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Agent setup

Install an agent of your choice, connect Skills and MCP servers, and start deploying to Cloudflare — all from your editor or terminal.

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Compare agents

Capabilities, pricing, and context approaches compared.

Claude Code Subscription Locked Project memory
Codex Hybrid Locked Project memory
Cursor Subscription Multi-provider Indexed codebase
GitHub Copilot Subscription Multi-provider Indexed codebase
OpenCode BYOK Multi-provider Project memory
Windsurf Subscription Multi-provider Indexed codebase

Every agent listed supports Skills and MCP.

Understanding agents

Common types, concepts, and tradeoffs.

Workflow

Where the agent runs changes how you interact with it.

Terminal

Runs in a shell. Best for automation, scripting, and CI pipelines.

IDE

Full code editor with AI first-class. Visual diffs, multi-file edits.

Cloud

Hosted infrastructure. Ideal for async, long-running work.

Extension

Plugs into an existing editor. Lightest install, keeps your setup.

Key concepts

The vocabulary you'll run into when comparing agents.

Skills

Reusable prompt packages that teach an agent about a specific domain. Think of them as plugins made of instructions plus slash commands.

MCP

The Model Context Protocol — a standard that lets agents call external tools and APIs. Connect an MCP server and the agent knows how to use it.

Model flexibility

Which foundation models you can use. Locked supports only the vendor's own models. BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) lets you bring your own API key. Multi-provider supports several providers out of the box.

Context

How the agent retains information about your project. Session only remembers the current conversation. Project memory persists across sessions. Indexed codebase builds a searchable index of your whole repository.

Common tradeoffs

Decisions you'll make when picking an agent.

Cloud vs. Local

Cloud agents run on hosted infrastructure and read your code over the network. Local agents run on your own machine, with no code leaving it.

Proprietary vs. Open source

Proprietary agents ship under a closed license you don't control. Open-source agents publish their source under an open license, so you can read, modify, or fork the code.

Locked model vs. BYOK

Locked agents only work with the vendor's own proprietary models. BYOK agents let you bring your own API key and switch between providers and models.

Session vs. Indexed codebase

Session context resets when you close the conversation. An indexed codebase is built up front and persists, letting the agent retrieve any file in the repo on demand.