Do you use coding agents from the terminal or from the app?
by•
I’m curious how people are actually using coding agents today.
Do you mostly use them directly in the terminal, or through an app/interface like Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, etc.?
What’s your preferred setup?
95 views
Replies
I usually prefer an app when I’m working on larger tasks. The visual context makes it easier to review changes.
@julian_ting2 Hmm understandable, but do you struggle with computer usage, because for myself i often find that the GUI consumes so much cpu and ram
@moss_ab_mirande_ney Yeah, I’ve noticed that too, especially when I have multiple apps or large projects open. For smaller tasks I’m fine with the terminal, but for bigger changes I still prefer the GUI because reviewing everything visually feels easier. It’s mostly a trade-off between performance and convenience.
i personally prefers the terminal version
An IDE, preferably Cursor or VS code
@mirak_dude Do you still take a look at your code, especially in vscode ?
@moss_ab_mirande_ney yes I do, I use AI for debugging and Understanding issues, on my code and direct it to follow the algorithmic flow
Terminal for anything touching more than about three files, IDE for anything I already suspect is wrong. That split isn't taste, it's about where the review happens. In the terminal the review surface is the diff, so I have to open git and actually read it. In the IDE the review happens as it types, and I've caught myself nodding along at changes I never really read. The RAM cost is real but it's the smaller one. The bigger one is that a terminal agent is much easier to leave running unsupervised, which is exactly how we ended up with adapters whose tests only checked our own output shape.
An agent assumes autonomous work? Without you being there 100% of the time? I don't trust it enough to do that. I work through Terminal because usually I have Android Studio, VS Code, and Xcode open (building a KMP app), and I need something that can oversee all of them.
the terminal hurts my eyes and the claude code app is pretty nice these days