Roo Code is shutting down: where to go next

The archive announcement landed April 20, 2026; the actual shutdown happened May 15. Roo Code Cloud and Roo Code Router are offline, unused balances refunded, and the extension repo is read-only. A community fork (Zoo Code at zoocode.dev) carries the VS Code plugin forward with an official handoff. But the bigger story is what the original team did next.

Roo Code hit 3 million cumulative downloads, 1.6 million residual marketplace installs at archive, and 24.1k GitHub stars. It was one of the most important open-source agentic coding projects of the past two years. The team's reason for shutting it down is unusually specific: they do not believe IDEs are the future of coding. They bet the company on Roomote, a Slack-first cloud agent. Every Roo user now has to pick a side on the same question.

That is a real philosophical position worth engaging with, not a throwaway line. This post maps the landscape honestly, flags our own tradeoffs, and tells you which option fits which kind of user based on whether you agree with Roo's thesis or not.

What actually happened

The Roo Code sunset post is short. Here is the timeline:

• April 20, 2026: Sunset announcement published.
• Through May 15, 2026: All existing products (extension, Cloud, Router) continued to work. Users kept access with their own API keys via the extension during the wind-down window.
• May 15, 2026: Roo Code Cloud and Roo Code Router shut down. Unused balances refunded. Extension repo archived (read-only). For billing questions post-shutdown, the team directs you to billing@roocode.com.

Roo Code's own recommendation for open-source extension users is Cline. The official quote: the Cline team “have incorporated much of what we built.” For anyone interested in the team's next chapter, they point to roomote.dev.

Cline's reaction was on brand. Their tweet: “Roo Code is shutting down and merging back to Cline. Huge respect to @mattrubens and the @roocode team. Roo contributed to our community more than any other fork. We're glad to be home for their users while they focus on new endeavors.”

Kilo Code also published a response. Their CEO Brian Turcotte acknowledged the run (“3 million installs is a hell of a run”) and shipped a Roo-to-Kilo migration guide the same week. Turcotte publicly disputed the “IDEs are over” thesis, arguing that “the IDE is not over, far from it.” That disagreement is not just posturing. It is the debate every Roo Code user had to pick a side on, and the debate that still shapes which alternative you should pick today.

The philosophical split: are IDEs over?

Roo's team watched their own internal workflow shift. Developers stopped babysitting agents step-by-step inside the editor and started kicking off cloud-hosted agents that produced full pull requests. Matt Rubens' framing: “If the agent can create a good PR from a single prompt, the interaction model changes completely.” Roomote is the product built on that bet. You send a prompt from Slack, GitHub, or Linear, and the agent returns a PR.

The counter-argument from Kilo and Cline, which we agree with: most developers still spend most of their day reading and editing code inside an editor. Agents in the IDE are getting better, not irrelevant. The form factor is not over. It is changing.

Both bets can be right for different users. If you are a manager coordinating multiple parallel work streams and you have stopped personally writing most of the code, Roomote is aimed at you. If you are still reading diffs, running tests locally, and reaching for your editor forty times a day, the IDE is not going anywhere, and you need a replacement that lives in the editor.

What Roo Code users actually valued

Before picking a replacement, name what Roo gave you. The five things we hear most:

• Open source, Apache 2.0 licensed. You could read the code, fork the code, audit the code.
• BYOK with 100+ model connections. Roo did not lock you to a provider. Local models via Ollama, LM Studio, vLLM, plus any OpenAI-compatible cloud endpoint.
• Custom modes and diff-based editing. The apply_diff tool output only the changed lines, which cut token costs roughly 30% versus Cline's full-file outputs.
• Agentic workflows with a permission layer. Plan, then approve, then execute. No surprise commits.
• The VS Code extension form factor. You kept your editor, your keybindings, your extensions. Roo slotted in.

Any replacement worth recommending has to cover at least the first four. The fifth one, the VS Code extension form factor, is a branching point. Keep it and you have three real options. Leave it and you have two.

Your five options

1. Cline (Roo's own recommendation)

Cline is the upstream project Roo forked from. It started as “Claude Dev” in 2024, rebranded to Cline, and is still the category leader by install count. 5M+ installs. 58K+ GitHub stars. Apache 2.0 licensed. v3.78.0 shipped April 10, 2026 with a spend-limit UI and file-reading fixes. The project is well funded: a $32M raise from Emergence Capital and Pace Capital in 2025.

The business model is clean. Extension is free. You bring your own API keys. Cline offers managed inference credits at cost for teams who want centralized billing, but that is optional. No subscription, no credit-burn pricing, no surprise tier changes.

The feature set is close to what Roo Code offered, with the obvious caveat that Roo shipped a few features faster (custom modes, cheaper diff-editing). Cline is adopting those patterns. If you were using Roo because you preferred its velocity over Cline's, that gap is closing by design.

Best for: the majority of Roo Code users. Same lineage, same form factor, same philosophy, same license. The shortest switch.

2. Continue.dev (mature, MIT, local-first friendly)

Continue.dev is MIT licensed, actively maintained, and just shipped v0.8.34 with a main-repo update on April 22, 2026. It supports VS Code, all JetBrains IDEs, and Vim/Neovim. Model support covers Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Mistral, AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI, Google Vertex, self-hosted vLLM, and local providers via Ollama, LM Studio, or vLLM.

The project has evolved past pure chat. Plan mode lets you scope work before touching files. Source-controlled AI checks let teams codify standards as enforceable CI rules. It is a different philosophy than Roo's fast-iteration agent model, but it is mature and well maintained.

Best for: Roo Code users who want an actively maintained extension, care about JetBrains or Neovim support, or want the strongest local-model story. If Ollama or LM Studio is your primary inference path, Continue is the most battle-tested option.

3. Kilo Code (the fork of Roo with a migration guide)

Kilo Code forked from Roo, just as Roo forked from Cline. Kilo has the most direct claim to Roo's recent work because they inherited the codebase. The core extension is Apache 2.0 and free. Kilo published a Roo-to-Kilo migration guide the day Roo announced the shutdown, and CEO Brian Turcotte has been vocal about continuing the IDE agent bet that Roo walked away from.

The honest catch: Kilo's hosted services stack on top. KiloClaw (the managed agent) is $55/mo standard ($51/mo on the 6-month Commit plan). KiloPass credits run $19-$199/mo. The free tier for hosted inference ended March 23, 2026. If you run your own API keys and skip KiloClaw and KiloPass, the core extension is still free. If you sign up for the hosted services, your monthly bill lands between $74 and $254+, which is well past Cursor Individual territory.

Best for: Roo Code users who want the fork lineage to continue and are comfortable running their own API keys. Skip KiloClaw and KiloPass unless you specifically want managed inference. Full breakdown: Kilo Code alternatives.

4. Roomote (if you agree with Roo's thesis)

If you read the Roo team's reasoning and nodded, Roomote is the continuation of what they were building. Cloud-based agent, integrates with Slack, GitHub, Linear. You send a prompt, it produces a PR end-to-end. Model-agnostic. The same team, the same taste, pointed at a different problem.

We do not know Roomote's pricing or enterprise terms yet. The product just launched. This is a bet on a new form factor by a team with a track record of shipping.

Best for: developers and managers who have already stopped writing most of the code themselves and want to coordinate agent work from chat and issue trackers rather than from an editor. If you are still hands-on-keyboard most of the day, this is not the right fit.

5. Bodega One Code (standalone IDE, free for personal use)

Bodega One Code is the option for Roo Code users who want to leave the VS Code extension world entirely. It is a standalone Electron desktop app with the Monaco editor, AI chat, an autonomous coding agent, and 15 LLM provider presets (9 local, 5 cloud, plus custom). Windows, macOS, Linux. Local-first architecture. Air-gap mode with network egress blocking.

Pricing: Free for Personal use (1 machine) or $39 one-time for Pro (2 machines, commercial license). No subscription, no credits, no quota-based tiers.

Honest tradeoffs you need to know:

• We are not open source. Roo was Apache 2.0. Bodega One Code is a commercial product. If open source is a hard requirement, pick Cline, Continue, or Kilo.
• We are not a VS Code extension. We are a standalone IDE. Your muscle memory, keybindings, and VS Code extensions do not carry over. If you need to stay in VS Code, pick Cline, Continue, or Kilo.
• We are in beta. Full launch coming later this year. If you needed something to use the day Roo Code archived (May 15, 2026), Cline was the right immediate move; Bodega One Code is the longer-term play if the standalone IDE pitch lands.

Best for: Roo Code users who always found the extension-on-top-of-an-editor-on-top-of-a-browser-runtime stack uncomfortable and want a purpose-built AI coding environment that ships as one installer and bills once.

Comparison table: Roo Code alternatives

Migration steps (still relevant if you have not switched yet)

Roo Code archived on May 15, 2026. If you are reading this after the cutover and still have the extension installed, these steps still apply.

1. Export your Roo Code settings. Your custom modes, model configurations, and prompt presets are worth keeping. The settings export lives in the extension preferences (the archived repo is read-only but the installed extension still surfaces them).
2. Back up your API keys. Move them into a password manager if they are not already there. You will need them for whichever extension or IDE you pick next.
3. Close out Cloud and Router balances. Unused balances were eligible for refund after May 15. If you never received yours, contact billing@roocode.com.
4. Pick your form factor. Staying in VS Code, go with Cline, Continue.dev, or Kilo Code. Leaving VS Code, go with Bodega One Code or Roomote. Do not try to pick the tool before you have picked the form factor.
5. Install your replacement and test on a real task. Do not wait for your Roo Code install to start throwing deprecation warnings before you have an alternative wired up.

FAQ

Should I just switch to Cline since Roo Code recommends it?

For most Roo Code users, yes. Cline is the upstream project, has the most installs, is well funded, and has been actively incorporating Roo's innovations. The philosophical continuity is the strongest. Unless you have a specific reason to look elsewhere (JetBrains support, a cloud-first workflow, a hard standalone-IDE preference), Cline is the low-friction answer.

Is Roomote a replacement for Roo Code?

No. Roomote is a replacement for the idea that you should use an IDE at all. If you agree with the Roo team's thesis, it is worth trying. If you still work in an editor for most of your day, it is not a drop-in replacement. Treat it as a new category, not a continuation.

Was Bodega One Code ready by May 15?

Beta was live by mid-May 2026; full launch is coming later this year. If your Roo Code install stopped working at the May 15 archive cutover and you needed something that day, Cline was the right immediate move. If the standalone IDE pitch lands, download the free beta.

Why would I pick a closed-source commercial tool over open source?

Honest answer: most Roo Code users should not. Open source was half of what you were paying for with Roo. If that was the reason, stay in open source. The case for Bodega One Code is narrower: you want a standalone IDE with 15 provider presets, air-gap mode, a built-in autonomous agent, a five-step quality enforcement layer, and a one-time price, all in one installer. If that list describes you, read how we position against Cursor and decide.

What happened to my open Roo Code pull requests and issues?

The repo archived on May 15, 2026. Archiving a GitHub repo keeps it readable but closes it to new issues and PRs. Any work in flight at the cutover is now frozen in place; the artifacts stay as a historical reference, not an active project. A community fork at Zoo Code picked up the codebase if you want continued IDE-extension development.

The takeaway

Roo Code shipped a lot of good work and walked away honestly. The team gave clear guidance on where to go next, issued refunds, and explained their reasoning. Not every sunset looks like this one, and the community is better for it.

If you want the shortest migration path, install Cline. If you want to leave the VS Code extension model entirely and own your tools without a subscription, download Bodega One Code free. Beta is open to everyone. Full launch coming later this year.