{

"title": "Run AI Coding Agents with Coder",

"description": "Learn how to run and secure agents in Coder",

"path": "./tutorials/ai-agents/README.md",

"state": ["early access"],

"children": [

{

"title": "Learn about coding agents",

"description": "Learn about the different AI agents and their tradeoffs",

"path": "./tutorials/ai-agents/agents.md"

},

{

"title": "Create a Coder template for agents",

"description": "Create a purpose-built template for your AI agents",

"path": "./tutorials/ai-agents/create-template.md",

"state": ["early access"]

},

{

"title": "Integrate with your issue tracker",

"description": "Assign tickets to AI agents and interact via code reviews",

"path": "./tutorials/ai-agents/issue-tracker.md",

"state": ["early access"]

},

{

"title": "Best practices \u0026 adding tools via MCP",

"description": "Improve results by adding tools to your agents",

"path": "./tutorials/ai-agents/best-practices.md",

"state": ["early access"]

},

{

"title": "Supervise agents via Coder UI",

"description": "Interact with agents via the Coder UI",

"path": "./tutorials/ai-agents/coder-dashboard.md",

"state": ["early access"]

},

{

"title": "Supervise agents via the IDE",

"description": "Interact with agents via VS Code or Cursor",

"path": "./tutorials/ai-agents/ide-integration.md",

"state": ["early access"]

},

{

"title": "Programmatically manage agents",

"description": "Manage agents via MCP, the Coder CLI, and/or REST API",

"path": "./tutorials/ai-agents/headless.md",

"state": ["early access"]

},

{

"title": "Securing agents in Coder",

"description": "Learn how to secure agents with boundaries",

"path": "./tutorials/ai-agents/securing.md"

}

]

},

AI Coding Agents such as [Claude Code](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/agents-and-tools/claude-code/overview), [Goose](https://block.github.io/goose/), and [Aider](https://github.com/paul-gauthier/aider) are becoming increasingly popular for:

- Protyping web applications or landing pages

- Researching / onboarding to a codebase

- Assisting with lightweight refactors

- Writing tests and documentation

- Small, well-defined chores

With Coder, you can self-host AI agents in isolated development environments with proper context and tooling around your existing developer workflows. Whether you are a regulated enterprise or an individual developer, running AI agents at scale with Coder is much more productive and secure than running them locally.


Coder is free and open source for developers, with a [premium plan](https://coder.com/pricing) for enterprises. You can self-host a Coder deployment in your own cloud provider.

- A [Coder deployment](../../install/) with v2.21.0 or later

- A Coder [template](../../admin/templates/) for your project(s).

- Access to at least one ML model (e.g. Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, OpenAI)

- Cloud Model Providers (AWS Bedrock, GCP Vertex AI, Azure OpenAI) are supported with some agents

- Self-hosted models (e.g. llama3) and AI proxies (OpenRouter) are supported with some agents

<children></children>

There are several types of coding agents emerging:

- **Headless agents** can run without an IDE open and are great for rapid

prototyping, background tasks, and chat-based supervision.

- **In-IDE agents** require developers keep their IDE opens and are great for

interactive, focused coding on more complex tasks.

Headless agents can run without an IDE open, or alongside any IDE. They

typically run as CLI commands or web apps. With Coder, developers can interact

with agents via any preferred tool such as via PR comments, within the IDE,

inside the Coder UI, or even via the REST API or an MCP client such as Claude

Desktop or Cursor.

| Agent | Supported Models | Coder Support | Limitations |

|---------------|---------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------|

| Claude Code ⭐ | Anthropic Models Only (+ AWS Bedrock and GCP Vertex AI) | First class integration ✅ | Beta (research preview) |

| Goose | Most popular AI models + gateways | First class integration ✅ | Less effective compared to Claude Code |

| Aider | Most popular AI models + gateways | In progress ⏳ | Can only run 1-2 defined commands (e.g. build and test) |

| OpenHands | Most popular AI models + gateways | In progress ⏳ ⏳ | Challenging setup, no MCP support |

[Claude Code](https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code) is our recommended

coding agent due to its strong performance on complex programming tasks.

Coding agents can also run within an IDE, such as VS Code, Cursor or Windsurf.

These editors and extensions are fully supported in Coder and work well for more

complex and focused tasks where an IDE is strictly required.

| Agent | Supported Models | Coder Support |

|-----------------------------|-----------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------|

| Cursor (Agent Mode) | Most popular AI models + gateways | ✅ [Cursor Module](https://registry.coder.com/modules/cursor) |

| Windsurf (Agents and Flows) | Most popular AI models + gateways | ✅ via Remote SSH |

| Cline | Most popular AI models + gateways | ✅ via VS Code Extension |

In-IDE agents do not require a special template as they are not used in a

headless fashion. However, they can still be run in isolated Coder workspaces

and report activity to the Coder UI.

- [Create a Coder template for agents](./create-template.md)