Cursor

Cursor is an AI-native code editor built as a VS Code fork, so your existing extensions and settings work out of the box. Where it diverges from VS Code is depth: every editing surface has AI built in. Tab completion predicts multi-line edits using your codebase as context; Chat reads your entire project; Agent mode plans and executes multi-file changes with terminal access. Cursor lets you route between Claude, GPT, and Gemini models per task, and includes cloud agents that keep working in the background on long-running tasks. Its Composer feature coordinates changes across many files at once, which is what makes it the daily driver for developers who want AI everywhere without leaving the IDE. Cursor's appeal is that it meets developers where they already are and then layers genuine agentic capability on top. Rather than copy-pasting between a chat window and an editor, you work inside one cohesive environment where the AI understands your project structure, conventions, and open files. The agent can take a feature request, explore the relevant code, propose a plan, and implement it across multiple files — running commands and tests along the way. Model flexibility means you can pick the best model for each job, and background agents let long tasks like large refactors continue while you move on to something else. For developers who want the most deeply integrated AI coding experience without abandoning the VS Code ecosystem, Cursor has become the reference point. It trades the zero-cost entry of pure autocomplete tools for a subscription, but in return delivers an end-to-end agentic workflow that many professional engineers now consider their primary editor.