Digitorn
Digitorn
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Coding agent

An open-source alternative to OpenHands

An open-source successor to OpenDevin, focused on a sandboxed coding agent with a UI.

Digitorn is a YAML-first AI agent runtime. Open source, self-hosted, with multi-agent dispatch built in. Below: what OpenHands does well, why teams switch, and where Digitorn fits.

About OpenHands

OpenHands ships a sandboxed Linux environment, a UI, and a coding agent that operates inside it. It is closer to a self-hosted Devin replica than a CLI tool. The sandbox-first design is good for safety but adds operational overhead.

What OpenHands does well
  • Sandboxed execution, lower blast radius if the agent goes wrong
  • Polished UI with task history and multi-step traces
  • Active core team behind it
Why teams look for an alternative
  • Sandbox is a Docker container, deployment is heavier than a CLI
  • Agent definition is Python and Docker-flavoured, not a config file
  • Customising tools requires editing the codebase
  • Cost optimisation through model routing requires manual code paths
Why Digitorn

What you get when you switch

CLI-first deploy, no Docker required

digitorn install + digitorn chat and you are running. Docker is optional, not the default.

Read-before-edit guard at the runtime layer

Same protection without the sandbox overhead. The runtime tracks a per-session set of read files and refuses Edit on anything else.

Per-agent brain routing, declared

Run the coordinator on Sonnet and the explorer on Haiku via two model: lines. No code path to write.

Try it in 5 minutes

Install and run a real agent

# one-line install (Mac, Linux, Windows + Git Bash)
curl -sSL https://digitorn.ai/install | sh

# install a coding agent from the Hub
digitorn install hub://digitorn/digitorn-code

# chat with it
digitorn chat digitorn-code
Read the deep dive

How to build a Claude Code clone in YAML

Read article
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