Codewhale

An open-source terminal coding agent in Rust that works with more than 40 model providers and keeps receipts of every file, command and tool call.

41.2k stars, 3.6k forks Rust On GitHub since January 2026

Visit website View on GitHub How to run it

What is Codewhale?

Give Codewhale a task and it reads the repository, edits files and runs commands until the job is done or it needs your input. It supports more than 40 built-in providers, uses DeepSeek V4.1 Flash by default, and also runs with models on your own machine. The /receipts command lists the files it changed, the commands it ran and the web and MCP calls it made, so you can audit a session afterwards. The interface is translated into 15 languages.

Good fit if

  • You want a fast, provider-neutral terminal agent with a cheap default model.
  • You need an audit trail of what the agent did.

Look elsewhere if

  • You want a more established terminal agent with a large community: OpenCode.
  • You want an agent in your IDE: Cline.

Before you adopt it

Codewhale is MIT-licensed and free. It is very young, first released in January 2026, and moves extremely fast, with thousands of commits in three months.

Drafted with AI from the project's README and repository data, then checked against that data on 30 October 2026. Report a correction

Codewhale health: is it still maintained?

82 of 100, actively developed

  • Activity
    7,457 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 1 November 2026.
    30 / 30
  • Contributors
    3 people wrote the latest 100 commits; the most active wrote 47% of them.
    8 / 20
  • Releases
    15 releases in the last 12 months; the latest, v0.10.2, on 24 October 2026.
    19 / 20
  • Replies to issues
    Maintainers answered 100% of recent issues, with a median first reply after 12 hours.
    20 / 20
  • Security practices
    No OpenSSF Scorecard for this repository yet, so this part gets a neutral score.
    5 / 10

Read from GitHub on 1 November 2026. How the score works

Codewhale license: is it open source?

Codewhale uses MIT, an open-source license approved by the OSI.

  1. January 2026First published on GitHub.
  2. TodayMIT.

How to run Codewhale yourself

Docker
Dockerfile or compose file in the repository
Compose file
docs/examples/compose.toolbox.yml: 1 service
Setup effort
1 of 5, judged from the compose file
Kubernetes
No Helm chart in the repository
Desktop and mobile
Builds for Windows, macOS, Linux, including ARM in GitHub releases
Interface languages
15 languages

Install instructions: codewhale.net or the README on GitHub.

Alternatives to Codewhale

  • Qwen CodeAn open-source AI coding agent that lives in your terminal. 80 health · Apache-2.0 · 28.9k stars
  • Continueopen-source coding agent 18 health · Apache-2.0 · 36.4k stars
  • CC SwitchA cross-platform desktop All-in-One assistant for Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode,DeepSeek Harness and more.… 93 health · MIT · 151k stars
  • PaperclipThe open-source app everyone uses to manage agents at work 69 health · MIT · 110k stars
  • Open InterpreterA coding agent for open models like Kimi K3 and GLM 5.3 81 health · Apache-2.0 · 68.8k stars

All 27 projects in AI coding agents

Questions about Codewhale

Is Codewhale open source?

Yes. Codewhale is published under MIT, an OSI-approved open-source license.

Is Codewhale still maintained?

Its health score is 82 of 100 (actively developed). It had 7,457 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 1 November 2026, and its latest release came out on 24 October 2026.

How do I run Codewhale?

You can run it with Docker, as an app for Windows, macOS, Linux, including ARM. The README on GitHub has the exact steps.

What are the alternatives to Codewhale?

Close alternatives in the AI coding agents category include Qwen Code, Continue, CC Switch.