Last month, Microsoft, in collaboration with OpenAI, launched Copilot, an AI programmer. Copilot is based on OpenAI Codex, an AI system trained on open source code. It contextualises a situation using docstrings, function names, comments, and preceding code to best generate and suggest what it determines to be the most relevant code.
The tool works with various frameworks and languages like JavaScript, Python, TypeScript, Go, Ruby, etc.
Currently, Copilot is available for technical preview. In this article, we explore the open-source alternatives to GitHub Copilot.
1. Asm-Dude
Asm-Dude is a visual studio extension for assembly syntax highlighting and code completion in assembly files and the disassembly windows. The key features include syntax highlighting and descriptions, documentation links, code completion, code folding, structure help and label analysis. Check out the source code of Asm Dude.
2. Atom
Built on Electron (previously known as Atom Shell), Atom is an open-source text and source code editor developed by GitHub for macOS, Microsoft Windows, and Linux, supporting plugins written in JavaScript and embedded Git Control. Electron is a framework that enables cross-platform desktop applications using Node.js and Chromium.
Six years ago, Atom released its beta version 1.0. It is customisable in CSS, HTML, and JavaScript.
3. Captain Stack
Captain Stack is similar to GitHub Copilot’s code suggestion. But, instead of using AI, it sends your search query to Google, and retrieves StackOverflow answers and auto-completes. However, it only works with VSCode, making it an especially Copilot analogue, and is set up as a VSCode extension.
4. Clara
Clara is an alternative to Github Copilot for VSCode. Features wise, it supports close to 50 programming languages and gives developers the snippers at an instant. Check out the source code on Github.
5. GPT-Code-Clippy
GPT-Code-Clippy (GPT-CC) is an open-source version of GitHub Copilot, a language model fine-tuned on publicly available code from Github. It is based on GPT-3. Check out the VSCode extension of GPT-CC here.
Also, the GPT-CC models are fine-tuned versions of GPT-2 and GPT-Neo. The available models can be found here.
6. Kite
Kite is an AI-powered programming assistant that helps developers write Python code inside JupyterLab. The platform allows developers to write faster by saving keystrokes and showing the right information at the right time.
At a high level, Kite offers Line-of-Code Completions powered by machine learning models trained on the entire open-source code universe and instant documentation for symbols underneath the cursor so the developer can save time searching for Python docs. Check out the source code and additional details about Kite here.
7. Second Mate
Second Mate is an open-source, mini imitation of Github Copilot using EleutherAI GPT-Neo- 2.7 billion parameters (via Huggingface Model Hub) for Emacs. It is a much smaller model, so it is likely not as effective as Copilot.
8. YouCompleteMe
YouCompleteMe is code completion, comprehension and refactoring engine for Vim. It has several completion engines built-in and supports any protocol-compliant Language Servier.
It contains an identifier-based engine that works with every programming language. It provides native semantic code completion for C, C++, Objective-C, CUDA using a powerful clangd-based engine and more. Check out the source code and details about YouCompleteMe on Github.
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