The most beautiful coding editor ever made — with a serious agent inside, and the AI runs on us. No API key, no subscription, no per-token bill: sponsors cover the inference so you never do. Read-only by default, every write gated behind your approval. That's what Code Freely means.
App.swift — explain, refactor, or generate a patch. Picasso stays read-only until you approve a write.App entry point. Lines 5–9 build the window group; the run store is injected as an environment object.Every other agent bills you for the model — a subscription, your own API keys, or a meter ticking on every token. Picasso doesn't. Sponsors fund the inference, so you get frontier models inside a beautiful editor for exactly zero.
No API key, no subscription, no card. Install in one command and the agent is already wired to real models.
Inference is paid for by clearly disclosed sponsors — honest, labeled placements, never your wallet. That's what funds the free tier.
Sponsors never see your code and never influence a single token of model output. Your code is never training data or sponsor inventory.
Prefer your own? Drop in an API key or run local models anytime — the free path is a choice, not a cage.
App.swift — explain, refactor, or generate a patch. Picasso stays read-only until you approve a write.App entry point. Lines 5–9 build the window group; the run store is injected as an environment object.Picasso retrieves relevant memory before planning, injects it into context before it acts, and writes back what mattered after the run — facts, style, decisions, failures.
Hand Picasso an objective, completion criteria, permissions, and a budget. It plans, acts, observes, reflects, repairs failures, and keeps going until the work is done or a boundary is reached.
The agent loop is visible by design. You see the plan, the tools, the failures, the checks, and the reason the work changes direction.
Architecture, entry points, data flow, risks, and verification — grounded in your real workspace, with writes blocked until you approve execution.
Named and forked workers investigate in parallel, then replay shows the plans, tools, approvals, edits, and results.
Permission mode, MCP tools, hooks, sponsor boundaries, and provider routing stay visible instead of hiding inside a prompt.
Plans, goals, memory, subagents, permissions, budgets, and replay are inspectable in the terminal, the TUI, and the Mac app.
| Claude Code | Codex CLI | Cursor | Devin | Picasso | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read-only plan mode | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Subagents | Yes | Limited | Yes | Yes | Named + fork |
| Runtime memory | Project files | No | Partial | Wiki | Retrieve · inject · write back |
| Autonomous /goal | Anthropic | OpenAI | No | Yes | All routes |
| Replay evidence | Partial | Partial | No | Hosted | CLI · TUI · Mac |
| Free path | Trial | Limited | Trial | Credits | Sponsor-supported |
| Tool subscription | Claude plans | ChatGPT plans | $20/mo | From $20/mo | $0 |
Managed inference, a supported provider subscription, your own API keys, or local models through Ollama and vLLM. macOS, Linux, and Windows.
Zero account to start — bring your own keys, or unlock managed inference through honestly disclosed sponsors.
Install opens the day the doors do.
Picasso for Mac is almost here — a coding agent that looks the way serious tools should, and costs what creative freedom should: nothing. Be first on the canvas.