Roo Code: Free Highly Customizable VS Code Extension

Yay there are many to choose from!

If you work in VS Code, the one that stands out for me is Roo Code.

Some things I love about it:

(1) Free – you just plug the API keys in for whatever models you wan to use. The only limits come from the models through API.

(2) Extension for VS Code (not a fork).

(3) Cost tally shows how much you are spending.

(4) Highly customizable

– Built-in modes (agents) you can modify AND add as many more as you want. I’ve created a whole “dev team” using this.

– Assign every mode to a different LLM model if you want.

– Control many params per model, including temperature, reasoning, and more.

– You can put your custom instructions into markdown files witihn the .roo folder and share those files with the team, friends, enemies, etc.

– Reach out if you want a copy of mine!

(5) A company who cares: Frequent updates, “Office Hours” videos, and friendly responsive support.

(6) Thriving community on Discord, Github, LinkedIn, X, and more.

Want a free customizable AI coding team! Use it to create new apps or make changes/additions to existing ones.

This set of instructions (markdown files) enhances and extends the modes/agents that come with many coding agent/asisstants (or make your own). The instructions are tailored to work with Roo Code (free highly customizable VS Code extension) but will work with many others, including Github Copilot and CLine.

Using the built-in-to-Roo ability to use rules files, this archive is a set of custom instructions for the built-in modes and some new ones, including:

Replaces “Architect” with a 4-step “Planner” process (planner-a, planner-b, planner-c, planner-d).
Supplements “Code” with a tightly controlled budget-friendly “Code Monkey” created to work with the short, detailed tasks created for it by Planner.
Front-end, Debugger, Tester, GitHub, Docs Writer, etc.
While planning and working, creates files to keep track of its goals, progress, and lessons learned.

Notes: