Updated June 2026

Aider in Practice: Open-Source AI Pair Programming in the Terminal

Class Duration

14 hours of live training delivered over 2 days.

Student Prerequisites

Professional software development experience in at least one language
Working knowledge of Git (commits, diffs, branches, reverting)
Comfort with the command line
No prior AI tool experience required

Target Audience

Software engineers and teams who want a capable AI pair programmer without vendor lock-in. Aider is open source, model-agnostic, and git-first - making it especially relevant for organizations with procurement, data-residency, or AI-usage restrictions, and for developers who want to work with the model of their choice, including fully local open-weight models. Also valuable for teams using Claude Code, Codex, or Cursor who want an open-source option in their toolkit for comparison or fallback. To weigh Aider against the other agents head-to-head first, take Building with Coding Agents.

Description

Aider is the leading open-source AI pair programmer: it lives in your terminal, edits your files directly, and treats git as the source of truth - every AI change is a clean, attributed commit you can inspect, amend, or undo. This two-day course covers Aider's feature set end to end, starting with the core workflow: installing and configuring Aider, connecting it to the model of your choice (Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, DeepSeek, or local models via Ollama), managing the chat context with file commands and the repo map, and using the chat modes - code, ask, architect, and help - for the right task. We cover architect mode's two-model split (a reasoning model plans, an editor model applies) and when it pays for itself. The course then moves to power features and team adoption: auto-lint and auto-test loops that iterate until the code passes, conventions files for steering style, watch-files mode for driving Aider from comments in any IDE, voice and image input, scripting Aider for batch and CI use, cost tracking, and configuration management. A dedicated module covers running Aider fully local with open-weight models for restricted environments. Students leave knowing where Aider shines, where full agents like Claude Code or Codex are the better tool, and how to make that call per task.

Learning Outcomes

Install, configure, and connect Aider to hosted frontier models, or run it fully local with Ollama for data-residency and compliance-constrained environments.
Manage chat context effectively: adding and dropping files, read-only references, and the repo map.
Choose the right chat mode per task (code, ask, architect, and help) and use architect mode's planner/editor model split for complex, multi-file changes.
Exploit Aider's git-first workflow: auto-commits, clean diffs, /undo, and attribution.
Configure auto-lint and auto-test loops so Aider iterates until checks pass, and steer output with conventions files and per-project configuration.
Drive Aider from any IDE with watch-files mode, use voice and image input, and script Aider for non-interactive batch edits and CI integration.
Track per-session costs and choose models on the cost/capability curve.
Judge when Aider is the right tool versus a fully agentic assistant.

Training Materials

Comprehensive courseware is distributed online at the start of class. All students receive a downloadable MP4 recording of the training.

Software Requirements

Python 3.10+ (for installing Aider), an API key for at least one hosted model or Ollama installed for local labs, Git, and a code editor of choice.

Training Topics

Getting Started with Aider

Installation options and project setup
Connecting models: Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, DeepSeek, OpenRouter
Model aliases and switching models mid-session
The Aider philosophy: open source, model-agnostic, git-first

Managing Chat Context

Adding and dropping files; read-only references
The repo map: how Aider understands large codebases
Keeping context small for better edits and lower cost
Images and web pages as chat context

Chat Modes

Code mode: direct edits to your files
Ask mode: discussing code without changing it
Architect mode: planner and editor models working together
Choosing model pairings for architect mode
Help mode and in-chat commands

Git-First Workflows

Auto-commits with attributed, descriptive messages
Reviewing AI changes with diffs before and after
/undo, amending, and squashing AI commits
Working on branches and integrating with PR review

Automation Loops

Auto-lint: fixing lint errors automatically after each edit
Auto-test: running your test command and iterating to green
Edit formats: whole-file vs. diff-based editing
Handling failure loops and knowing when to intervene

Steering and Configuration

Conventions files for style and architectural guidance
Project and user configuration files
Per-model settings and prompt caching
Cost tracking and token budgets

Beyond the Terminal

Watch-files mode: driving Aider from comments in any IDE
Voice input for hands-free coding
The browser UI
Scripting Aider: non-interactive batch edits and CI usage

Local and Restricted Environments

Running Aider fully local with Ollama and open-weight models
Capability tradeoffs of local models for code editing
Data-residency and compliance considerations
Aider vs. full agents (Claude Code, Codex): choosing per task