RFC: Agentic Software Engineering Tools for Apple M4 MacBook Air
Status: Informational
Author: Omid Zamani
Date: 2025-11-16
Category: Development Tools
This document catalogs agentic software engineering tools verified to run effectively on the MacBook Air M4 (Apple M4, 10-core CPU: 4P+6E, 8-core GPU). The list is curated for developers seeking AI-powered coding assistance, autonomous agents, and intelligent development environments optimized for Apple Silicon architecture.
This memo provides information for the software development community. It does not specify any standard. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright (c) 2025. This document is licensed under the MIT License.
- Introduction
- Terminology
- System Specification
- Tool Categories
- Complete Tool Catalog
- Contributing
- License
- References
The emergence of agentic artificial intelligence in software engineering has introduced a paradigm shift in developer productivity. This document serves as a canonical reference for tools that have been verified to operate efficiently on Apple's M4 silicon architecture, specifically the MacBook Air variant with 10-core CPU configuration.
The motivation for this catalog stems from the need to identify tools that leverage the unique capabilities of Apple Silicon while maintaining thermal efficiency within the constraints of a passively-cooled chassis.
The key words used in this document are to be interpreted as described below:
- Agentic Tool: Software capable of autonomous decision-making, planning, and execution in software engineering contexts
- M4 Silicon: Apple's fourth-generation ARM-based system-on-chip for Mac computers
- LLM: Large Language Model
- CLI: Command-Line Interface
- IDE: Integrated Development Environment
- MCP: Model Context Protocol
The reference system for this catalog:
Hardware: MacBook Air (M4, 2024)
Processor: Apple M4
- CPU: 10-core (4 Performance + 6 Efficiency)
- GPU: 8-core
Architecture: ARM64 (arm64)
Platform: macOS
Thermal: Passive cooling (fanless)
Tools are organized into the following categories:
- 4.1 Terminal-Based Agents
- 4.2 IDE/Editor Extensions
- 4.3 Standalone Desktop Applications
- 4.4 Web-Based/Hosted Services
- 4.5 Multi-Agent Frameworks
- 4.6 Specialized Agents
AIChat – Multi-provider LLM CLI with agents
OpenCode – Terminal AI coding agent
Codex – OpenAI's local coding agent
Ollama – Local LLM runtime platform
Hugging Face CLI – Model hub interface
iFlow CLI – Terminal AI assistant
MCP Probe – Model Context Protocol interface
Plandex – Terminal-based AI coding agent
Gemini CLI – Google LLM coding CLI
Qwen CLI – Agentic coding CLI
Auggie CLI – Terminal AI agent workspace
Claude Code – Anthropic terminal coding CLI
Droid – Factory command-line dev agent
Kilo Code CLI – Multi-agent terminal coding orchestrator
OpenInterpreter – Natural-language code execution agent
Cursor – AI-powered VS Code editor
Continue.dev – Continuous AI coding assistant
Cline – Autonomous coding agent for VS Code
Roo Code – VS Code AI coding assistant
Sourcegraph Cody – Context-aware AI code assistant
GitHub Copilot Workspace – Repo-wide AI dev environment
Tabnine – Privacy-focused AI code completion
Alex – Xcode-native AI coding assistant
Junie – JetBrains IDE AI coding agent
CodeGPT – IDE AI agent with RAG
Zed – Fast Rust-based IDE with agentic AI editing
Void IDE – VS Code-based open-source agentic AI code editor
Amazon Q Developer – AWS AI coding assistant
GPT4All – Offline LLM platform
Windsurf – Agentic AI-native IDE
CodeCompanion.AI – Desktop AI coding agent
Goose – macOS-native autonomous dev agent
Simular AI – Native macOS DeepSeek-powered agent
Pieces for Developers – macOS AI workflow copilot
TinyAgent – On-device Mac function-calling assistant
AnythingLLM – Desktop agent builder for local/cloud LLMs
Dropstone Agent – macOS autonomous coding assistant with deep analysis
Devin AI – Hosted AI software engineer
Genie by Cosine – Autonomous AI software engineer
Bolt.new – Browser-based AI app builder
Replit Agent – Cloud AI coding agent
Sweep – GitHub issue-to-PR AI dev
Factory (Droids) – Agentic coding workflow platform
v0 by Vercel – AI UI & app generator
Magic.dev – Agentic browser & desktop dev environment
CodeRabbit – Autonomous code review & refactor agent
AutoGen – Multi-agent LLM framework
CrewAI – Python multi-agent orchestration framework
MetaGPT – Multi-agent software engineer framework
Magentic-One – Microsoft multi-agent orchestrator
TaskGen – StrictJSON modular agentic framework
Cerebrum/AIOS SDK – Agent platform with memory & tools
ChatDev – Open-source multi-agent dev simulator
CAMEL-AI – Multi-agent role-playing & automation framework
LangGraph – Stateful multi-agent orchestration framework
Phidata – Multi-modal agent framework with web UI
Marvin – Python framework for structured agent workflows
Semantic Kernel – Microsoft AI agent orchestration SDK
Eidolon AI – Open-source agent server & SDK
Aider – Terminal AI pair programmer
SWE-agent – Autonomous SWE coding agent
OpenHands – Generalist AI dev-agent platform
Trae AI – AI IDE and coding assistant
Smol Developer – Open-source junior dev agent
Refact.ai – Autonomous coding agent with IDE
Qodo – Multi-agent code review & debugging
Gemini Code Assist – Google agentic SDLC assistant
Zencoder – AI coding, testing & repo intelligence
Moderne – Large-scale automated refactoring platform
Manus AI – Autonomous research & coding agent
AskUI Vision Agent – Visual GUI automation agent
OS-Copilot/FRIDAY – OS-level terminal & file agent
Agent S – GUI automation agent with planning
Magma – Multimodal UI navigation & robotics model
ShowUI – Vision-language-action model for GUI agents
OctoTools – Training-free tool-usage agent framework
Devika – Open-source autonomous software engineer
Superagent – Multi-agent dev orchestration platform
AutoCode AI – Self-hosted agentic code assistant
HyperAgent – Multi-agent framework for repo-scale coding
AutoAgent – Fully automated zero-code LLM agent framework
C/ua – Apple Silicon platform for near-native secure AI agents
AgileCoder – Agile multi-agent system for software development
CodeCoR – Self-reflective multi-agent code generation framework
CODESIM – Simulation-driven tri-agent coding and debugging
AgentCoder – Three-agent programmer & tester framework
AdaCoder – Adaptive planning and debugging code framework
PC-Agent – Hierarchical multi-agent PC task automation system
TestForge – Agentic unit test generator
Latitude – LLM prompt & eval platform
QualityFlow – Multi-agent program synthesis framework
MOSS – Code-driven self-evolving agent framework
AgentStudio – Toolkit for general virtual agents
Warp 2.0 – Agentic AI terminal & editor
Contributions to this catalog are welcome and encouraged. To propose additions, modifications, or corrections:
- Fork this repository
- Create a feature branch
- Submit a pull request with:
- Tool name and description
- Verification that the tool runs on M4 MacBook Air
- Category assignment
- Any relevant installation notes
All contributions must maintain the RFC format and organizational structure of this document.
MIT License
Copyright (c) 2025 Omid Zamani
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.
This catalog was compiled based on practical testing and verification on the reference hardware platform. Tools are continuously evolving; users are encouraged to verify compatibility with current versions.
For updates and community discussion, please visit the repository at: https://github.com/[username]/agentic-tools-m4
Document Version: 1.0
Last Updated: 2025-11-16
Maintained by: Omid Zamani