I think integration into existing IDEs is the wrong form for agentic coding. The best way to work is managing several Git worktrees with agents running so you aren't stuck waiting 20+ minutes for Claude Code to finish.

I built a UI to manage this, and it is starting to turn into a new type of IDE, based around agent management and review rather than working on one thing at a time.

https://github.com/stravu/crystal

What I'd like:

- Top-tier `git worktree`-based context switching in the same IDE window.

- A framework for attaching terminal-based agents to each worktree branch. Eventually this should evolve into a better open protocol for integration, primarily for diffs, permission request notifications, and progress indicators.

- A sidebar that monitors agent status/notifications on each active worktree branch.

- A quick notification-style way of responding to agent prompts across all branches. This has been built in standalone agent manager tools, but I can't use those tools effectively when I need to quickly jump in and be an engineer.

- Branch-context-level association with browser test windows or mobile emulator/simulator instances.

- Strong code completion capabilities via other faster models, a great extension ecosystem with lots of language server support, and function as a high-quality IDE.

Right now, I'm managing multiple macOS desktops with different instances of Windsurf running Claude agents in-terminal, and web browser windows / mobile emulators/simulators are dragged into the respective desktops for each instance. It's clunky.

What’s the actual difference between Cursor and Claude Code these days? I’ve used both and then just switched to Cursor because the company paid for it…but except the cli vs UI difference I couldn’t really spot any big differences as both did multi-file edits.

The current state of having multiple editors open, or having to switch between JetBrains stuff and Cursor is really a bit of an annoying transition period (I hope).

Is there an advantage to this setup over using VSCode Copilot in Agent mode with Claude Sonnet 3.7 or 4? What am I missing out on?

Thank god. I was shocked that there wasnt a bigger outrage last week when github decided that copilot was going to have premium request limits. I'm guessing we will see a much larger outcry when people hit their request limit a week into this month/billing period.

Glad there is some competition.

Tangent, but does anyone use Roo for VSCode? And does browser in Roo work with Claude provided by GitHub copilot?

is there any benefit of using this instead of copilot agent mode with claude backend?

Diff viewing! My workflow has been terminals with Claude Code on the left and vscode on the right pretty much just for diffs; maybe this can replace that.

AFAIK, this gets auto-installed when you launch Claude Code inside of VSCode (or Cursor) so no need to seek it out and install it this way, right?

How does this compares to Amp (https://ampcode.com) a similar offering from Sourcegraph? (it also has a VSCode extension)

Yesterday I burned 15€ (10€ free credit) trying Amp and I gotta said I was impressed.

The next few years are going to be interesting.

Now this I'm excited about, Claude Code for Jetbrains! https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/27310-claude-code-beta-

how our workflow starts changing when we realize it can hold multi step intent. l we stop thinking file by file. we start thinking in actions. "split this module, write tests, refactor callers" becomes a single unit in out head because Claude understands that as a unit too( maximum efforts mode ).

this slowly rewires how we approach code. we stop worrying about syntax early, we write more scaffolds, we batch tasks more. subtle shift but huge long term effect.

how soon before we start designing codebases for LLM agents to navigate more cleanly? flat structures, less indirection, more declarative metadata

One thing I prefer about Cursor is that it stores and manages the long prompts I enter. I abandoned Claude Code after I typed in a long paragraph of prompt then accidentally hit an arrow key and lost all my prompt-writing work. Prompts are valuable, and Cursor treats them as valuable, whereas Claude Code seems to expect throw-away one-liners.

Has this been fixed? Does the vscode Claude Code plugin retain prompts more reliably?

This was already installed when you ran Claude Code in a VSCode terminal, I guess the difference is that now it's explicitly listed on the VSCode Marketplace.

Seems like this is the exact same extension that’s been in use but it’s just now publicly on the extension marketplace.

VSCode is really the primary platform for AI/agentic plugins, receiving priority over other IDEs such as IntelliJ, this is understandable as it is free, supporting many languages, and really good.

As a long-time IntelliJ user, I’m beginning to question whether it still makes sense to remain on this platform.

Perhaps I’m too impatient and agentic plugins may reach parity on IntelliJ within a year but a year is quite a long time to wait in this really fast-evolving landscape.

The intellij plugin in beta: https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/27310-claude-code-beta-...

I always get blocked in using Claude Code by basic logic

What are you building that doesn’t compete with Anthropic? (Using your brain competes with Anthropic) — major legal risk

How do we justify accepting the lack of privacy on Claude? Is it just for people doing FOSS? You’re cool with them reading your business codebase to verify you aren’t using your brain?

Given it is logically impossible to not compete with general intelligence, and that I expect private github repos to remain private, I feel forced to think Claude Code is a nerd snipe / bad joke / toy