Cloud Parts

Roo CodeArchived

A fork of Cline that added role-based modes, an orchestrator that hands subtasks to other modes, and semantic codebase search. Its makers shut it down on 15 May 2026.

What it is
AI coding agents (editor agents)
Part of
Fork of Cline
Type
Open source
Made by
Roo Code, Inc.
License
Apache 2.0
Status
Archived since 15 May 2026
Facts checked
9 October 2026
Website Source code (archived)

What it is

Roo Code began in late 2024 as Roo Cline, a fork of the Cline VS Code extension, and kept Cline’s loop: the model reads and edits files, runs terminal commands and calls MCP servers, with approval prompts you can relax per tool. What it added were modes. Each mode is a persona with its own instructions, its own allowed tool groups (read, edit, command, mcp) and its own remembered model. Code and Debug get every tool; Ask can only read and use MCP; Architect can edit only Markdown files, so it writes plans rather than code. You can define your own modes per project, and the Orchestrator mode has no tools of its own: it splits a big task into subtasks and hands each to another mode with the new_task tool, in a fresh context, and gets back a short summary.

Codebase indexing parses your code with Tree-sitter into functions and classes, embeds each block with a provider you choose (Gemini, OpenAI, Ollama and others) and stores the vectors in a Qdrant database you run or rent, so the agent can search by meaning through a codebase_search tool. Checkpoints are commits in a shadow Git repository taken when a task starts and before each file change. In April 2026 the company announced it would shut down the extension, Roo Code Cloud and Roo Code Router on 15 May 2026, saying it didn’t believe IDEs were the future of coding, and archived the repository that day.

Why teams pick it

  • Modes that limit which tools the model may use, such as an Architect that can only write Markdown, plus custom modes per project
  • The Orchestrator gives each subtask its own clean context and passes back only a summary, so long jobs don’t fill one context window
  • Semantic code search you can run entirely on your own: a local embedding model through Ollama and a Qdrant container
  • Apache 2.0 code that others keep building on: Kilo Code started as a fork, and the community fork Zoo Code continues it

Watch out for

  • Discontinued: the repository was archived on 15 May 2026, so new models, VS Code changes and security issues won’t be handled
  • Roo Code Cloud and Roo Code Router shut down the same day, so features that depended on them are gone
  • Codebase indexing needs you to set up and pay for an embedding provider and a Qdrant vector database
  • Checkpoints are taken before file edits but not before terminal commands, so a destructive command can’t be rolled back

Alternatives, recommended first

What all editor agents have in common →
ClineOpen sourceAn open-source coding agent that started as a VS Code extension and now runs the same engine in JetBrains, a terminal CLI, a desktop app and an SDK, with whatever model you bring.+1 Roo CodeKilo CodeOpen sourceForksAn open-source coding agent for VS Code, JetBrains and the terminal. It began in 2025 as a fork of Roo Code, and since 2026 every surface runs on Kilo CLI, a fork of OpenCode.

How it fits with other technologies

See it in a real stack

No architecture uses Roo Code yet. Drop it into the playground and wire it up yourself.Open playground →
Where it came from2024–2026

Cline was open source, and in late 2024 a team at Roo Veterinary Inc. forked it as Roo Cline. Early releases let it run side by side with Cline, in any VS Code-compatible editor, and added finer auto-approval for writes and commands. In January 2025, past 50,000 installs, it was renamed Roo Code to “chart our own course”, and the same release introduced custom modes: personas with their own prompts and tool permissions.

Modes became the project’s signature. A custom Boomerang mode that delegated subtasks became the built-in Orchestrator, and later releases added semantic codebase indexing, Roo Code Cloud and Roo Code Router. The code was copied in turn: Kilo Code forked Roo Code in March 2025 and kept merging its changes, and Cline also adopted much of what Roo built.

On 20 April 2026 the company announced it would sunset the extension, Roo Code Cloud and Roo Code Router on 15 May. It said the extension had passed 3 million downloads but that it didn’t believe IDEs were the future of coding, and moved to Roomote, a cloud coding agent. Release 3.53 announced a handoff of the plugin to a community team, but in the end the repository was archived on 15 May 2026 with release 3.54.0, and the README points users to Cline and to the community fork Zoo Code.

Why it’s built this way

Fork Cline instead of starting from scratch
Cline’s Apache 2.0 code already had a working agent loop, tools and approvals. Forking let a small team ship changes within weeks and keep pulling in Cline’s fixes.
Modes with their own tool permissions
One general agent tends to start editing when you only wanted a plan or an answer. Restricting what each mode may touch, such as Markdown-only edits for Architect, made planning and asking safe and let teams encode their own workflows.
An orchestrator that delegates to fresh contexts
Long tasks fill a single conversation with diffs and file contents. Running each subtask in its own context and returning only a summary keeps the parent focused on the overall plan.

Timeline

  1. 2024

    Forked from Cline as Roo Cline; repository created on October 31

  2. 2025

    Renamed Roo Code in January after 50,000 installs, with custom modes

  3. 2025

    Kilo Code forks Roo Code in March

  4. 2026

    Sunset announced on April 20; the team moves to the Roomote cloud agent

  5. 2026

    Extension, Cloud and Router shut down and the repository archived on May 15

Sources9 · facts checked 9 October 2026

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