Claude Code changed how I write software. But it’s not the only CLI-based agentic coding tool out there. Here’s what else exists.
OpenAI Codex CLI
OpenAI’s answer to Claude Code. Install via npm i -g @openai/codex or brew install --cask codex. Works the same way—reads your repo, makes edits, runs commands.
The latest model, GPT-5.5, powers the CLI. It apparently reads files for 10-15 minutes before writing anything, which supposedly means fewer errors—Peter Steinberger claims it beats Claude Opus for larger tasks.
Included with ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise, and Edu subscriptions.
Amp
Originally built at Sourcegraph, now an independent company. Available as CLI and in VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, JetBrains, Neovim, and Zed. Mitchell Hashimoto (HashiCorp co-founder) uses Amp for his work on Ghostty.
Three main modes: “smart” (Opus 4.7), “rush” (faster, cheaper for small tasks), and “deep” (GPT-5.5 for extended reasoning). Has an agentic code review tool and MCP support with lazy-loading.
Pricing: free tier available (no ads), or pay-as-you-go credits at cost with no markup.
Factory
An AI-native development platform built around its CLI agent, Droid. Install and run it in the terminal like Claude Code, but Factory goes further—Droids also run via IDE, Slack, Teams, browser, or triggered automatically from issue trackers.
What stands out: “Droid Computers” give each agent a persistent cloud machine for remote work. Supports multi-step missions, code review, and non-interactive CI/CD execution. Vendor-agnostic with multiple model providers. Configuration uses AGENTS.md files and custom skills.
Backed by Khosla Ventures and Sequoia Capital ($150M Series C, $1.5B valuation). Used by Podium, Groq, and Chainguard. Enterprise pricing—contact sales.
OpenCode
Open source with 150,000+ GitHub stars. Supports 15+ LLM providers—Claude, GPT, Gemini, local models, and any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. Available across terminal, desktop apps (macOS, Windows, Linux), and a VS Code extension.
You can share session links for collaboration. Works with Claude Pro and Max accounts through Anthropic login.
Aider
The OG terminal-first AI pair programmer. 44,000+ GitHub stars, 6.8M pip installs. Works with Claude, GPT, DeepSeek, and local LLMs.
What makes it different: Git-native workflow. Aider automatically commits changes with descriptive messages. It maps your entire codebase for context and supports 100+ programming languages. Also has voice-to-code if you’re into that.
Gemini CLI
Google’s open source option (Apache 2.0). Free tier gives you 60 requests/min and 1,000 requests/day with a personal Google account, plus access to Gemini 3 with a 1M token context window.
Uses a ReAct loop with built-in tools for Google Search, file operations, shell commands, and web fetching. MCP support included.
Armin Ronacher (creator of Flask) uses Gemini CLI inside Claude Code for certain tasks.
Pi
Less well-known but worth mentioning. Created by Mario Zechner. It’s actually a monorepo toolkit for building AI agents, but includes a coding agent CLI.
Unified LLM API that works with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and others. Also includes a Slack bot, web UI components, and vLLM pod management for deploying models on GPU infrastructure.
Armin Ronacher builds a game from scratch with Opus and Pi in his latest video.
The pattern: Claude Code is the default choice, but developers who want model flexibility gravitate toward OpenCode or Aider. Those deep in the OpenAI ecosystem use Codex. Google loyalists get a surprisingly capable free tier with Gemini CLI.
Most power users I’ve seen run multiple tools. Different models excel at different tasks. It’s worth experimenting with a few of these to find one that fits how you work—your communication style, the languages you use, and the frameworks you build with all affect which tool clicks. Someone doing Swift/iOS might have a different experience than someone building Svelte web apps.