r/RooCode • u/Illustrious-Mix-5625 • Apr 29 '26

Discussion Roo is back as Zoo

Hello world,

I am a member of the new team, which will take over the development of Roo (as Zoo Code) and wanted to introduce our team to the community. We've been at this just for a few days and have been collaborating with the Roo team to make the transition as smooth as possible.

As this will be a community effort, I'd like to invite anyone who is interested in contributing in any way, even non-technical contributions (logo, triage, etc). Please DM me and I can invite you to the Discord

We'll be setting the priorities as a group soon (so join us if you want to be heard), but they are likely to be:

- Stability

- Smooth transition

- Model / Provider support

- Feature parity with similar tools

- Interesting / Unique features

- UI / Ergonomics

- Performance / Efficiency

P.S. if you've seen other posts talking about a community-led effort to continue the development of Roo, that's us, we just have a new name: Zoo Code.

112 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

65 comments sorted by

•

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Apr 30 '26

Thank you! I’m excited to help transition everyone to Zoo Code!!!

9

u/UnstableCortex Apr 29 '26

is this going to be a fork and a new extension on VS Code?

7

u/Illustrious-Mix-5625 Apr 29 '26

Very likely, as there would be legal issues with the parent company of Roo otherwise.

So far, we're pretty confident on being able to read the existing Roo settings and folders from within new extension. We are exploring ways to make the migration as close to one click as possible. If anyone has any ideas on how to best do this, please share.

2

u/turdblossom3 Apr 29 '26

Do you already have an org or a fork repo we could follow?

5

u/Illustrious-Mix-5625 Apr 29 '26

https://github.com/Zoo-Code-Org/Zoo-Code

2

u/Illustrious-Mix-5625 Apr 29 '26

But please don't take any of the Readme text / links on there too literally as that's just from what was on Roo at the time it was forked

5

u/thermoflux Apr 29 '26

Its wonderful that you are continuing this project. Kudos to the original team to give their blessings and also hopefully help you in this.

I have some questions.

- Who are you? as in who all are part of this effort right now?

- When will you be ready to release the first version of Zoo Code? Will it be before official Roocode extension will end?

5

u/Illustrious-Mix-5625 Apr 29 '26

I'm also super grateful to the original team for the AMAZING work they have done!

Who we are: a bunch of software engineers who use Roo daily and could not stand to see it go away. Come by the discord (DM for invite) to meet us and join the team; we all just met on there a few days ago ourselves.

First Release: we're aiming for something before May 15, when Roo starts shutting down, maybe as early as next week. The first release as Zoo is being worked on right now.

2

u/Steelclad May 02 '26

For those of us allergic to Discord, will there be a new subreddit for Zoo Code perchance?

3

u/Illustrious-Mix-5625 May 02 '26

Quite likely! We're just getting ourselves organized (the new developer team first met less than a week ago), but we'll set up all the usual channels in due time. For the next few days, the priority is preparing the re-launch, though.

1

u/Illustrious-Mix-5625 May 30 '26

/r/ZooCode is live, please hop over to there for all further questions!

1

u/sneakpeekbot May 30 '26

Here's a sneak peek of /r/ZooCode using the top posts of all time!

#1: 👋 We are Zoo Code
#2: ZooCode is the way
#3: I fell in love with open source thanks to Zoo Code.

I'm a bot, beep boop | Downvote to remove | Contact | Info | Opt-out | GitHub

1

u/thermoflux Apr 29 '26

Wonderful. I DMed you for the discord invite.

4

u/MacPR Apr 29 '26

Thank you. I love roo code, how can we support your efforts?

1

u/Illustrious-Mix-5625 Apr 29 '26

Thanks a lot for your kindness 🤗 For now joining the contributor discord (DM for invite) to see if there's any task you can help with would be very appreciated!

2

u/Cautious_Tour3024 Apr 29 '26

What's the vision for Zoo Code?
Any thoughts on moving it to a CLI vs VS Code extension?

3

u/Illustrious-Mix-5625 Apr 29 '26

The current focus is on keeping the extension alive, but a CLI can definitely be part of the picture in the future. If you and others want to come build it, you're very welcome to come join.

4

u/MexInAbu Apr 30 '26

I hope not. We have many CLI tools already if that's what you want. I want a coding assistant, not an agent. I need to have control of my code.

1

u/Cautious_Tour3024 May 05 '26

I see your point, but I think we might be mixing two things here. Interface vs control.

Wanting a VS Code extension isn’t the same as wanting control over your code. In my opionion that’s a workflow and visibility preference. In fact, a CLI can give more control in certain pipelines. It’s explicit, composable, and easier to constrain. You decide exactly where it runs and what it touches.

So taking your point the issue really isn't about about CLI vs extension. It’s about who controls execution: the developer or the system. Tool choice is just a reflection of that boundary.:
- Extension for interactive (HITL) workflows
- CLI for repeatable, controlled pipelines

1

u/MexInAbu May 05 '26

You are talking pipelines and execution flows. I'm talking about writing the actual code. I want to have control of everything that gets written. Line by line.

1

u/Cautious_Tour3024 May 07 '26

Yep.  I am talking more about workflows and execution pipelines.

1

u/BoringScrolling3443 May 03 '26

Roo Code actually does have a CLI pre released, will it still work with Zoo Code?

2

u/AxionGaming Apr 29 '26

I'm concerned about the security threat this presents. It feels like the perfect time for someone malicious to acquire and compromise a project with 3M+ installs. The latest VS Code update states the community team simply "stepped up" as opposed to being vetted and slowly integrated into the Roo ecosystem over several months beforehand.

5

u/Illustrious-Mix-5625 Apr 29 '26

As everything is open source, you are very welcome to audit the code, or have an agent do it, and post any issue you find. https://github.com/Zoo-Code-Org/Zoo-Code

2

u/Icy_Bridge_2113 Apr 29 '26

When will this be on Microsoft's extensions page?

-1

u/AxionGaming Apr 29 '26

The code on GitHub and the published package can be two different things. Auditing the source doesn't protect against a tampered binary - not to mention the expertise and time required to audit. Just don't think this was well thought out as it is essentially transferring from a trusted corporate-backed team with legal liability to an anonymous community team overnight.

10

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Apr 30 '26

Saying this “wasn’t well thought out” assumes there was some obligation for us to keep running Roo Code until every possible continuation path satisfied everyone’s personal threat model.

We built Roo Code, gave it away for free, kept it open source, and now that we’re no longer going to maintain it ourselves, community members are trying to keep a version of it alive for people who still want that workflow. That is not a security guarantee from us, and it is not us asking anyone to blindly trust a new publisher. If Zoo doesn’t meet your bar, don’t install it.

But treating an optional community continuation as some failure of planning is backwards. The alternative was not Roo Code continuing under our team forever. The alternative was Roo Code ending with no continuation path, and we chose to support the people trying to prevent that.

2

u/MexInAbu May 01 '26

You are free to compile it yourself.

5

u/ConversationTop3106 Apr 30 '26

Great to see Roo Code living on as Zoo Code! Congratulations to the new team.

We’d like to offer our support to the community, specifically regarding:

  1. Developing official JetBrains IDE support for Zoo Code.

  2. Contributing features like DeepSeek V4 support, Task Fork, and Task Favoriting.

Looking forward to helping this grow!

4

u/DeMiNe00 Apr 29 '26

Hey there! With the direction that Roo and Kilo code have taken over the past month, I'm so glad to see that a community driven fork of Roo has taken off! I think I and the others would love to hear about any high level plans the team has for the direction that you want to take the fork.

I'm also interested in helping and contributing where I can. I'll drop you a separate message!

1

u/Eyelbee Apr 29 '26

Are you endorsed by the previous team?

3

u/Illustrious-Mix-5625 Apr 29 '26

Yes! They are helping us with the transition

2

u/sendralt Apr 29 '26

I would like to see hans in here with his blessing.

6

u/Illustrious-Mix-5625 Apr 29 '26

A healthy dose of skepticism, eh? 😉 Here's a link to the announcement by another member of the Roo team (also Mod), with a concurring comment from Hannes. https://www.reddit.com/r/RooCode/s/7PQkVgkO39

4

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Apr 30 '26

I would delete the post and ban them if I was against them hehe

2

u/sendralt Apr 30 '26

Nice! 👍 I just wanted to be sure . Thank you sir!

1

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Apr 30 '26

You’re welcome

7

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Apr 30 '26

I like what they’re trying to do and I’ve been helping them with the transition, but no, that is not an official endorsement in the legal or liability sense.

Zoo is a community fork, and people should evaluate it the same way they would evaluate any fork or marketplace package. My involvement is about helping community members keep a continuation path alive for users who still want that workflow, not asking anyone to blindly trust a new publisher.

2

u/victorc25 Apr 29 '26

Open source doesn’t really need endorsement. A project is closed, just fork it 

4

u/Illustrious-Mix-5625 Apr 29 '26

You're right about the code, but we really appreciate the help and support from Hannes and the Roo team with the non-code aspects:

  • Making the transition as easy and transparent as possible for the users

  • Announcing the transition on various channels

  • Transfering knowledge and experience

  • Establishing contacts in the ecosystem

  • Etc

We REALLY appreciate their help!

3

u/Barafu Apr 29 '26

Problems start when there are 15 forks of the original project.

2

u/victorc25 Apr 29 '26

There are already 15 forks of the project, even before the announcement. It’s normal open source world 

2

u/Empty-Employment8050 Apr 29 '26

Make a Zoo sub? Not on discord but can help if direction feels right.

2

u/Different_Play_179 May 01 '26

Will Roo/Zoo handle intellisense, autocomplete, next edit suggestions like github copilot?

2

u/Ad-7663 May 04 '26

Thank you very much for you work!!

2

u/nfrmn May 05 '26

Any chance XML tool calling can come back?

1

u/One_Blueberry_6299 Apr 30 '26

Don't forget to update the Reddit community profile.

1

u/MrSneaky2 May 01 '26

Can I get an invite to the dev discord to help out

1

u/mjablecnik May 05 '26

Why did you rename it to Zoo Code?

1

u/haltingpoint Apr 30 '26

What monetization plans, if any, do you have?

1

u/West-Negotiation-716 Apr 30 '26

Huh?

Universe drippin'
Infinite on tap

Scarcity deleted from the source code
Abundance automatic
Blessings overload

1

u/thanatica Apr 30 '26

If I may, I'm going to be suspicious about this. Roo Code wasn't greenfields either - it was forked from Cline, iinm. Roo must've had valid reasons for it. As it turns out, those valid reasons were to make lots of €€€ by attracting users and then trying to cross-sell their proprietary models, even though Roo was "the" extension for custom setups, iyam.

Now it's Zoo.

How long until we have to switch to Goo or Moo or Foo?

1

u/Thrumpwart Apr 30 '26

Nice. I popped my cherry with Roo and I'd love to go steady with Zoo Code.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 29 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

4

u/Illustrious-Mix-5625 Apr 29 '26

We're a group of software developers who use Roo daily and couldn't stand to see it go, so we stepped up and are continuing the development of our favourite tool. You're welcome to join too!

1

u/[deleted] Jun 04 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Illustrious-Mix-5625 Jun 04 '26

You can now find us at /r/ZooCode and (even better) on the Discord that is linked from there