← Use cases · Coding

AI agents for trying a coding agent without paying first

Short answer: Gemini CLI has a free tier with a Google account and is open source. goose and OpenCode are open source too, but you pay your model provider.

Tools for this job

#ToolWhy for this jobAgentPick ScoreLink
#1OpenCodeOpen source, bring your own model99/100Official source ↗
#2Gemini CLIOpen source, free tier with a Google account95/100Official source ↗
#3gooseOpen-source local agent (CLI and desktop), model-agnostic92/100Official source ↗

Ordered by AgentPick Score. Links may become affiliate links; they never change order. Disclosure.

How to do it

  1. Install in a throwaway repo first.
  2. Give it one small, testable task.
  3. Check what it changed with git diff.
  4. Only then point it at real code.

Starter prompt

In this repo, add a unit test for [function] covering [edge case]. Don't change production code. Show me the diff.
Get one use case like this every week. Tools, prompt and our verdict in AgentPick Weekly. Free. Get the weekly digest

Related use cases

Running several coding tasks in parallel →

Coding

Refactoring a codebase without leaving VS Code →

Coding

Building a typed Python agent with structured output →

Building agents

Building agents in TypeScript →

Building agents

AgentPick Weekly

The week's new agent tools with a verdict on each, every week. Free. We'll email you a link to confirm, and you can unsubscribe any time. See our Privacy Policy.