I've been an IntelliJ IDEA user since the 1.0 release, which is quite a long time. My license is up for renewal, and lately, with Claude Code, I've been typing so much less that I've realized the old IDE model may not be the best for coding agentically.

So I tried a couple of terminal windows side by side, one for claude, and one for the command line, and it's not bad with vi, but it's tedious to track down whatever file Claude is modifying to do a diff.

So... what are people using with Claude Code to get work done?

New and confused. With cursor I can use any AI. If I use Claude code, then what? I don't have it yet just wondering.

Thanks to the many answers to my questions about Claude Code, I am now trying to evaluate the best approach. Since I already have a year subscription to CursorAI, and I also don't vibe code, but do a combo, I still need an IDE. So I have a couple of questions, is the best way to use Claude in Cursor via Claude plugin or use Kilo, and if I use Kilo, do I use their access to Claude or get my own API access? I would assume Kilo doesn't give me Claude CLI but Kilo has a ton of context keeping which is supposed to be superior to Claude code VS plugin. If I am going to spend $100/month on Claude I need to find the most optimal setup. 1) Cursor + Kilo + own API access and Claude CLI, 2) Cursor + Claude plugin + Claude CLI, or 3) Cursor + Kilo and pay for Claude Code through Kilo.

I’m trying different IDEs like VScode + RooCode+OpenRouter etc, Cursor, Claude Desktop, Vscode copilot. Currently have a few teams working on different projects on GitHub so I think I need MCP to help get my local environments up quickly so I can see the different projects. A lot of the projects are already live on linux servers so testing needs to be done before code is pushed.

How do you guys maintain multiple projects so you can provide feedback to your teams? Whats the best way to get an updated understanding on the codebase across multiple projects?

P.s Im also hiring devs for different projects. Python and JS mostly.

I originally was using Claude Code CLI in VS Code, but keep hearing great things about Cursor (and more recently Zed). I've tried switching to Cursor bur feel like I must be missing usage patterns that make it allegedly better.

I'd love to get advice - what are folks using IDE-wise with the Claude Code CLI and what works best (or doesn't)?

I’m exploring different IDEs to use alongside Claude AI for coding assistance and productivity. Whether it’s writing Java, Go, or working on general software projects—what IDEs or editors work best with Claude?

Would love to hear your setup or any tips to improve the workflow with Claude AI.

I am coming from an 5 years strike of using Jetbrains, I love the eco system, and got the subscription always as an employee free.

Recently I made a change and decided to develop my own thing. I had quit my job, and decided to go the way of an entrepreneur, and have my own thing that I started to work upon.

I haven’t utilized the power of AI while working as an employee, but I am curious to play with it and leverage my already existing skills, and I know I could profit from it.

I already decided on Claude Code with the max plan, looking in any direction screams currently that it is the best tool in the market.

And I am wondering what IDE to use with it.

Coming from Jetbrains, I would love to use Webstorm & DataGrip, but using it always through an employer put me currently on a new account with the highest fee tier (Webstorm would be 69$ a year and DataGrip would be 99$ a year).

Also, I decided not to go with individual packs, if I will go with jetbrains, I will take the all Products pack, that will put me in the loop for all future products, and I could use also Junie and AI Assistance, plus I could use IntelliJ instead of Android Studio. Talking with Jetbrains I got an offer for the all product pack for 260$ for the first year (next year would be the 231$ and then 173$ onwards from 3rd year).

I am wondering whether it is an overkill.

Yeah, sure, I really love having jetbrains, but it is expensive, and I am considering whether the benefits are worth the price.

I can go to VScode, yet I left it years ago and was happy with jetbrains as the replacement.

I could also use cursor, and possibly pay for the 20$ plan.

And as far as DataGrip goes, I never encountered a better solution. I work with Postgres, and yeah pgadmin and dbeaver are nice, but not as smooth as DataGrip.

My stack is React, Node, Flutter and Postgres.

What would you do in my shoes? Jetbrains eco system? cursor with subscription? or go less cost with vscode?

And what currently is your preferred IDE and DB tool together with Claude Code?

I am currently planning to upgrade my subscription from Claude Pro to Claude Max to fully utilize its capabilities.

My primary tasks revolve around automation work, involving multiple languages such as PowerShell, Batch, Bash, and Python.

While I notice that many developers rely on VS Code, I’m seriously considering switching to Cursor for my workflow.
The main reason is that with Claude integrated into Cursor, I would no longer need to manually copy and paste code from https://claude.ai/ into my windows notepad — instead, I could interact directly with Claude inside the editor, allowing it to automatically generate, modify, and improve the code within the development environment itself.

This approach could significantly streamline my workflow and improve efficiency across my automation projects.

I heard few days ago that Claude 3.7 was unavailable briefly on some IDEs. However. Is there any IDE available to use with it?

I'm still new to all this and have only used claude code, I just wanted to know what ide you use

I really don't like vs code and usually use jetbraisn the things you have to pay an extra 20 for it so I was just what you used

Switched from IDEs to Claude Code in terminal. Now I rarely use full IDEs - just command line and occasional direct code edits.

Anyone else made this transition? What's your experience been like?

Considring going back to the IDE, any good plugins or terminal IDE integrations to streamline working with Claude?

Hello 👋 By your experience, what's the best IDE / setup to get the most out of Opus 4.5?

So far I used Opus 4.5 mainly within Cursor AI IDE with astounding results. Yesterday I started to try to use it in Anti-gravity with some mixed results.

I used so far only the integrated chat of those IDEs and haven't tried the CLI now.

What's your setup? How do you get the best results?

• Claude Code $200 Plan

• Claudia (Claude Code UI is usable to if you need GUI to be web based, but Claudia is better imo)

• Context7

• Built in Claude Code fetch

• Good prompting, PRDs, mock-ups, and docs

You really do not need anything else

I’m struggled with the experience in windows 11 using wsl. I installed Ubuntu on virtualbox the experience was better but the lag was horrible. All of that couldn’t compare to my experience using Claude code and vscode on my MacBook. I ended up getting a Mac mini specifically to use with Claude code and the projects I’m working on.

What’s everyone’s preferred OS for coding and making the most of what’s possible with Claude code?

Feeling a little dumb and hoping someone can clarify the value proposition here.

For context, I'm a lifelong developer and comfortable in both IDEs and at the CLI.

I've been playing around with Cursor at $20/mo which interfaces with Claude and, although it gets weird sometimes, it's quite helpful, especially for small throwaway experiments that I tend to make a lot of. Well worth the price IMHO.

I'm now looking at Claude Code, with as I understand is included with Claude Max ("from" $100/month) or usable with a Claude API key.

My (limited) experience with Claude's API is that I can hit several dollars worth of usage VERY quickly, like within an hour or two. So, I would expect the cost of Claude Code via the API to be extremely high. I haven't tried, but I feel like I would blow through the equivalent of Cursor's $20/mo within a few days. Is this the case?

Using Claude Code via a plan like Max makes more sense, but it's still so much more expensive than a simple Cursor subscription.

So... what tips the scales for getting Claude Max vs. an IDE with an integrated agent? What justifies the substantially higher price?

I know and have experienced that Cursor gets kicked into the slow lane sometimes, but it still seems fast enough even then. It sure feels like having a more-or-less fixed-cost low-ish monthly subscription for what seems to be unlimited usage vs. something that "starts" at 5x more expensive and doesn't really even clearly spell out the usage limits.

I see that Claude Code can do operations at the CLI level but ... so does Cursor? I've had it move files around, refactor projects, etc.

I just feel like I'm missing something key here and would love to know what!

I'm not affiliated with any of these companies, just a confused user. Thanks in advance.

Claude Code just feels different. It's the only setup where the best coding model and the product are tightly integrated. "Taste" is thrown around a lot these days, but the UX here genuinely earns it: minimalist, surfaces just the right information at the right time, never overwhelms you.

Cursor can't match it because its harness bends around wildly different models, so even the same model doesn't perform as well there.

Gemini 3 Pro overthinks everything, and Gemini CLI is just a worse product. I'd bet far fewer Google engineers use it compared to Anthropic employees "antfooding" Claude Code.

Codex (GPT-5.1 Codex Max) is a powerful sledgehammer and amazing value at 20$ but too slow for real agentic loops where you need quick tool calls and tight back-and-forth. In my experience, it also gets stuck more often.

Claude Code with Opus 4.5 is the premium developer experience right now. As the makers of CC put it in this interview, you can tell it's built by people who use it every day and are laser focused on winning the "premium" developer market.

I haven't tried Opencode or Factory Droid yet though. Anyone else try them and prefer them to CC?

Hey all. I'm using Claude more frequently for longer codebases. Up until now, I have simply interacted with it via claude.ai chat console, but the codebase is getting too long and I am running up against the console's max output lengths. What applications can I use to work on longer codebases? (Note that I'm usually on a Mac.)

Thanks!

Hey folks, posting this here because I figured some of you might also be deep in the Claude Code rabbit hole like we are.

We built Dereference because we got sick of bouncing between Cursor, terminals, and random Claude chats just to get one feature shipped. The context-switching was killing our flow, and honestly, we knew we could do better.

So we built a prompt-first IDE, dereference.dev that wraps Claude Code’s raw power into something actually usable. Think: multiple sessions running side by side (like tmux, but smarter), clean UI, file views that don’t lose context, and zero-tab overload. Let me know what you guys think..

__

(edit) After a lot of dms we i have quick pointers:

* Windows version is coming soon, We are working on making it stable and would appreciate beta testers!
* Demo video can be found on PH: https://www.producthunt.com/products/dereference-the-100x-ide
* The feedback in the footer of the app goes directly to our github issues, so ask features & bugs :)

Anthropic pretty much killed Claude Pro plan. I can hit the session limit within 15-20 minutes. I am not paying the 5x premium for the next tier. I can't afford that

I tried switching to Gemini CLI, but it is a trash fire. It can't run shell processes concurrently, you can't add subcommands to allow list("git add",etc.) and it is overall not as good at understanding code.

I had to switch during an ongoing project. I am not a full stack developer. So I can't take it over myself. Are there any alternatives? I am willing to spend 2x

Since ChatGPT came out about a year ago the way I code, but also my productivity and code output has changed drastically. I write a lot more prompts than lines of code themselves and the amount of progress I’m able to make by the end of the end of the day is magnitudes higher. I truly believe that anyone not using these tools to code is a lot less efficient and will fall behind.

A little bit o context: I’m a full stack developer. Code mostly in React and flaks in the backend.

My AI tools stack:

Claude Opus (Claude Chat interface/ sometimes use it through the api when I hit the daily limit)

In my experience and for the type of coding I do, Claude Opus has always performed better than ChatGPT for me. The difference is significant (not drastic, but definitely significant if you’re coding a lot).

GitHub Copilot

For 98% of my code generation and debugging I’m using Claude, but I still find it worth it to have Copilot for the autocompletions when making small changes inside a file for example where a writing a Claude prompt just for that would be overkilled.

I don’t use any of the hyped up vsCode extensions or special ai code editors that generate code inside the code editor’s files. The reason is simple. The majority of times I prompt an LLM for a code snippet, I won’t get the exact output I want on the first try. It of takes more than one prompt to get what I’m looking for. For the follow up piece of code that I need to get, having the context of the previous conversation is key. So a complete chat interface with message history is so much more useful than being able to generate code inside of the file. I’ve tried many of these ai coding extensions for vsCode and the Cursor code editor and none of them have been very useful. I always go back to the separate chat interface ChatGPT/Claude have.

Prompt engineering

Vague instructions will product vague output from the llm. The simplest and most efficient way to get the piece of code you’re looking for is to provide a similar example (for example, a react component that’s already in the style/format you want).

There will be prompts that you’ll use repeatedly. For example, the one I use the most:

Respond with code only in CODE SNIPPET format, no explanations

Most of the times when generating code on the fly you don’t need all those lengthy explanations the llm provides before/after the code snippets. Without extra text explanation the response is generated faster and you save time.

Other ones I use:

Just provide the parts that need to be modified

Provide entire updated component

I’ve the prompts/mini instructions I use saved the most in a custom chrome extension so I can insert them with keyboard shortcuts ( / + a letter). I also added custom keyboard shortcuts to the Claude user interface for creating new chat, new chat in new window, etc etc.

Some of the changes might sound small but when you’re coding every they, they stack up and save you so much time. Would love to hear what everyone else has been implementing to take llm coding efficiency to another level.