If you code alone on Windows and already pay for Claude, ChatGPT or Google AI, Codee3 Free gives you an IDE with Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI beside your code, on your own sign-in, and a project brain every agent reads. Founder adds an orchestrator, helpers working at once, and the brain’s checks.
Who is Codee3 Free for?
- You code on Windows 10 or 11.
- You already use Claude Code, Codex or Gemini CLI, or want to, on a plan you pay for yourself, such as Claude Pro or Max.
- You’re tired of explaining the same project to a new chat, or to a different agent.
It doesn’t suit you yet if you work on a Mac or Linux (both are planned), or if you want the AI included in the price: Codee3 never sells AI, so you bring your own.
What Free gives you
- A full IDE: editor, terminal, search and extensions.
- Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI beside your code, each on your own sign-in, as many agents as you like.
- A project brain that every agent reads: what was decided, and why.
- Two projects open at a time. Put one away to open another; its agents come back when you return.
Free has no time limit. Pricing has the full list, and Codee3 vs Cursor compares it with an editor that sells its own AI.
Your first project, step by step
- Install Claude Code, Codex or Gemini CLI the way its maker says, and sign in there. Codee3 finds the ones on your computer; it never signs in for you.
- Download Codee3 and install it. The installer isn’t code-signed yet, so Windows SmartScreen may say “Windows protected your PC”. Choose More info, then Run anyway. You can check the file’s fingerprint on the Download page first.
- On the start page, choose Open folder and pick your project.
- Open the command palette and choose Adopt the Codee3 kit. You see what it would add before anything is written. It sets up the project brain.
- Press New agent and choose Your Claude, Your Codex or Your Gemini. Answer “What should this agent do?”, and it starts, having been told to read the project’s decisions first.
- When you make a choice the project should keep, open the command palette and choose Keep a decision.
Running two agents on one project? Give each its own folder first: git worktrees for AI agents.
When Founder is worth it
Founder is for when you want several jobs done at once without managing each agent yourself. Founder: US$149 a year, for your first year and your first renewal.
- Founder: an orchestrator you talk to in plain words, which plans the jobs and hands them to helpers.
- Founder: helpers working at once, each in its own safe copy of the code, so none overwrite another.
- Founder: the brain’s checks, run before a helper’s work lands.
Good to know
- When a plan reaches its limit, the agent waits until the limit refills. Your plans’ limits are your AI providers’, not Codee3’s.
- Founder’s helpers run several agent sessions at once, which uses your plan’s limits faster. Heavy use on a consumer plan can be slowed or paused by the provider; the terms say more.
- Nothing about how you use the IDE is sent anywhere. The FAQ lists the three things it does contact.
- The free IDE doesn’t update itself yet. Download the new version when one comes out; the changelog lists them.
Guides for working alone
Each works with or without Codee3: run agents in parallel, use Claude Code and Codex together, keep a decision log, stop agents drifting and start fresh without losing context.