# 3code

5 Hacker News commenters recommended 3code and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** A free, cross-platform coding agent written in Nim and built for token efficiency, which people say uses fewer tokens than Claude Code.

## Why people recommend it

- Low token use, tested (4 comments): "Unixy scrollback but cross plaform. Tested for token efficiency." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49930761)) "which is written in Nim and focuses on token efficiency" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50066941)) "batteries included and tested for token consumption" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49930747))
- Cross platform and tiny (2 comments): "Unixy scrollback but cross plaform. Tested for token efficiency." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49930761)) "it's cross platform, it's tiny and it works!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48609815))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [GitHub Copilot](https://hackerapproved.com/p/github-copilot.md): 571 recommend
- [oh-my-pi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/oh-my-pi.md): 104 recommend
- [Grok Build CLI](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grok-build.md): 66 recommend
- [DeepSeek Harness](https://hackerapproved.com/p/deepseek-harness.md): 63 recommend
- [Claude Code VS Code extension](https://hackerapproved.com/p/claude-code-vs-code-extension.md): 31 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "3code", https://hackerapproved.com/p/3code/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).