March was a month of consolidation in the open-source AI coding space. The big projects shipped stability updates rather than flashy new features, and the ecosystem around MCP continued to expand.
Goose v1.0 — Stable Desktop App
block.github.io/goose | Apache-2.0
Block shipped the v1.0 milestone for Goose, marking its desktop app as stable. The MCP plugin marketplace now has 50+ community extensions. The desktop app makes Goose the most accessible CLI-style agent — you get terminal power with a GUI fallback.
Aider v0.82 — Better Monorepo Support
aider.chat | Apache-2.0
Aider’s repo mapping, which scans your codebase to give the LLM context, previously hit memory limits on very large monorepos. v0.82 introduces chunked mapping that handles repos with 100k+ files. Also adds experimental multi-model support for using different models for different tasks within a single session.
Roo Code — JetBrains Beta
roocode.com | Apache-2.0
Roo Code expanded beyond VS Code with a JetBrains plugin in beta. This puts it in direct competition with Kilo Code, which already supported JetBrains. The multi-mode system (Code, Architect, Ask, Debug) now works across both IDEs.
OpenHands Free Cloud Tier
openhands.dev | MIT
OpenHands launched a free tier of their hosted platform using Minimax models. Previously you needed your own API key or a paid plan. The free tier is limited but gives a zero-friction way to try autonomous AI development.
Kilo Code — 1.5 Million Users
github.com/Kilo-Org/kilocode | Apache-2.0
Kilo Code reported crossing 1.5 million users and becoming the highest-volume consumer on OpenRouter. For a Cline fork that launched less than a year ago, the growth rate is notable. JetBrains support remains its main differentiator from the parent project.
Frontman — Astro + Vite Support
frontman.sh | Apache-2.0 / AGPL-3.0
Disclosure: We built this. Frontman added Astro and Vite framework integrations alongside the existing Next.js support. The browser-based approach now works across the three most popular frontend build tools.
For a detailed comparison of all major open-source AI coding tools, see our full comparison guide.