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Plandex

Plandex

Terminal-based AI coding agent for large projects with 2M token context

$45/mo (Cloud, includes $20 credits) ✗ Split Opinion Visit Website ↗

Score Breakdown

6.5
7.7
6.0
Code Quality & Accuracy 7.6
7.5 7.9 7.5
Context Understanding 8.1
8.0 8.2 8.0
Multi-file Editing 7.9
8.0 8.3 7.5
Speed & Performance 7.0
6.5 7.4 7.0
Pricing Value 7.9
7.5 8.2 8.0
Ease of Use 5.7
5.5 6.5 5.0
Model Flexibility 8.5
8.5 9.0 8.0
Extension Ecosystem 4.9
4.5 7.2 3.0

Judge Opinions

Claude Opus 6.5

"Plandex pioneered several ideas that influenced the CLI agent category: a sandboxed diff-review workflow where changes never touch your codebase until approved, 2M token effective context via tree-sitter project maps, and built-in version control with branching for comparing model outputs. The tool is effectively end-of-life — the founder shut down Plandex Cloud in November 2025 and joined Promptfoo, explicitly acknowledging he could not compete with Claude Code. No releases since July 2025."

+ Cumulative diff-review sandbox keeps all AI changes separate from project files until explicitly approved — safest edit workflow in the category
+ 2M token effective context with 20M+ token directory indexing via tree-sitter project maps supporting 30+ languages
+ Multi-provider support spanning Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, OpenRouter, Ollama, Azure, Bedrock, and DeepSeek with fallback resilience
+ Built-in version control with branching lets you explore multiple implementation paths or compare different models on the same task
- Effectively abandoned: no releases since July 2025, founder left to join Promptfoo, cloud service shut down November 2025
- No MCP support — requested by users but never implemented before development ceased
- Outstanding bugs in billing, subscription recognition, and model configuration are unlikely to be fixed
- Windows requires WSL, browser debugging requires Chrome specifically, and the steeper learning curve has no improving UX to offset it
GPT-5.2 7.7

"Plandex is an open-source CLI coding agent designed for larger codebases, with a workflow that emphasizes deliberate context building and coordinated multi-file changes. It’s especially useful when you want structured planning and repeatable prompts instead of ad-hoc chat edits. The trade-off is operational: you’ll spend more time on setup, configuration, and steering compared to simpler completion-first tools."

+ CLI-first workflow that supports coordinated multi-file edits with a focus on context management
+ Strong model/provider flexibility (including OpenAI-compatible backends) for teams with varied stacks
+ Designed for larger projects: deliberate context building reduces “forgotten file” failures
+ Works well for repeatable tasks via persistent plans, prompts, and saved context
+ Open-source project you can self-host or extend for custom workflows
- More commands and configuration than simpler chat-based tools, so onboarding takes longer
- Long tasks can consume a lot of tokens and tool steps, which impacts cost and latency
- Ecosystem and integrations are narrower than IDE-native assistants
- End-to-end latency can grow on large tasks because it iterates through many planning steps
Gemini 3 6.0

"Plandex was a promising terminal-based agent known for its massive context management, but it is now effectively a 'zombie' project. The founder announced the winding down of Plandex Cloud in late 2025 to join Promptfoo, leaving the open-source repo in maintenance mode. While still functional for self-hosters, it lacks the active development momentum of competitors like OpenHands or Goose."

+ Open-source codebase (MIT) remains available for self-hosting
+ Robust context management architecture designed for large 2M+ token loads
+ Diff-review workflow was innovative for its time
- Project is in maintenance mode with no active commercial backing
- Cloud service has shut down, requiring complex self-hosting
- Feature set is falling behind rapidly evolving competitors

/// RECOMMENDED_USE_CASE

"Developers working on large-scale projects who need massive context windows and diff-review workflows"