one agent. every provider. free.
OpenProvider is a fork of Cline, a VS Code coding agent, focused on free API providers: NVIDIA Build, Groq, Cerebras, Gemini, and OpenRouter. It creates and edits files, runs terminal commands, uses the browser, and extends itself through MCP — all with your approval before anything changes in your workspace.
This fork removes the parts of Cline that depend on Cline's own hosted account, billing, and telemetry backend, since this project doesn't run that infrastructure.
Most coding agents assume a single paid API in the background. OpenProvider is built around free-tier providers instead, so cost isn't the reason you can't try it. The project's direction is toward:
- Live quota visibility — see how much of a provider's free quota is left, right in the sidebar.
- Ask before switching — when a provider is rate-limited, you decide whether to switch, not the agent.
- Same model, different provider — a clear UI distinction between switching models and switching who's hosting the same model.
These are direction, not shipped features yet.
Not on the VS Code Marketplace yet. Build the extension and install it locally:
bun install
bun run build:sdk
cd apps/vscode
cp .env.example .env
bun run protos
bun run build:webview
bun esbuild.mjs
bunx vsce package --no-dependencies --out ../../openprovider.vsix
code --install-extension ../../openprovider.vsix --forceReload the window, then click the OpenProvider icon in the activity bar — the chat opens in the secondary (right) side bar.
You will need an API key from one of the supported free-tier providers: Groq, Cerebras, Gemini or OpenRouter. Pick Bring my own API key during onboarding and paste it in.
NVIDIA Build is listed as a goal but is not wired into the extension yet.
Requires VS Code 1.106 or newer.
See CONTRIBUTING.md for the development setup, and docs/fork/REPO-MAP.md for a map of the codebase: where providers are defined, what to touch to add one, and where the sidebar UI lives.
Apache 2.0. See NOTICE — this project is derived from Cline (Apache-2.0) and has been modified.