Aider vs Codex CLI

AI Pair Programming in Your Terminal

Aider lets you pair program with LLMs to start a new project or build on your existing codebase.

Features

Cloud and local LLMs

Aider works best with Claude 3.7 Sonnet, DeepSeek R1 & Chat V3, OpenAI o1, o3-mini & GPT-4o, but can connect to almost any LLM, including local models.

Maps your codebase

Aider makes a map of your entire codebase, which helps it work well in larger projects.

100+ code languages

Aider works with most popular programming languages: python, javascript, rust, ruby, go, cpp, php, html, css, and dozens more.

Git integration

Aider automatically commits changes with sensible commit messages. Use familiar git tools to easily diff, manage and undo AI changes.

Use in your IDE

Use aider from within your favorite IDE or editor. Ask for changes by adding comments to your code and aider will get to work.

Images & web pages

Add images and web pages to the chat to provide visual context, screenshots, reference docs, etc.

Voice-to-code

Speak with aider about your code! Request new features, test cases or bug fixes using your voice and let aider implement the changes.

Linting & testing

Automatically lint and test your code every time aider makes changes. Aider can fix problems detected by your linters and test suites.

Copy/paste to web chat

Work with any LLM via its web chat interface. Aider streamlines copy/pasting code context and edits back and forth with a browser.

Getting Started

python -m pip install aider-install
aider-install

## Change directory into your codebase
cd /to/your/project

## DeepSeek
aider --model deepseek --api-key deepseek=<key>

## Claude 3.7 Sonnet
aider --model sonnet --api-key anthropic=<key>

## o3-mini
aider --model o3-mini --api-key openai=<key>

See the installation instructions and usage documentation for more details.

More Information

Documentation

• Installation Guide
• Usage Guide
• Tutorial Videos
• Connecting to LLMs
• Configuration Options
• Troubleshooting
• FAQ

Community & Resources

• LLM Leaderboards
• GitHub Repository
• Discord Community
• Release notes
• Blog

Kind Words From Users

• "My life has changed... Aider... It's going to rock your world." — Eric S. Raymond on X
• "The best free open source AI coding assistant." — IndyDevDan on YouTube
• "The best AI coding assistant so far." — Matthew Berman on YouTube
• "Aider ... has easily quadrupled my coding productivity." — SOLAR_FIELDS on Hacker News
• "It's a cool workflow... Aider's ergonomics are perfect for me." — qup on Hacker News
• "It's really like having your senior developer live right in your Git repo - truly amazing!" — rappster on GitHub
• "What an amazing tool. It's incredible." — valyagolev on GitHub
• "Aider is such an astounding thing!" — cgrothaus on GitHub
• "It was WAY faster than I would be getting off the ground and making the first few working versions." — Daniel Feldman on X
• "THANK YOU for Aider! It really feels like a glimpse into the future of coding." — derwiki on Hacker News
• "It's just amazing. It is freeing me to do things I felt were out my comfort zone before." — Dougie on Discord
• "This project is stellar." — funkytaco on GitHub
• "Amazing project, definitely the best AI coding assistant I've used." — joshuavial on GitHub
• "I absolutely love using Aider ... It makes software development feel so much lighter as an experience." — principalideal0 on Discord
• "I have been recovering from ... surgeries ... aider ... has allowed me to continue productivity." — codeninja on Reddit
• "I am an aider addict. I'm getting so much more work done, but in less time." — dandandan on Discord
• "Aider... blows everything else out of the water hands down, there's no competition whatsoever." — SystemSculpt on Discord
• "Aider is amazing, coupled with Sonnet 3.5 it's quite mind blowing." — Josh Dingus on Discord
• "Hands down, this is the best AI coding assistant tool so far." — IndyDevDan on YouTube
• "[Aider] changed my daily coding workflows. It's mind-blowing how ...(it)... can change your life." — maledorak on Discord
• "Best agent for actual dev work in existing codebases." — Nick Dobos on X
• "One of my favorite pieces of software. Blazing trails on new paradigms!" — Chris Wall on X
• "Aider has been revolutionary for me and my work." — Starry Hope on X
• "Try aider! One of the best ways to vibe code." — Chris Wall on X
• "Freaking love Aider." — hztar on Hacker News
• "Aider is hands down the best. And it's free and opensource." — AriyaSavakaLurker on Reddit
• "Aider is also my best friend." — jzn21 on Reddit
• "Try Aider, it's worth it." — jorgejhms on Reddit
• "I like aider :)" — Chenwei Cui on X
• "Aider is the precision tool of LLM code gen... Minimal, thoughtful and capable of surgical changes ... while keeping the developer in control." — Reilly Sweetland on X
• "Cannot believe aider vibe coded a 650 LOC feature across service and cli today in 1 shot." - autopoietist on Discord
• "Oh no the secret is out! Yes, Aider is the best coding tool around. I highly, highly recommend it to anyone." — Joshua D Vander Hook on X
• "thanks to aider, i have started and finished three personal projects within the last two days" — joseph stalzyn on X
• "Been using aider as my daily driver for over a year ... I absolutely love the tool, like beyond words." — koleok on Discord
• "Aider ... is the tool to benchmark against." — BeetleB on Hacker News
• "aider is really cool" — kache on X

Codex CLI is a coding agent from OpenAI that runs locally on your computer.
If you want Codex in your code editor (VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf), install in your IDE.
If you want the desktop app experience, run codex app or visit the Codex App page.
If you are looking for the cloud-based agent from OpenAI, Codex Web, go to chatgpt.com/codex.

Quickstart

Installing and running Codex CLI

Run the following on Mac or Linux to install Codex CLI:

curl -fsSL https://chatgpt.com/codex/install.sh | sh

Run the following on Windows to install Codex CLI:

powershell -ExecutionPolicy ByPass -c "irm https://chatgpt.com/codex/install.ps1 | iex"

The standalone installers download from https://releases.openai.com/codex by default and fall back to GitHub Releases if a metadata or asset download is unavailable. To force GitHub Releases, set CODEX_INSTALLER_USE_RELEASES_OPENAI_COM to false (0 and no are also accepted):

curl -fsSL https://chatgpt.com/codex/install.sh | CODEX_INSTALLER_USE_RELEASES_OPENAI_COM=false sh

$env:CODEX_INSTALLER_USE_RELEASES_OPENAI_COM='false'; irm https://chatgpt.com/codex/install.ps1 | iex

Codex CLI can also be installed via the following package managers:

## Install using npm
npm install -g @openai/codex

## Install using Homebrew
brew install --cask codex

Then simply run codex to get started.

Using Codex with your ChatGPT plan

Run codex and select Sign in with ChatGPT. We recommend signing into your ChatGPT account to use Codex as part of your Plus, Pro, Business, Edu, or Enterprise plan. Learn more about what's included in your ChatGPT plan.

You can also use Codex with an API key, but this requires additional setup.

Docs

• Codex Documentation
• Contributing
• Installing & building
• Open source fund

This repository is licensed under the Apache-2.0 License.