build: in public, with open-source licensing, and with genuine participation in the communities we depend on. As AI becomes more central to how software gets built, we think openness stops being a philosophy and starts shaping which tools actually earn developer trust. OpenCode aligns with that exactly. To the OpenCode community: we're glad to be building alongside you. What's Actually Different Now A lot of CLIs for AI coding tools are one of two things: a thin wrapper around an API that calls a single model, or a powerful tool that's tightly coupled to one ecosystem. Neither reflects how engineering teams actually operate in 2026. Kilo CLI 1.0 is built around two principles that don't usually coexist: Genuine terminal-native agentic capability. Specialized agent modes that allow you to plan an execute code implementations using AI. It’s not a stripped-down version of the IDE experience. It's the same Kilo engine, where you need it. Genuine terminal-native agentic capability. Real model agnosticism. 500+ models, no vendor lock-in. You choose the right tradeoff between cost, latency, context window, and reasoning for each task. Running a quick refactor? Use a fast, cheap model. Designing a system? Pull in something with deeper reasoning. The point is that you decide, not us. Real model agnosticism. This Is a Contrarian Bet, and We Know It The broader AI tooling market is moving toward consolidation. Closed stacks. Vertical integration. "Use our model, in our editor, on our platform." There are real reasons that approach is appealing — it's easier to optimize for a single environment, and you can ship a tighter experience faster. We're betting in the other direction. We think the future of agentic engineering is open, modular, and portable. Not necessarily because open source is inherently virtuous, but because the developers who adopt these tools permanently — the ones who actually change how their team works — are the ones who feel like they own their workflow. Closed stacks breed workarounds. Open platforms breed adoption. The Kilo Platform Here's the pitch we keep coming back to internally: a great VS Code extension is useful. A great CLI is useful. But an integrated platform is what changes how you work. With Kilo CLI 1.0 plugged into the broader Kilo platform, a realistic workflow looks like this: you open a session in the CLI while SSH'd into a remote server. You get back to your desk and pick it up in VS Code. You share the session with a teammate via Slack. You run an AI code review before the PR goes out. You deploy through Cloud Agents without breaking your flow. Sessions persist across Kilo interfaces. Context follows you. That's not a feature - it's a thesis. Try It npm install -g @kilocode/cli npm install -g @kilocode/cli Run kilo in your project directory. It'll detect your repo and you're ready to go. kilo If you're already on Kilo in VS Code or JetBrains, your settings sync automatically. You don't lose anything, you just gain a new place to work from. What's Coming 1.0 is stable and production-ready. Near-term, we're focused on: Deeper Cloud Agents integration for remote execution workflows Enhanced session sharing across all interfaces Tighter orchestration between CLI and IDE Deeper Cloud Agents integration for remote execution workflows Enhanced session sharing across all interfaces Tighter orchestration between CLI and IDE We build Kilo with Kilo, so we move fast. Expect updates at that pace. If you try it, tell us what you think. If you're in the OpenCode community, we look forward to shipping alongside you. Move at Kilo Speed! Kilo Speed
