Best Agentic CLI Coding Tools for Freelancers

Amp is a frontier coding agent built to give developers full access to the power of today’s leading AI models directly in their workflow. Available in the terminal and popular editors like VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, JetBrains, and Neovim, Amp integrates seamlessly into existing development environments. It enables developers to delegate complex coding tasks, refactors, reviews, and explorations to intelligent agents that understand and operate across entire codebases. With support for advanced models such as Claude Opus, Gemini, and GPT-class models, Amp delivers fast, reliable, and highly agentic code generation. The platform is designed for real-world engineering work, handling multi-file changes, deep context, and iterative improvements. Amp helps developers move faster while maintaining confidence in code quality.

Augment Code is an AI-powered coding agent designed specifically for professional software engineers working with large codebases. It integrates seamlessly with popular IDEs like Visual Studio Code, IntelliJ IDEA, and Vim, offering tools for SDK migration, code refactoring, and documentation. Augment Code enhances developers’ productivity by understanding their unique code style and context, providing personalized recommendations and explanations. The platform supports over 100 native and MCP tools, allowing engineers to debug and code more efficiently without switching between different applications.

Cursor is an advanced AI-powered IDE designed to make developers exponentially more productive. Built with deep codebase understanding and intelligent automation, it combines natural language interaction with precise, context-aware editing tools. Its Agent feature acts as a human-AI coding partner capable of planning and executing entire development workflows, while the Tab model delivers remarkably accurate autocompletion and targeted suggestions. Cursor seamlessly integrates across environments—from GitHub and Slack to the command line—ensuring AI assistance is available wherever you code. Supporting leading models like GPT-5, Claude Sonnet, Gemini Pro, and Grok Code, it gives developers full control over autonomy and model selection. Fast, intuitive, and built for serious builders, Cursor is redefining what an IDE can be.

Claude Code is an AI-powered coding assistant designed to work directly inside your existing development environment. It goes beyond simple autocomplete by understanding entire codebases and helping developers build, debug, refactor, and ship features faster. Developers can interact with Claude Code from the terminal, IDEs, Slack, or the web, making it easy to stay in flow without switching tools. By describing tasks in natural language, users can let Claude handle code exploration, modifications, and explanations. Claude Code can analyze project structure, dependencies, and architecture to onboard developers quickly. It integrates with common command-line tools, version control systems, and testing workflows. This makes it a powerful companion for both individual developers and teams working on complex software projects.

Kilo Code is a powerful open-source coding agent designed to help developers build, ship, and iterate faster across every stage of the software development workflow. It offers multiple modes—including Ask, Architect, Code, Debug, and Orchestrator—so developers can switch seamlessly between tasks with tailored AI support. The platform includes features such as hallucination-free code, automatic failure recovery, and deep context awareness to ensure accuracy and reliability. Developers can run parallel agents, enjoy fast autocomplete, and even deploy applications with a single click. With access to 500+ models and integration across terminals, VS Code, and JetBrains editors, Kilo provides unmatched flexibility. As the #1 agent on OpenRouter with over 750,000 users, it has quickly become a preferred choice for modern AI-assisted development.

Kiro is an AI‑powered integrated development environment that brings structure to AI‑driven coding by converting natural‑language prompts into clear requirements, system designs, and discrete implementation tasks validated by robust tests. Built from the ground up for agentic workflows, it features spec‑driven development, multimodal chat, “agent hooks” that trigger background tasks on events like file saves, and an autopilot mode that autonomously runs large scripts while keeping you in control. With smart context management, Kiro reduces repetitive prompts and helps implement complex features across large codebases. Native MCP integrations let you connect to documentation, databases, and APIs, and you can guide development with images of UI designs or architecture diagrams. Enterprise‑grade security and privacy ensure safe deployment, while support for Claude Sonnet models, Open VSX plugins, and existing VS Code settings delivers a familiar yet AI‑supercharged experience.

Warp is a blazingly fast, Rust-based terminal reimagined from the ground up to work like a modern app. Fully native, Rust-based terminal. No Electron or web-tech. All cloud features are opt-in. Data is encrypted at rest. Warp works out of the box with zsh, fish, and bash. Input that feels like a code editor. Writing code in your terminal shouldn’t feel like 1978. Edit your commands like in a modern code editor with selections, cursor positioning, and completion menus. Our GPT-3 powered AI search will convert natural language into executable shell commands. It's like GitHub Copilot, but for the terminal. Navigate through your terminal, command by command. Copy the output with one click and zero scrolls. Access common workflows with a simple GUI. You can create your own workflows, and share them with your team.

Amazon Q Developer is a generative AI–powered coding assistant from AWS that helps developers accelerate the entire software development lifecycle. It integrates directly into popular IDEs like JetBrains, VS Code, Visual Studio, and Eclipse, providing real-time code suggestions, refactoring, documentation, and debugging assistance. Beyond coding, Amazon Q Developer supports agentic capabilities—autonomously performing tasks like feature implementation, testing, and modernization of applications. As an AWS-native expert, it helps optimize cloud resources, diagnose issues, and guide users through architectural best practices. The platform also enables seamless data and AI integration, allowing developers to build analytics and ML applications using natural language. With up to 80% faster development speed and 40% productivity gains, Amazon Q Developer delivers enterprise-grade intelligence directly inside the tools developers use every day.

Crush is a glamorous AI coding agent that lives right in your terminal, seamlessly connecting your tools, code, and workflows with any Large Language Model (LLM) of your choice. It offers multi-model flexibility, letting you choose from a variety of LLMs or add your own using OpenAI or Anthropic-compatible APIs, and supports mid-session switching between them while preserving context. Crush is session-based, enabling multiple project-specific contexts to coexist. Powered by Language Server Protocol (LSP) enhancements, it incorporates coding-aware context just like a developer’s editor. It's highly extensible via Model Context Protocol (MCP) plugins using HTTP, stdio, or SSE for added capabilities. Crush runs anywhere, leveraging Charm’s sleek Bubble Tea-based TUI for a polished terminal user experience. Written in Go and MIT-licensed (with FSL-1.1 for trademarks), enabling developers to stay in their terminal while taking advantage of expressive AI coding assistance.

Mistral Vibe CLI is a command-line interface built for “vibe-coding,” enabling developers to interact with their codebases through natural-language commands rather than manual edits or rigid IDE workflows. It hooks into version control (e.g., Git repositories), inspects project files, directory structure, and Git status to build context, and uses that context along with backend AI coding models (such as Devstral 2/Devstral Small) to execute operations like multi-file edits, refactoring, code generation, search, and file manipulation, all triggered via plain-English instructions. Because it maintains project awareness (dependencies, file structure, history), it can perform coordinated, cross-file changes (e.g., renaming a function and updating all references across the repo), generate boilerplate across modules, or even scaffold new features from a high-level prompt.

Forge Code is a terminal-based AI pair-programmer and software-engineering agent that lets you interact with your entire codebase using natural language commands. It runs directly in your shell, integrating seamlessly with any IDE or existing workflow; you don’t need to switch editors or abandon your regular tools. Forge Code understands project files, Git history, dependencies, and environment context, so once it loads your project, it comprehends the codebase structure and can respond to prompts without repeated explanations. It offers a multi-agent architecture: a “Forge Agent” for implementing changes and real code execution, and a “Muse Agent” for planning, analyzing, and reviewing code without altering files. You can use Forge with your preferred AI provider or self-hosted LLMs, giving full control over where your code goes and how the model is run.

Kimi Code CLI is an AI-powered command-line agent that runs in the terminal to assist developers with software development and terminal operations by reading and editing code, executing shell commands, searching and fetching web pages, autonomously planning and adjusting actions during execution, and providing a shell-like interactive experience where users can describe their needs in natural language or switch to direct command mode; it supports integrations with IDEs and local agent clients via the Agent Client Protocol for enriched workflows and simplifies tasks such as writing and modifying code, fixing bugs, refactoring, exploring unfamiliar projects, answering architecture questions, and automating batch tasks or build and test scripts. Installation is handled via a script that installs the necessary tool manager and then the Kimi CLI package, after which users verify with a version command and configure an API source.

Factory is an enterprise AI platform designed to accelerate the software development lifecycle by automating and optimizing various engineering processes. It offers a unified workspace that integrates code, documentation, tickets, and discussions, reducing context switching and enhancing team collaboration. Combines all development artifacts into a single intelligent workspace, providing comprehensive visibility and control over engineering projects. Transforms complex tasks into repeatable processes, enabling teams to tackle engineering challenges efficiently and consistently. Provides guided workflows for seamless integration with premier development tools, facilitating rapid setup and deployment. Factory's platform is designed to support large enterprises, offering features like dedicated compute resources, custom integrations tailored to organizational workflows, and premium support with dedicated account management.

Auggie CLI brings Augment’s intelligent coding agent directly into your terminal by leveraging its powerful context engine to analyze code, make edits, and execute tools both interactively and within automated workflows. Developers can install it via npm (requiring Node.js 22+ and a compatible shell), then launch a full-screen interactive session using auggie, complete with real-time streaming, visual progress, and conversational tooling, for debugging, feature development, PR review, or triaging alerts. For automation, Auggie offers streamlined modes ideal for CI/CD pipelines and background tasks. The CLI also supports custom slash commands for repeatable workflows, integrates with external tools and systems via native integrations and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, and can be scripted in pipelines or GitHub Actions for tasks like auto-generating PR descriptions.