Aider is a powerful, open-source AI pair programming assistant designed for developers who prefer terminal-based workflows and value privacy, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. With 38K GitHub stars, 3.4M pip installations, and processing 15B tokens per week, Aider has become one of the most trusted AI coding assistants in the developer community. What sets Aider apart is its deep integration with git – it automatically commits changes with sensible, meaningful commit messages and allows you to use familiar git tools to easily diff, manage, and undo AI changes. The tool creates a comprehensive map of your entire codebase, enabling it to work effectively even in large, complex projects. Aider works best with leading models like Claude 3.7 Sonnet, DeepSeek R1, OpenAI o1, and GPT-4o, but can connect to almost any LLM, including local models via Ollama. Aider supports over 100 programming languages including Python, JavaScript, Rust, Ruby, Go, C++, PHP, HTML, and CSS. The tool offers multiple interaction modes: use it directly from the terminal, integrate it with your favorite IDE or editor by adding comments to your code, add images and web pages to provide visual context, or even speak with Aider using voice-to-code functionality. As an open-source project under the Apache 2.0 license, Aider is completely free and prioritizes user privacy. You can run it entirely with local LLMs, keeping your code and data secure on your machine. The tool includes built-in support for linting and testing, ensuring code quality throughout the development process. Aider is particularly well-suited for developers working on existing codebases who need intelligent refactoring, feature additions, and bug fixes with minimal context switching.
