OpenHands: The Leading Open Source AI Coding Agent

When Cognition’s Devin captured the tech world’s attention as the first “AI software engineer,” the open-source community responded with OpenHands (originally called OpenDevin). What started as an ambitious effort to democratize autonomous coding has evolved into one of the most capable and actively developed open-source AI coding agents available.

What is OpenHands?

OpenHands is an open-source platform for AI software development agents. It can do anything a human developer can: modify code, run commands, browse the web, call APIs, and yes—even copy code snippets from StackOverflow.

The project is designed around the idea that AI agents should operate with full developer capabilities, not just code completion. Given a task, OpenHands can plan an approach, implement solutions across multiple files, test its work, debug issues, and deliver working software.

Core Architecture

Agent Types

OpenHands supports different agent implementations:

• CodeAct Agent: The default agent using code-based actions
• Browsing Agent: Specialized for web research and documentation
• Monologue Agent: Simpler agent for straightforward tasks

Sandbox Environment

All code execution happens in isolated Docker containers:

• Secure by default
• Reproducible environments
• No risk to host system
• Customizable runtime configurations

Multi-LLM Support

OpenHands works with various language models:

• OpenAI GPT-4: Strong general performance
• Anthropic Claude: Excellent reasoning capabilities
• Open-source models: Via Ollama or other providers
• Azure OpenAI: Enterprise deployments

Key Features

Autonomous Task Completion

Give OpenHands a task and let it work:

Fix issue #123 in the repository. The login form is not validating
email addresses correctly.

OpenHands will:

1. Analyze the issue
2. Find relevant code
3. Implement a fix
4. Test the solution
5. Create a summary of changes

Full Development Environment

The sandbox includes:

• Terminal access
• File system operations
• Web browser
• Package managers
• Build tools

Browser Integration

OpenHands can browse the web for:

• Documentation lookup
• API exploration
• Stack Overflow searches
• Package information

Self-Correction

When things go wrong, OpenHands:

• Reads error messages
• Adjusts its approach
• Retries with fixes
• Learns from failures within the session

Getting Started

Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/OpenHands/OpenHands.git
cd OpenHands

# Install dependencies
pip install -r requirements.txt

# Or use Docker
docker pull ghcr.io/openhands/openhands:latest

Configuration

Create a configuration file:

# config.yaml
llm:
  provider: openai
  model: gpt-4
  api_key: ${OPENAI_API_KEY}

sandbox:
  container_image: "openhands/sandbox:latest"
  timeout_secs: 300

agent:
  type: CodeAct

Running OpenHands

Start the web interface:

python -m openhands.server

Or use the CLI:

python -m openhands.cli "Implement a user authentication system"

Practical Applications

Bug Fixing

Point OpenHands at a GitHub issue:

Look at issue #456. The CSV export is including deleted records.
Find the bug and fix it. Make sure to add a test case.

Feature Development

Build new features autonomously:

Add a notification system to the application:
- Users should receive email notifications for important events
- Include a preference page to manage notification settings
- Store notification history in the database

Code Refactoring

Clean up existing code:

Refactor the user module to use the repository pattern:
- Extract database operations into a UserRepository class
- Update all services to use the repository
- Ensure all tests still pass

Legacy Code Updates

Modernize old codebases:

Update this Python 2 code to Python 3:
- Fix all print statements
- Update string handling
- Migrate deprecated libraries
- Ensure tests pass

SWE-Bench Performance

OpenHands has become a standard tool for AI coding research, regularly tested on SWE-bench:

• Consistent improvements with each release
• Competitive with proprietary solutions
• Active research contributions

Current performance approaches or exceeds many commercial alternatives on standard benchmarks.

Comparison with Other Agents

Feature	OpenHands	Devin	Claude Code	Aider
Open Source	Yes	No	No	Yes
Self-Hosted	Yes	No	No	Yes
Browser Access	Yes	Yes	Via MCP	No
Sandbox	Yes	Yes	Optional	No
Autonomy Level	High	Very High	Medium	Medium
Cost	LLM API only	Subscription	API	API

Advanced Configuration

Custom Sandboxes

Create specialized environments:

# Dockerfile for custom sandbox
FROM openhands/sandbox:latest

RUN npm install -g typescript ts-node
RUN pip install pytest black mypy

# Add project-specific dependencies
COPY requirements.txt .
RUN pip install -r requirements.txt

Plugin Development

Extend OpenHands with custom plugins:

from openhands.plugins import Plugin

class DatabasePlugin(Plugin):
    def setup(self, agent):
        agent.register_tool("query_db", self.query_database)

    def query_database(self, query: str) -> str:
        # Custom database interaction
        pass

Multi-Agent Workflows

Coordinate multiple agents:

from openhands import Agent, Coordinator

# Create specialized agents
planner = Agent("planner", model="gpt-4")
coder = Agent("coder", model="claude-3-opus")
tester = Agent("tester", model="gpt-4")

# Coordinate their work
coordinator = Coordinator([planner, coder, tester])
result = coordinator.execute_task("Build a REST API for inventory management")

Best Practices

Clear Task Definitions

Be specific about requirements:

# Good
Implement user registration with:
- Email and password fields
- Password strength validation (min 8 chars, 1 number, 1 special)
- Email verification via SendGrid
- Store users in PostgreSQL

# Less effective
Add user registration to the app

Resource Limits

Set appropriate constraints:

sandbox:
  memory_limit: "4g"
  cpu_limit: 2
  timeout_secs: 600
  max_output_size: "100m"

Review Output

Always review what OpenHands produces:

• Check for security issues
• Verify business logic
• Ensure code style matches project
• Run your own test suite

Incremental Complexity

Start with simpler tasks:

1. Bug fixes
2. Small features
3. Larger features
4. Full module development

Security Considerations

Sandbox Isolation

OpenHands runs in containers by default:

• No access to host file system
• Network restrictions available
• Resource limits enforced

API Key Management

Secure your credentials:

# Use environment variables
export OPENAI_API_KEY=$(cat ~/.secrets/openai)

# Or secure vaults
export OPENAI_API_KEY=$(vault read -field=key secrets/openai)

Code Review

AI-generated code should be reviewed:

• Security vulnerabilities
• Incorrect implementations
• Hidden bugs
• Style violations

Community and Development

Active Development

OpenHands has:

• Regular releases
• Active GitHub discussions
• Research collaborations
• Community contributions

Research Platform

Academic teams use OpenHands for:

• Agent behavior research
• Planning and reasoning studies
• Tool use investigations
• Multi-agent systems

Contributing

Ways to contribute:

• Agent improvements
• New plugins
• Documentation
• Bug reports
• Benchmark results

Limitations

Compute Requirements

Running OpenHands requires:

• Docker or container runtime
• Sufficient RAM for sandbox
• API credits for LLMs
• Network access for model APIs

Accuracy

Autonomous agents can:

• Go down wrong paths
• Miss edge cases
• Introduce subtle bugs
• Misunderstand requirements

Complexity Ceiling

Current limitations on:

• Very large codebases
• Complex architectural decisions
• Domain-specific knowledge
• Novel problem solving

The Future of OpenHands

Development continues with:

• Improved planning capabilities
• Better tool use
• Multi-agent orchestration
• Specialized domain agents
• Enhanced security features

Conclusion

OpenHands represents the democratization of autonomous coding agents. By being open source, it enables experimentation, customization, and transparency that proprietary solutions can’t match.

For developers and organizations wanting to explore autonomous AI development without vendor lock-in, OpenHands offers a capable, flexible platform. Whether you’re fixing bugs, building features, or conducting research, OpenHands provides the tools to leverage AI agents in your development workflow.

The project’s active development, strong community, and competitive benchmark performance make it a serious choice for anyone interested in the future of AI-assisted software development.

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