Several open-source alternatives to Microsoft GitHub Copilot have emerged, each with its own features and approach to AI-powered code assistance. These tools often offer more control over your data and the ability to run models locally.
Some of the most notable open-source alternatives include:
- Tabby: This is a self-hostable, open-source AI coding assistant that provides code completion, refactoring suggestions, and documentation generation. It can be integrated into many popular IDEs and can also be trained on your own project's code.
- FauxPilot: As its name suggests, FauxPilot is a direct attempt to build a locally hosted alternative to GitHub Copilot. It uses open-source models like the SalesForce CodeGen models and can be run on your own server for greater control over your data.
- Captain Stack: This tool takes a different approach by leveraging code snippets from sources like Stack Overflow and GitHub Gist to provide code suggestions. It focuses on helping you find relevant code examples within your editor.
- CodeGeeX: This is a multilingual code generation model with a significant number of parameters. It is pre-trained on a vast corpus of code from many programming languages and is a strong contender for general-purpose code completion.
- Continue: This open-source tool offers a flexible and customizable approach. It provides IDE extensions and a CLI that allows developers to build their own AI coding agents, use any model they choose, and keep their data local.
Many of these projects leverage open-source language models (LLMs) specifically trained for code generation. Some examples of these models include:
- WizardCoder: An open-source LLM optimized for complex coding tasks.
- Phind CodeLlama: A code generation model based on CodeLlama, fine-tuned for programming-related problems and solutions.
- CodeGen: The SalesForce CodeGen models are often used in self-hosted solutions like FauxPilot.
When considering an open-source alternative, it's important to evaluate factors like the level of IDE integration, the languages supported, and whether you prefer a self-hosted or cloud-based solution. Some open-source tools also have "freemium" models, where a basic version is free while more advanced features are paid.