Roo Code vs Warp | agentconfig.ing

Roo Code vs WarpComparisonUpdated 2026-03-16

SUMMARY

Roo Code (IDE) uses markdown configuration while Warp (Terminal) uses markdown. They differ on 3 of 11 compared features. Both tools provide AI-assisted development but take different approaches to project configuration.

FEATURE COMPARISON

Feature	Roo Code	Warp	Notes
Config format	markdown	markdown
Hierarchy support	✗	✓	Whether config files can be placed at multiple directory levels
Global config	✗	✗	User-wide configuration outside any project
Project config	✓	✓
Subdirectory scoping	✗	✓	Config files in subdirectories that apply only to that subtree
File inclusion / imports	✗	✗	Ability to include or reference other files from config
Ignore file	✗	✗
IDE integration	✓	Terminal
Schema / structure	Free-form (Markdown)	Free-form (Markdown)	Whether config uses structured schema or free-form content
Git committed	✓	✓	Whether primary config files are intended to be version-controlled
Encoding	UTF-8	UTF-8

SIDE-BY-SIDE CODE SAMPLES

Roo Code

.roo/rules/*.md

markdown

# Code Standards

## TypeScript
- Enable strict mode in all tsconfig files
- No `any` types — use `unknown` and narrow
- Prefer interfaces over type aliases for object shapes

## React
- Functional components only
- Use custom hooks for shared stateful logic
- Colocate component, styles, and tests

## Git
- Conventional commits (feat:, fix:, chore:, etc.)
- Keep commits atomic and focused
- Squash merge feature branches

Warp

AGENTS.md

markdown

# Project Rules

## Stack
- Go 1.23 with Chi router
- PostgreSQL 16 with pgx driver
- Redis for caching and rate limiting

## Commands
- make dev — Start with hot reload (air)
- make test — Run go test ./...
- make lint — Run golangci-lint
- make migrate — Run goose migrations

## Conventions
- Use context.Context as first param in all functions
- Structured logging with slog
- Errors wrap with fmt.Errorf("funcName: %w", err)
- Table-driven tests with t.Run subtests

KEY DIFFERENCES

1. Hierarchy support

Roo Code: Not supported. Warp: Supported.

2. Subdirectory scoping

Roo Code: Not supported. Warp: Supported.

3. IDE integration

Roo Code: Supported. Warp: Terminal.

WHICH SHOULD I USE?

Recommendation

Choose based on your IDE/CLI preference. If you use Roo Code, configure .roo/rules/*.md. If you use Warp, configure AGENTS.md. Many projects include config files for multiple tools so each team member can use their preferred editor.

PORTABILITY TIP

sync-instructions.sh

bash

# Maintain a single source of truth:
cp AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md CLAUDE.md
cp AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md .cursorrules
cp AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md AGENTS.md