A beginner guide to coding agents and how to connect them

A coding agent is an AI assistant that lives in your terminal or editor and does real work: it reads your files, writes and edits code, runs commands, and checks the results — looping until the task is done. Unlike a chat window where you copy and paste snippets, an agent has hands. You describe the outcome ("add a login form and wire it to the API"), and it makes the changes directly in your project.

If you have heard names like Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, or Aider and felt lost, this guide gets you from zero to a working setup in a few minutes.

How coding agents actually work

Under the hood, every agent talks to a large language model through an API. The agent sends your request plus relevant code, the model replies with actions (edit this file, run this test), and the agent executes them. This is why agents can feel almost magical and occasionally go off the rails — they reason step by step, and the quality of that reasoning depends heavily on which model you point them at.

That last point matters more than people expect. The same agent can feel very different running GPT versus Claude versus Gemini. Being able to swap models freely is one of the most useful skills you can pick up early.

The main types of tools

There are two broad categories:

Terminal agents are great for full-task automation and scripting. Editor agents shine for inline edits and staying in your existing workflow. Most developers end up using both.

The connection problem

Here is the catch nobody warns beginners about: every agent wants its own provider account, its own billing, and its own API key. Want to try Claude Code with a Claude model today and Codex with GPT tomorrow? That is two signups, two cards on file, and two dashboards.

You can skip all of that with a single OpenAI-compatible gateway. AnyModel gives you one base_url (https://anymodel.org/v1) and one API key that reaches GPT, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, GLM, Kimi, Qwen, and Grok. Switching models means changing one string — the model id — and nothing else. No new accounts, no re-plumbing.

Connecting an agent in one line

For the supported terminal tools (codex, claude, opencode, hermes), the install command configures everything for you. Paste this, swapping in your key:

bash <(curl -fsSL "https://anymodel.org/i?tool=codex") <YOUR_API_KEY>

For Claude Code, change tool=codex to tool=claude. Run it, and the agent is pointed at the gateway and ready to go.

Editor tools and everything else

Cursor, Windsurf, Zed, Cline, Aider, Continue, and Gemini CLI all support a manual OpenAI-compatible setup. In the tool's API settings, set:

• Base URL: https://anymodel.org/v1
• API key: your AnyModel key
• Model: any id from the model list

That is the same three fields everywhere, which is exactly why an OpenAI-compatible endpoint is so handy.

Starting for free

You do not need a credit card to begin. Signup includes 1,000,000 free tokens, and linking your Telegram brings the total to 6,000,000. After that it is simple pay-per-token — no subscription, no monthly minimums, no surprise tiers. That is enough to genuinely test several agents and models before spending anything.

A note on privacy

If you work with sensitive code, look at Ghost Mode — opt-in, zero-retention API keys where your prompts and responses are not stored on our side (only a token counter for billing). To be honest about it: the model provider that ultimately runs your request still receives the prompt, so this is not "100% privacy." It does mean the gateway itself keeps no record of your content.

Picking your first model

Not sure where to start? Try a strong general model for your first task, then experiment. Because switching costs you nothing but a changed model id, you can A/B test the same prompt across providers in minutes. Our model comparison and the blog can help you narrow the field.

Coding agents are one of the biggest productivity jumps in years, and the barrier to entry is now basically zero. Create your free account and connect your first agent in under five minutes.