I've gone through a few AI IDEs / agents and CLI tools now, currently on Cline with Gemini 2.5 Pro which is doing a pretty good job at my web app code with a decent .clinerules file in the repo.
To answer why I don't use chat at all for coding anymore, some benefits of IDE / CLI agents: Copy pasting into chat apps don't allow for agentic runs (ie run bash commands, edit code, validate with linting / testing before marking task as 'complete'). I can mostly just write my descriptive task (usually with code references if they aren't already there in clinerules / claude.md, etc.) and come back after a short walk or drinking some tea and check the code or just check at runtime to ask it to fix up the code. This is honestly very similar to "waiting for code to compile."
For reference, I've used the following to make production code changes:
- Cursor: which when Claude 3.5 was out seemed to be the best AI IDE, but the changes they've made around agent mode and 3.7 haven't really worked super well for me. Migrated to claude code after 3.7 came out.
- Claude Code: Very good, I generally just ran it in dangerous mode and it could accomplish tasks fairly well. Wrote a decent Claude.md file as well. Only con is that it got expensive quickly. On the order of $3-5 per session which would accomplish a single task.
- Cline with Gemini 2.5 Pro: Moved to it yesterday, it's been doing a good job and is effectively free right now using my own API key for Gemini. Seems a bit verbose at times although that might just be Cline's prompts.
I haven't tried Aider or Windsurf, but have heard good things about Windsurf's agentic mode. Although I might not move to Windsurf at all since Cline with Gemini works pretty well & is free to use.
> is effectively free right now using my own API key for Gemini.
I think the cost is/was a big factor preventing many from switching from Chat-based coding to Cline/Cursor/Aider.
For my hobby projects I don't want to spend 3 USD to get some assistance which I can get for free through a monthly subscription (and some extra pasting).
Google is smart to offer a free use tier on API-usage which seems enough for agentic coding.
To answer why I don't use chat at all for coding anymore, some benefits of IDE / CLI agents: Copy pasting into chat apps don't allow for agentic runs (ie run bash commands, edit code, validate with linting / testing before marking task as 'complete'). I can mostly just write my descriptive task (usually with code references if they aren't already there in clinerules / claude.md, etc.) and come back after a short walk or drinking some tea and check the code or just check at runtime to ask it to fix up the code. This is honestly very similar to "waiting for code to compile."
For reference, I've used the following to make production code changes:
- Cursor: which when Claude 3.5 was out seemed to be the best AI IDE, but the changes they've made around agent mode and 3.7 haven't really worked super well for me. Migrated to claude code after 3.7 came out.
- Claude Code: Very good, I generally just ran it in dangerous mode and it could accomplish tasks fairly well. Wrote a decent Claude.md file as well. Only con is that it got expensive quickly. On the order of $3-5 per session which would accomplish a single task.
- Cline with Gemini 2.5 Pro: Moved to it yesterday, it's been doing a good job and is effectively free right now using my own API key for Gemini. Seems a bit verbose at times although that might just be Cline's prompts.
I haven't tried Aider or Windsurf, but have heard good things about Windsurf's agentic mode. Although I might not move to Windsurf at all since Cline with Gemini works pretty well & is free to use.