A fast, lightweight code editor. No accounts. No ads. Free forever.
Kodo is built by KerbalMissile and SS-YYC around a few simple ideas: your editor should stay out of your way. Quick setup, syntax highlighting via extensions, and zero friction from launch to coding. We want to make coding human again; no bloat, but still a good user experience.
Kodo v2.2.0 adds a command palette, side-by-side editing, native Git integration, and an editor minimap. It also brings faster startup, smoother large-file editing, and broad editor and language-server fixes.
A fresh Kodo install is 15.4% of VS Code's initial size (i.e. 84.6% less disk). In ratio terms, a fresh install of VS Code is 6.48x bigger.
Released under the GPL-v3.0 license.
- Command Palette - Search and open files, run editor commands, navigate to lines and symbols, and invoke commands registered by plugins.
- Split Editor - Work in two editor groups side by side, with pane-aware tabs and language-server documents.
- Native Git - Use Git Source Control from Kodo and toggle it in Integrations Settings.
- Minimap and Navigation - Scroll through the editor minimap, navigate between problems and code locations, and use per-pane breadcrumbs.
- Editor and Settings - Refreshed Settings, integrated encoding, line-ending, and indentation choices, and more commands for common editor actions.
- Performance and Reliability - Faster startup, less lag when closing folders, improved large-file handling, and fixes across editor rendering, split tabs, completions, and language-server startup.
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| 🧩 Extension Marketplace | Install languages, themes, and plugins via .kox files and compilers via standalone installers |
| 🔍 Insight | Code completion, error detection, and dead-code highlighting - configurable per file type |
| 🔨 Build / Run | Compile and run projects from within Kodo with custom commands |
| 🧑💻 Integrated Terminal | Run code from within Kodo, no extra terminal needed |
| 🎨 Themes | Built-in Dark, Light, and System Default modes + custom extension themes |
| 📁 Folder Support | Browse, auto-refresh, and resize the file explorer; rename inline |
| 🔎 Search | Find in file, file-name search, and project-wide search (Ctrl+Shift+F) |
| ⌘ Command Palette | Open files, run commands, navigate to lines and symbols, and run plugin commands |
| ↔ Split Editor | Edit two files side by side with independent editor groups |
| 🌿 Git Source Control | Review repository changes and use Git tools from the native Integrations UI |
| 🗺️ Editor Minimap | See and scroll through a compact map of the current file |
| 💾 Autosave | Configurable autosave so you never lose work |
| 🔤 Syntax Highlighting | Language support delivered through the extension system |
| 🎨 Color Picker & Smart Editing | Built-in color picker, change-all-occurrences, auto-closing brackets, auto-indent |
| 🖼️ Image Preview | View image files directly in the editor, with zoom |
| 🕓 Recent Files | Jump back into recent files from the home screen |
| 🎮 Discord Rich Presence | Show what you're working on in Discord (optional, toggle in Settings) |
| ⚡ Performance Mode | Disable live GitHub panels and debounce search for large projects |
| 🔄 Background Auto-Updates | Kodo checks GitHub releases and keeps the app and extensions up to date (with progress bar) |
| 🚀 Guided Tutorial | Short built-in walkthrough for first-time setup, revisitable from Settings |
Coming soon: real-time collaborative editing · macOS support · experimental code optimization · and more!
| Benchmark | Kodo Result | VS Code Result | Kodo's Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Private Memory (Welcome Idle) | 241 MB | 2,213 MB | ~89% less private memory |
| Large Project Memory (2,501 files / 51 MB) | ~292 MB WS | ~2.2 GB WS | ~87% less working-set memory |
| Idle CPU | 1.9–2.1% | 16.5% | ~8× lower measured CPU usage |
These results were gathered from the same machine, opening the same project during our benchmarks.
Download the latest release from the Releases page, choose the appropriate package for your platform, install Kodo, and launch it. Available package formats include .exe, .deb, .tar.gz, and .AppImage.
Prerequisites (running the app):
- Windows: Windows 10 (version 1809 or later) or Windows 11 (x64).
- Linux: x64 or ARM64.
- macOS: Not currently supported.
Kodo is distributed as a self-contained application, so a separate .NET runtime installation is not required.
To build Kodo from source, refer to the contribution guidelines for the required tools and packages.
You're welcome to clone the repository, explore the code, and make modifications. All contributions must comply with GPL-3.0 and the guidelines outlined in CONTRIBUTING.md.
Feedback, pull requests, and discussions are always welcome!
Contributions are welcome. The best ways to help:
- Bug reports - open an Issue with steps to reproduce
- Pull Requests - keep them focused; one change or fix per PR
- Extensions - build a
.kox(language / theme / plugin) or add a compiler and submit it to the marketplace
See https://github.com/Kodo-IDE/Kodo/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md for full details and rules, including how to build and submit extensions.
© 2026 Kodo-IDE (KerbalMissile and SS-YYC). Kodo's code is licensed under the GNU GPL-v3.0 license. Extension developers, there is an exception to this. Please see EXTENSIONS_LICENSE.