Loved this roundup, Jeff! That's the workflow-first reality of AI-assisted dev, the ''best'' tool is almost always best for *this* workflow, with *this* person's habits. Big thank you for pulling this together and for including me 🤗
Interesting split - since I'm using Claude Code all the time, I just sort of assume that's what everyone else has gone to. I really need to pull Cursor back out for my next project, and probably try Codex for it.
Though I will say that for most of my business-related work, Claude now has so much context in my Claude Code setup that it'd be a bit annoying to switch. I definitely wonder how much that kind of thing will lead to people getting locked into one vendor or another, rather than actually choosing based on features/performance.
Jeff (and crew), this is a really useful format because it does the one thing most “AI tools for coding” posts refuse to do. It admits the tool matters less than the workflow.
The through-line I kept seeing is “interface preference drives everything.” IDE people want visibility and interception (Cursor). Terminal people want leverage and computer control (Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Qwen). Prototype people want speed to something shippable (v0, Lovable, Replit). Same destination, different steering wheels.
If you wanted to make this even stronger, I’d add a tiny cheat sheet at the top: pick your bucket, pick your first tool, and steal a starter workflow. Because most readers don’t need 14 opinions. They need one confident first step and one guardrail so they don’t ship nonsense.
Also, bless you for calling out how fast “best of” lists rot. Nothing ages faster than AI tool recommendations and milk left in the trunk.
This was great to read, thanks Jeff! Super curious - I’m not an engineer, but I use these tools regularly (more as internally-facing functions that help me with work/analysis).
Is it actually possible to replace full-stack developers and build a production-ready SaaS product and customer-facing tool without writing custom code, just by using these platforms? Curious on thoughts here and how building product/tech is changing.
Thanks for the inspiring post. Just wondered is there also any insights available coming from designers? what they prefer like cc +mcp+figma or Make or Uizard or.. Now the blog is quite focussed on developing tool.
Loved this roundup, Jeff! That's the workflow-first reality of AI-assisted dev, the ''best'' tool is almost always best for *this* workflow, with *this* person's habits. Big thank you for pulling this together and for including me 🤗
Amazing!
Glad to be part of this. And of course, Cursor rules! 🔥
So fun to read about everyone's workflows! Thanks for putting this together, Jeff!
Thanks for contributing!
So fun to see how differently people use coding tools! And glad I’m not the only one who favors Cursor.
Awesome, this is great Jeff, thanks for putting it all together! It’s very interesting to read about what’s working for everyone.
Thanks for contributing!!
Thanks for including me! It's always interesting to know what others are using.
Thanks for joining in! Loved hearing about some of the tools you’re using
This turned out great! It’s interesting to see how different everyone’s choices are and why. Thanks for pulling this together, Jeff.
Thank you Jeff for the opportunity! Great to be among these other amazing creators as well!
Thanks for sharing with us!
Good stuff man!
Thank you for the opportunity :)
Interesting split - since I'm using Claude Code all the time, I just sort of assume that's what everyone else has gone to. I really need to pull Cursor back out for my next project, and probably try Codex for it.
Though I will say that for most of my business-related work, Claude now has so much context in my Claude Code setup that it'd be a bit annoying to switch. I definitely wonder how much that kind of thing will lead to people getting locked into one vendor or another, rather than actually choosing based on features/performance.
At the very least, skills are an open standard and should be easy to duplicate to Codex. Curious to hear your thoughts if you try it out!
Jeff (and crew), this is a really useful format because it does the one thing most “AI tools for coding” posts refuse to do. It admits the tool matters less than the workflow.
The through-line I kept seeing is “interface preference drives everything.” IDE people want visibility and interception (Cursor). Terminal people want leverage and computer control (Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Qwen). Prototype people want speed to something shippable (v0, Lovable, Replit). Same destination, different steering wheels.
If you wanted to make this even stronger, I’d add a tiny cheat sheet at the top: pick your bucket, pick your first tool, and steal a starter workflow. Because most readers don’t need 14 opinions. They need one confident first step and one guardrail so they don’t ship nonsense.
Also, bless you for calling out how fast “best of” lists rot. Nothing ages faster than AI tool recommendations and milk left in the trunk.
100%! Workflow > tools
This was great to read, thanks Jeff! Super curious - I’m not an engineer, but I use these tools regularly (more as internally-facing functions that help me with work/analysis).
Is it actually possible to replace full-stack developers and build a production-ready SaaS product and customer-facing tool without writing custom code, just by using these platforms? Curious on thoughts here and how building product/tech is changing.
Love hearing real world experiences from creators. This is incredibly valuable.
Great write up with great suggestions from some awesome people 👌
I’m not in the engineering or computer worlds, but this was fun to read about.
Thanks for the inspiring post. Just wondered is there also any insights available coming from designers? what they prefer like cc +mcp+figma or Make or Uizard or.. Now the blog is quite focussed on developing tool.
Thanks🙏