Ask HN: Which AI Dev Assistant Are You Using and Why?
4 KaranSohi 12 7/2/2025, 5:24:27 PM
It feels like almost every week a new AI dev assistant is being launched. Like GitHub Copilot and Tabnine did few years ago I feel like some of these tools are becoming a part of my daily coding life.
That said, it’s becoming really confusing and hard to stick to one or few tools, whether it’s a VS Code extension (my preferred setup) or an IDE like Cursor or Windsurf.
Right now, I’m getting decent results from combining Windsurf and Copilot in VS Code. It helps with quick code rewrites and generation, and speeds up my commit cycle.
But I’m curious, what are others using? Have you found a setup that meaningfully boosts your productivity, especially with existing/legacy code, or you still prefer not using any code assistant, if so then why?
If you haven't tried Claude Code yet, it takes like 30 seconds to install and get started and shows its value very quickly.
Perhaps I just haven't found the right combination of plugins, but I can't for the life of me get VSCode code navigations (go to, find definitions, refactor method, etc) to work half as well as a JetBrains IDE (much less get a debugger working).
You have use your own LLM key (eg. Claude) though. The great thing about this is they have a live cost tracker so you only pay for what you use.
My favorite thing about using this is a feature called AutoMode. I can give a detailed prompt and it can build a complete app (create directories etc) without any supervision. By time I return, the app is done. The debugging effort is pretty low too
They don't do anything I couldn't but they keep my momentum from dying when I get annoyed/distracted/frustrated which is a game changer.
Thanks for replying this was really insightful :)