A clean, lightweight, distraction-free code editor.
A community-driven fork of Visual Studio Code focused on keeping the editor useful, fast, and free from unnecessary features.
Visual Studio Code has grown far beyond its original purpose as a lightweight code editor.
Kairo takes the opposite approach:
Keep the editor. Remove the bloat.
The goal is to provide a familiar VS Code-based development environment without features that aren't necessary for writing, navigating, building, and debugging code.
Kairo is intended for developers who want an editor that stays out of their way.
Depending on the feature and its dependencies, Kairo aims to remove or disable things such as:
- AI/Copilot integrations
- AI-generated code features
- Microsoft-specific services
- Unnecessary telemetry and tracking
- Promotional content and product recommendations
- Cloud-first features
- Features that add complexity without improving the core editing experience
- Unused bundled extensions
- Other unnecessary background services
The exact list will evolve as the project develops.
Kairo isn't trying to reinvent the editor.
The core features that make VS Code useful remain the priority:
- Fast code editing
- Syntax highlighting
- IntelliSense
- Code navigation
- Find and replace
- Integrated terminal
- Git integration
- Debugging
- Extensions
- Tasks and build systems
- Language Server Protocol support
- Customizable themes and keybindings
- Cross-platform support
The goal is simple:
A powerful editor without everything surrounding it.
Kairo follows a few simple principles:
The primary purpose of an IDE/editor is to edit code.
Everything else should justify its existence.
AI tools should not be embedded into the editor simply because they are fashionable.
Kairo does not aim to push AI features into the development workflow.
If you want AI assistance, you should be able to choose and install it yourself.
An editor shouldn't constantly perform tasks unrelated to what you're currently doing.
Kairo aims to minimize unnecessary processes, network activity, and background services.
The user should decide what belongs in their editor.
Features shouldn't be difficult to remove simply because they are bundled by default.
Kairo remains based on the open-source Code - OSS codebase and will continue to be developed transparently.
Kairo is based on Code - OSS, but it is not intended to be a drop-in copy of Microsoft's Visual Studio Code distribution.
The project modifies the upstream codebase to remove features and dependencies that aren't aligned with the project's goals.
| Feature | Kairo |
|---|---|
| VS Code editor core | ✅ |
| Extensions | ✅ |
| Language servers | ✅ |
| Git | ✅ |
| Integrated terminal | ✅ |
| Debugging | ✅ |
| Themes | ✅ |
| Custom keybindings | ✅ |
| AI/Copilot integration | ❌ |
| Microsoft product integrations | ❌ |
| Promotional features | ❌ |
| Unnecessary bundled extensions | ❌ |
| Unnecessary telemetry | ❌ |
| Cloud-dependent features | ❌ |
This table represents the project's intended direction and may change as development continues.
Kairo uses the Code - OSS build system.
See the upstream build documentation for the required development dependencies for your platform.
git clone https://github.com/ItsJiro/vscode.git
cd vscode
yarn
yarn watchFor a production build, see the platform-specific build instructions in the repository.
Kairo maintains compatibility with the VS Code extension ecosystem where possible.
Extensions that depend on Microsoft-specific services or APIs may not work correctly.
The project intentionally avoids bundling large numbers of extensions by default.
Install only what you actually need.
Contributions are welcome.
If you're interested in helping make Kairo smaller, faster, and more focused, feel free to:
- Report bugs
- Suggest features
- Submit pull requests
- Remove unnecessary dependencies
- Improve performance
- Improve documentation
- Help maintain extensions and language support
When proposing a new feature, consider one question first:
Does this make the core editor better?
If the answer is no, it probably doesn't belong in Kairo.
The project is still evolving.
Some areas we're interested in:
- Remove remaining Microsoft-specific integrations
- Remove AI/Copilot-related functionality
- Reduce bundled extensions
- Reduce unnecessary dependencies
- Reduce startup time
- Reduce memory usage
- Reduce background processes
- Reduce network activity
- Audit telemetry
- Simplify the default UI
- Improve Linux experience
- Provide reproducible builds
- Provide official Linux packages
- Eventually provide Windows and macOS builds
Kairo is based on the open-source Code - OSS project.
Visual Studio Code and Code - OSS are developed by Microsoft and the open-source community.
Kairo is an independent project and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.
Kairo retains the licensing of the upstream components from which it is derived.
See LICENSE.txt for the applicable license.
Additional third-party components may be distributed under their respective licenses.