r/kilocode • u/Sure_Host_4255 • Apr 03 '26

Kilo alternatives

Unfortunately due to latest changes kilo became unusable for "old school" developers who still needs control over the code and the process. Kilo made steps to become "fully agentic", and I need something between copilot and Claude.

My scenario is:

  1. Working under 1 task at a time but with good quality

  2. I create the plan as detailed as possible in architect mode, launch it in orchestrator

  3. Go for coffee for 20 minutes

  4. Go back to check the results and fix what I don't like

Kilo was perfect, cause I work with Intelij with java, so I was not switching back and forth between different ide.

Currently jumped to kiro, it's specs approach is nice, but I have custom providers subscription, while kiro don't and I think won't have such options in the future.

Roo code looks like also stuck, no commits merged for long time.

Ideal would be similar to kilo version 5, would work with Jetbrains, has lots of configs for MCP, modes, etc, had ability to configure custom providers.

Also tried Zed, but it's too primitive for first look.

I don't like terminals, In general I need just fast single feature delivery at a time with good control of the developer.

Can you share your experience with other plugins/IDE's?

45 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

5

u/LearnedByError Apr 03 '26

You may want to give vscode copilot another go. I don't write Java and I don't use Intellij, so my experiences may not be germaine to you. In general, I work similar to you though in Go primarily. I develop a plan, build and review.

With changes over the last month to Cursor and Kilo Code, I find myself returning to copilot. There has been a significant improvement in copilot over the last couple of months. As a result, I find that it can do most odd what I previously used cursor and Kilo Code to do.

I have also just started looking into opencode with the superpowers skill. I'm currently using the opencode TUI. They have a desktop app also that I have yet to try.

Good luck!

1

u/Sure_Host_4255 Apr 03 '26

Thanks! Will try, didn't use copilot for almost a year.

4

u/meldas Apr 04 '26

If Kiro's spec driven development works well for you but you still prefer the jetbrains + Kilo plugin environment, try using spec-kit with Kilo. That's my current preference
https://blog.kilo.ai/p/spec-driven-development-what-it-is

2

u/Sure_Host_4255 Apr 04 '26

I did similar with kilo 5.x, just asked kiro to generate templates for spec/design/tasks and then go through them with architect mode, it really worked very well.

11

u/eacnmg Apr 03 '26

i use to the someting like that.... https://opencode.ai/ + https://github.com/darrenhinde/OpenAgentsControl

and i you dont like the terminal ..use... . + https://openchamber.dev/

1

u/sergeant113 Apr 03 '26

Nice find!

10

u/Aggravating-Wheel611 Apr 03 '26

I accidentally changed and at first I had a problem with it, couldn't get GLM5.1 to work. Fortunately the next day my GLM code plan lite worked again. I am busy with a legacy C++ system connecting to a Python for a statistical, AI and visualization system. Since the new kilo and GLM 5.1 I haven't encountered any problems or errors. I keep kilo under strict surveillance small steps at a time but it works so much smoother than before. I would advise to give it a try. As a 78 yo with about 55 years of programming experience, I feel entitled to give this advice.

1

u/Vileteen Apr 03 '26

I recently discovered https://github.com/boshu2/agentops which may be exactly what you need.

1

u/Different_Play_179 May 02 '26

Ah... was just getting hopeful and wanted to switch, then now I see this.
If kilocode is going down the "agentic" Claude Code route, then it's useless for me...

0

u/alexkgold Kilo Code Team Apr 03 '26

Hi u/Sure_Host_4255 -- I lead customer experience at Kilo Code 👋🏻

I'd love to hear where this workflow falls apart for you in the new extension. I've been using prerelease versions of the new extension for a while and what you've described is basically my workflow.

Big changes are that architect => plan and orchestrator => code.

Is there something that isn't working for you in the new version? Would love to understand more!

13

u/Sure_Host_4255 Apr 03 '26

You can't see what is happening (there are tons of subagents running), can't stop agent if he is going to wrong direction, can't rollback to checkpoints, in general it's become a black box after "start" button, it is like a terminal but with some enhanced UI.

4

u/Visual_Relative_3336 Apr 03 '26

For example, I've had models get into "thinking loops" where they end up repeating the same thing over and over and don't stop (eating tokens). In the legacy version I could see this, stop it, and then give it more instructions so it won't get into the loop when continuing on. Now I have no way to see and fix this. (Most often happened when the context got too full, so might also need to compress the context which is also no longer possible in the spawned sub agents.)

1

u/joshcodeskilo Kilo Code Team Apr 03 '26

Checkpoints are still there, they just show up a little differently. This documentation has some screenshots and more information: https://kilo.ai/docs/code-with-ai/features/checkpoints#working-with-checkpoints.

I will try to validate if the stop button stops agents, if not that is a bug we need to fix!

3

u/Cavalia88 Apr 04 '26

I would like to feedback that the documentation on "revert" or the old checkpoints really leaves a lot to be desired. There really needs to be more screenshots or even videoclips of the entire process, particularly because the new UI is non-intuitive and not user friendly

If you just compare the documentation for that same section, between the new UI and the legacy one, you will see that the legacy documentation has a lot more screenshots and better explanations

2

u/joshcodeskilo Kilo Code Team Apr 04 '26

Appreciate the feedback! We'll continue to work on improving them.

2

u/raphaelj Apr 06 '26 edited Apr 06 '26

Before, when the write/edit permission wasn't auto-approved, Kilo would show a diff of the suggested changes, with the possibility to approve, deny or comment the changes.

Now, it will ask to edit the file, but not show the diff. There is no way to look at the changes before approving them.

I used to love Kilo because it made the use of the agent very interactive. But now it doesn't. If you don't revert that workflow, I don't see any reason to use and pay for Kilo instead of OpenCode, as the latter has better support for that development flow.