Cursor → Windsurf → VSCode + Claude → Warp → cmux → nvim + Claude Code
Short version of what didn't stick:- Cursor: felt like a worse VSCode with AI bolted on
- Windsurf: laggy enough to break flow
- VSCode + Claude extension: actually the best of the bunch for a while, but started feeling like overkill once I realized 90% of what I used was the editor + chat sidebar
- Warp: opinionated block UI and telemetry never sat right
- cmux: lags unbearably, and I ended up babysitting parallel agents more than coding
Dropped all the way down to nvim with Claude Code as a sidebar and that's been the stickiest by a wide margin. Feels closer to pair programming than to orchestration or autocomplete.
Current stack:
- Ghostty (native splits, no multiplexer) + moonfly theme
- zsh + Starship, zoxide/eza/bat/fd/rg, fzf history
- Neovim on kickstart.nvim with lualine, neo-tree, telescope
- Claude Code as an nvim sidebar, via subscription (not API)
Dotfiles: https://github.com/Doldrums/dotfiles
Questions:
1. Anyone else went through the carousel and came back to a plain editor? Or did one of them actually stick?
2. Sidebar chat vs inline Cursor-style vs ghost autocomplete which mode of AI actually helps you ship?
3. For people still on VSCode + Claude extension, am I missing something by dropping to nvim, or is it really just taste?
4. Anything I haven't tried that I should? Helix, Zed, Aider, Continue, I keep seeing these mentioned but haven't made the jump.
What did you try that didn't stick?