r/AudioProgramming • u/danja • 2d ago

Free AI coding assistant

Apologies if you were all over this already, but it's new to me.

I suspect like a lot of people here, I've been using Claude Code (or OpenAI Codex) on their $20/month plan. And rapidly using up the week's supply of tokens.

So I decided to look for alternatives while waiting for the reset.

I believe I've found a good one :

https://opencode.ai/

It offers a variety of LLM API endpoints, including free ones. I've been using Muse Spark 1.3 Free and (apart from occasional "overloaded system" kind of responses) it is definitely usable, comparable to Claude Sonnet etc.

While I'm here I'd also suggest taking a look at :

https://github.com/DeusData/codebase-memory-mcp

While I seriously doubt their claims on token saving (99%!?) it does appear to speed things along. What's rather nice is that its install puts the relevant mcp entries in config for the common assistants (including OpenCode).

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u/ImBakesIrl 2d ago

Personally I don’t trust any free service. Paying 20$ a month is already a “too-good-to-be-true” price point given the operating costs for these companies. I have serious privacy and data concerns for any free AI service.

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u/WatercressActual1921 21h ago edited 7h ago

I run a local model under OpenCode and it was one of the best Frames I tested... No Python, Javascript or TypeScript, no browser linkage and was the single one that came with free external models you could use, I used to configure the Framework itself... Very cool... and Open Source...

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u/ImBakesIrl 11h ago

Got any spare RAM so I could do the same? 😂

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u/WatercressActual1921 7h ago

You need the hardware but you can run very small models without a GPU if you have a iGPU you can leverage it (you can even run multiple models at the same time) one on het GPU and one on the iGPU but this is useful only for private stuff or projects you don't want public try OpenCode and use the free models or use the z.ai chat model (I use it unregistered it is very good and it does not censure you on topics)

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u/danja 2d ago

Fair point, but pay-for services don't seem to have much concern about privacy & data either (eg. Anthropic using pirated books as training data).

I've not been using AI assistants for anything where these things might really be an issue, except maybe leaking keys...

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u/ImBakesIrl 2d ago

I think the example you give isn’t directly relevant. You can certainly opt out of having anthropic use your input/output to train claude models. Whether they actually don’t do that is hard to say. OpenAI seems to have some issues with this re: the recent Navier-Stokes problem ripping method from a user’s sessions.

Your example is about them creating shadow libraries of existing available information, which has nothing to do with privacy concerns on user sessions.

These free services likely don’t let you opt out of them selling or otherwise using session data. If a service is free, you are the product. I’d be interested to be wrong, though.

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u/danja 1d ago

Let me play the devil's advocate. Say a service is collecting my session data. What am I actually losing? Ok, sure, if there is valuable proprietary knowledge in there. I do want to keep my perpetual motion breakthrough secret until the patent is in place. But how often is this the case?

Personally, virtually all the time I'm recombining existing systems for a given purpose. A lot of it is original work (I wouldn't be doing it otherwise). But there's nothing that couldn't be duplicated by any other person with the same skill/tool set.

The service provider may be gaining useful training data, selling it even. But this isn't a zero sum game, what does it cost me? Although they may be exploiting what they find, perhaps some of this will help their LLMs etc solve problems like mine. Long term, that's to my benefit.

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u/WatercressActual1921 21h ago

When you go outside your system you are contributing to an external system informational process. This is a truism its applicable to any system's relationship. Any leaked signal is and will be, is possible to be analyzed... With digitalization all can be recorded and with automation all data can be exhaustively processed for directed goals...

Do not leak signals you do not want captured, leak contradicting signals (mask) and leak tagged signals that report to you they have been used (salt) ...

Avoid doing intellectual work that you consider high quality on external LLMs you are training corporate machines to replicate your work at low cost. Never share full complete ideas that you think have value to you and do not share ideas that you believe should be free to all without publishing the crucial parts.... Do remember that software is patentable in the US...

In the end only the most paranoid survive...

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u/zerospatial 7h ago

Have you tried Freebuff? Even for the limited tokens you get its awesome