Coding Agent
Amp
Sourcegraph's agentic coding tool with codebase context built in
Our verdict
Sourcegraph's agentic coding tool, leveraging years of investment in code search and indexing. Strong context-awareness story for teams already running Sourcegraph; less compelling as a standalone purchase.
Best for
Engineering teams already paying for Sourcegraph Code Search who want to add an AI agent that reuses the existing codebase index. Free tier is generous enough for individual evaluation.
Not for
Teams not on Sourcegraph — the standalone story is less differentiated than Claude Code or Augment. Builders who want a simpler CLI experience.
Overview
Amp is Sourcegraph's agentic coding tool, launched in 2025. The differentiator is leverage — Sourcegraph has spent years building Cody (their AI coding assistant) and the Sourcegraph Code Search engine, which indexes large codebases for fast semantic search. Amp builds on that infrastructure: when the agent needs context about a function, a class, a usage pattern, it queries Sourcegraph's pre-built index rather than scanning files at runtime. For teams already running Sourcegraph, this means faster and more accurate context retrieval. The free tier is real and useful for individual evaluation. Where Amp is less compelling is for teams not already on Sourcegraph — the standalone value proposition vs Claude Code, Augment, or Cursor isn't as differentiated. The product is solid; the strategic moat is the Sourcegraph install base.
What works
- +Built on Sourcegraph's mature code-search and indexing infrastructure
- +Free tier with meaningful usage allowance
- +Strong codebase-context story without separate indexing setup
- +Native integration with Sourcegraph Code Search
- +Sourcegraph's enterprise compliance story (SOC 2, on-prem options) carries over
What doesn't
- −Standalone value less compelling than Claude Code or Augment for non-Sourcegraph teams
- −Newer to agentic coding than competitors with longer track records
- −Smaller community vs Cursor or Copilot
- −Locked into Sourcegraph as the indexing/context layer
- −Best fit narrows to teams already paying for Sourcegraph
What operators use it for
01
Codebase Search Augmented with Agent Edits
Sourcegraph users have always been able to find code fast. Amp adds the layer where the AI can act on what it finds — search for all usages of a deprecated API, then generate the migration code automatically.
02
Context-Heavy Refactors in Large Codebases
For teams already running Sourcegraph at scale (often 10M+ LOC), Amp inherits the existing context layer. The agent's understanding of the codebase is essentially free at query time because the indexing has already happened.
03
Code Review with Cross-Repo Awareness
If your team has multiple repos indexed in Sourcegraph, Amp can review a PR with awareness of how the changes affect downstream services in other repos. Single-repo tools miss this.
04
Agentic Code Migrations
Major migrations — language version upgrades, framework changes, library replacements — that span multiple files. Amp's indexing speeds the work; the agentic mode executes the changes.
05
Free-Tier Evaluation Path
Unlike most paid coding agents, Amp's free tier is usable for serious individual evaluation. A way to test whether the Sourcegraph context layer is worth the team-tier upgrade.
06
Compliance-Heavy Engineering Orgs
Sourcegraph's SOC 2 and on-prem deployment options carry over to Amp. For regulated industries that need full audit trails and self-hosting, Amp is one of the few agentic coding tools that fits the compliance story.
Pricing
Free tier with usage limits. Paid tiers via Sourcegraph subscription. Bundled with Sourcegraph Code Search for teams already on the platform.
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Open dataset. This review is part of a structured dataset of every platform on the shortlist, published as platforms.json on GitHub under CC-BY-4.0.
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