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User suggests that IDEs can become slimmer, requiring fewer plugins, particularly to facilitate reviewing AI-generated code and seeing overall changes more efficiently.
IDEs are not dying overnight. But they are losing their monopoly. A year ago, my entire AI-assisted workflow lived inside VS Code - chat panel open, Copilot inline, everything in one window. It felt like the endgame. It was not. Now Claude Code runs in a terminal. GitHub Copilot works in the terminal and inside the editor. Cursor, Windsurf, and other tools keep shipping new form factors. The trend is clear: AI coding tools are decoupling from the IDE. This is not a prediction. It is already happening. Recently, I coded a change for my training portal: added translations to the entire app in 40 minutes. Not a single manual line of code. No IDE open. I provided feedback on the generated code in the terminal until I was satisfied, and shipped. A year ago, I would never have imagined following a workflow like this. What caught me off guard is how hard the shift feels at first. I got comfortable with the editor-plus-chat-window model. Moving to a terminal-first workflow, or to a lighter app that is not exactly an editor, takes real adjustment. Muscle memory fights back. But clinging to a single tool is the riskiest move right now. The tool you master today might not be the best option three months from now. That is not instability, that is the new normal. This is what I have learned from this shift: - Tools are evolving on a monthly cycle now. Monthly. - Any workflow you build today has a shelf life. - The cost of clinging to one tool is higher than the cost of switching. This does not mean you should chase every new release. It means you should hold your tools loosely. Learn them well, but do not let them become your ceiling. The next big shift is not a new IDE. It is the realization that you might not need one. Adaptability is the skill that compounds from here. #SoftwareEngineering #AI #DeveloperTools #Adaptability