Void: Open-source Cursor alternative

Back in 2023 one of the cursor devs mentioned [1] that they first convert the HTML to markdown then do n-gram deduplication to remove nav, headers, and footers. The state of the art for chunking has probably gotten a lot better though.

[1] https://forum.cursor.com/t/how-does-docs-crawling-work/264/3

Use gemini-2.5pro or sonnet3.5/3.7 or gpt-4.1

Be as specific and detailed in your prompts as you can. Include the right context.

And Zed: https://zed.dev

Yesterday on the front page of HN:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43912844

Claude Code (neither IDE nor extension) is rapidly gaining ground, it's biggest current limitation being cost, which is likely to get resolved sooner rather than later (Gemini Code anyone?). You're right about the right now, but with the pace at which things are moving, the trends are honestly more relevant than the status quo.

[0]https://github.com/jj-vcs/jj

edit: ahh just saw that it is also a fork of VS Code, so it is indeed OSS Cursor

Context switching is not the bottleneck. I actually like to go away from the IDE/keyboard to think through problems in a different environment (so a voice version of chatgpt that I can talk to via my smartwatch while walking and see some answers either on my smartglasses or via sound would be ideal… I don’t really need more screen (monitor) time)

At it's most basic, agentic mode is necessary for building the proper context. While I might know the solution at the high level, I need the agent to explore the code base to find things I reference and bring them into context before writing code.

Agentic mode is also super helpful for getting LLMs from "99%" correct code to "100%" correct code. I'll ask them to do something to verify their work. This is often when the agent realizes it hallucinated a method name or used a directionally correct, but wrong column name.

1) Authority (whatever a prominent evangelist developer was peddling)

2) The book I was following as a guide

3) The tutorial I was following as a guide

4) The consensus of the crowd at the time

5) Whatever worked (SO, brute force, whatever library, whatever magic)

It took a long ass time before I got to throw all five of those things out (throw the map away). At the moment, #5 on that list is AI (whatever works). It's a Rite of Passage, and because so much of being a developer involves autodidacticism, this is a valley you must go through. Even so, it's pretty cool when you make it out of that valley (you can do whatever you want without any anxiety about is this the right path?). You are never fearful or lost in the valley(s) for the most part afterward.

Senior engineers are not necessarily old but have the experience to delegate manageable tasks to peers including juniors and collaborate with stakeholders. They’re part of an organization by definition. They’re senior to their peers in terms of experience or knowledge, not age.

Agentic AIs slot into this pattern easily.

If you are a solo dev you may not find this valuable. If you are a senior then you probably do.

I actually flip things - I do the breakdown myself in a SPEC.md file and then have the agent work through it. Markdown checklists work great, and the agent can usually update/expand them as it goes.

Now that I think about it, I might have only ever used agents for searching and answering questions, not for producing code. Perhaps I don't trust the AI to build a good enough structure, so while I'll use AI, it is one file at a time sort of interaction where I see every change it makes. I should probably try out one of these agent based models for a throw away project just to get more anecdotes to base my opinion on.

I know some folks like using the terminal, but if you like Claude Code you should consider plugging your API key into Void and using Claude there! Same exact model and provider and price, but with a UI around the tool calls, checkpoints, etc.

https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/30/y-combinator-is-being-crit...

Edit: asked gemini2.5 to make the script for you. Copy, chmod and run. (maybe check if I am not trolling you first).

#!/bin/bash

echo "Cursor AppImage Desktop Integration Script" echo "-----------------------------------------"

# --- Configuration --- # Default application name DEFAULT_APP_NAME="Cursor" # Directory to store AppImages APPIMAGE_DIR="$HOME/Applications" # Directory for .desktop files DESKTOP_ENTRY_DIR="$HOME/.local/share/applications" # Directory for icons (optional, if you want to copy the icon) # ICON_DIR="$HOME/.local/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps"

# --- Ensure target directories exist --- mkdir -p "$APPIMAGE_DIR" mkdir -p "$DESKTOP_ENTRY_DIR" # mkdir -p "$ICON_DIR" # Uncomment if you choose to copy icons to a standard path

# --- Get AppImage Path --- read -e -p "Enter the full path to your Cursor AppImage file: " APPIMAGE_PATH

if [ ! -f "$APPIMAGE_PATH" ]; then echo "Error: AppImage file not found at '$APPIMAGE_PATH'." exit 1 fi

# --- Get Application Name --- read -p "Enter the name for the application menu shortcut (default: $DEFAULT_APP_NAME): " APP_NAME APP_NAME=${APP_NAME:-$DEFAULT_APP_NAME}

# Sanitize APP_NAME for use in filenames (lowercase, no spaces) DESKTOP_FILE_BASENAME=$(echo "$APP_NAME" | tr '[:upper:]' '[:lower:]' | tr -s ' ' '_' | sed 's/[^a-z0-9_-]//g') if [ -z "$DESKTOP_FILE_BASENAME" ]; then DESKTOP_FILE_BASENAME="cursorapp" # fallback fi

# --- Define Target AppImage Path --- # Use the sanitized app name or the original AppImage name for the stored file # For simplicity, let's use a generic name like AppName.AppImage TARGET_APPIMAGE_NAME="${APP_NAME}.AppImage" TARGET_APPIMAGE_PATH="$APPIMAGE_DIR/$TARGET_APPIMAGE_NAME"

# --- Move and Prepare AppImage --- echo "Copying AppImage to '$TARGET_APPIMAGE_PATH'..." cp "$APPIMAGE_PATH" "$TARGET_APPIMAGE_PATH" if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then echo "Error: Failed to copy AppImage." exit 1 fi

echo "Making AppImage executable..." chmod +x "$TARGET_APPIMAGE_PATH" if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then echo "Error: Failed to make AppImage executable." # Consider cleanup or proceed if non-critical for .desktop creation itself fi

# --- Get Icon Path (Optional) --- ICON_ENTRY="Icon=$DESKTOP_FILE_BASENAME" # Default icon name, system might find it if themed read -e -p "Enter the full path to an icon file (e.g., .png, .svg) (optional, press Enter to skip): " ICON_PATH

if [ -f "$ICON_PATH" ]; then # Option 1: Use the direct path in the .desktop file ICON_ENTRY="Icon=$ICON_PATH" echo "Using icon from '$ICON_PATH'."

    # Option 2 (More advanced, if you want to copy it to a standard location):
    # ICON_FILENAME="${DESKTOP_FILE_BASENAME}.png" # Or get extension from ICON_PATH
    # cp "$ICON_PATH" "$ICON_DIR/$ICON_FILENAME"
    # if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    #     ICON_ENTRY="Icon=$DESKTOP_FILE_BASENAME" # Or $ICON_FILENAME without path if in theme path
    #     echo "Copied icon to '$ICON_DIR/$ICON_FILENAME'."
    # else
    #     echo "Warning: Could not copy icon. Will use direct path if available or default."
    # fi

# --- Create .desktop File --- DESKTOP_FILE_PATH="$DESKTOP_ENTRY_DIR/${DESKTOP_FILE_BASENAME}.desktop" echo "Creating .desktop file at '$DESKTOP_FILE_PATH'..."

cat > "$DESKTOP_FILE_PATH" << EOF [Desktop Entry] Version=1.0 Name=$APP_NAME Comment=AI Powered Code Editor (AppImage) Exec="$TARGET_APPIMAGE_PATH" --no-sandbox %U $ICON_ENTRY Terminal=false Type=Application Categories=Development;IDE;TextEditor;Utility; StartupWMClass=Cursor # Often helps with icon association in docks/taskbars. May need adjustment. EOF

# Try to guess StartupWMClass if possible (more advanced, requires running the app and using xprop) # For Cursor, "Cursor" is a likely candidate. If window grouping issues arise, this might need to be # identified using a tool like `xprop WM_CLASS` on an open Cursor window.

if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then echo "Error: Failed to create .desktop file." exit 1 fi

# Make .desktop file readable (and executable for user, as some guides suggest) chmod u+rwx "$DESKTOP_FILE_PATH" # User read, write, execute chmod go+r "$DESKTOP_FILE_PATH" # Group and Other read

# --- Update Desktop Database --- echo "Updating application database..." update-desktop-database -q "$DESKTOP_ENTRY_DIR" # -q for quiet

echo "" echo "-----------------------------------------" echo "Success!" echo "'$APP_NAME' should now be available in your application menu." echo "If it doesn't appear immediately, you might need to log out and log back in or restart your desktop environment." echo "" echo "To launch, you can now search for '$APP_NAME'." echo "The AppImage is stored at: $TARGET_APPIMAGE_PATH" echo "The desktop shortcut file is: $DESKTOP_FILE_PATH" echo "" echo "If you encounter issues with the icon not showing up, ensure the path in '$ICON_ENTRY' is correct or place an icon named '${DESKTOP_FILE_BASENAME}.png' (or .svg) in ~/.local/share/icons/ or a system icon theme directory." echo "-----------------------------------------"

exit 0

Did you mean to say a debugger? That one has an open alternative (NetCoreDbg) alongside a C# extension fork which uses it (it's also what VS Codium would install). It's also what you'd use via DAP with Neovim, Emacs, etc.

Over the years I have gotten better with vim, added phpactor and other tooling, but frankly i dont have time to futz and its not so polished. With VSCode I can just work. I don't love everything about it, but it works well enough with copilot i forgot the benefits of vim.

It'd be a security nightmare if it was more popular, but fortunately the community hovers around being big enough for serious work to be done but small enough that it's not worth writing malware for.

Also litellm

"Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

But I do stand by the point. We are seeing umpteen of these things launched every week now, all with the exact same goal in mind; monetizing a thin layer of abstraction between code repos and model providers, to lock enterprises in and sell out as quickly as possible. None of them are proposing anything new or unique above the half dozen open source extensions out there that have gained real community support and are pushing the capabilities forward. Anyone who actually uses agentic coding tools professionally knows that Windsurf is a joke compared to Cline, and that there is no good reason whatsoever for them to have forked. This just poisons the well further for folks who haven't used one yet.