Three years into the AI coding revolution, the picture is finally clear: the editor matters more than the model. The same Claude or GPT call wrapped in a great UI gets you 10× the leverage of one wrapped in a so-so chat box.
Cursor proved this. Then it raised at a $9B valuation and went closed-source. The rest of us were left with two options: pay them, or fork VS Code from scratch. Neither is great.
What CodexaX is
CodexaX is the open, self-hostable version of that experience. We took VS Code 1.116 (which already has chat, MCP, and the agents framework Microsoft built), kept the parts that work, replaced the parts that don't, and shipped it.
- 11 model providers built in. Bring your own key, or use our hosted Claude.
- Native MCP. Skills and rules as first-class concepts.
- Phone OTP login — no GitHub account required.
- Self-host the proxy. Your code never leaves your network.
What's next
We're working on:
- Background agents that can run for hours and ship PRs.
- A skills marketplace so teams can share capabilities, not just rules.
- First-class support for local models via llama.cpp and MLX.
Try CodexaX — it's free for personal use. Tell us what's broken: hello@codexax.com.