# Pick a coding agent

> Claude Code, Cursor, or open source — which coding agent should I use?

The coding-agent decision is really a decision about where you want the agent to live: in your terminal, in your IDE, or on your own metal. One strong pick per home.

A hand-picked shortlist from the Agent Search Engine index. Every pick is a real listing; the adoption, pricing, and activity figures are the index's live numbers. Browse on the web: https://agentsearchengine.app/use/pick-a-coding-agent

## Recommended picks

### Terminal: Claude Code
- Paid product · Agent
- **Setup:** Managed — subscription
- **Why:** An agentic coding tool that lives in the terminal and works across your whole repo — strongest when you delegate real multi-file tasks rather than autocomplete lines.
- [listing](https://agentsearchengine.app/agents/claude-code) · [official](https://claude.com/claude-code)

### IDE: Cursor
- Freemium · Agent
- **Setup:** Managed — freemium
- **Why:** The AI-native IDE — agent mode, multi-file edits, and codebase context inside a familiar editor. The gentlest on-ramp for a team switching from plain VS Code.
- [listing](https://agentsearchengine.app/agents/cursor) · [official](https://cursor.com)

### Open source: openinterpreter
- Open source · Agent · 68k★ · Rust · Apache-2.0 · active 4 days ago
- **Setup:** Self-host — pip install
- **Why:** The open-source classic of the category — runs entirely on your machine, works with local models, and costs only the compute you feed it.
- [listing](https://agentsearchengine.app/agents/openinterpreter) · [official](http://openinterpreter.com/)

## What to watch for
Trial on your own codebase, not the demos — repo size, language mix, and your review culture change the answer. And whatever you choose, the leverage comes from what you let it do: agents shine on scoped, verifiable tasks with tests to check them.

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Source: [Agent Search Engine](https://agentsearchengine.app) — more task-first guides: https://agentsearchengine.app/use