Core Tools

The tools you choose shape your entire vibe coding experience. Pick the wrong one and you'll fight the tool instead of building your project.

Here's an honest breakdown of the major players.

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Cursor

How it works: You chat with AI inside your editor. It understands your entire codebase — not just the file you're looking at. You can ask it to refactor functions, add features, fix bugs, or explain code.

When to use it: You're a developer building a real project and want AI assistance without giving up control.

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Claude Code

How it works: You describe what you want in your terminal. Claude Code reads your project, makes changes across multiple files, runs commands, and iterates based on errors. It's like having a senior developer who works at 100x speed.

When to use it: You want the most capable AI coding tool and don't mind working in the terminal.

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Bolt

How it works: Describe your app, and Bolt generates a full-stack application with frontend, backend, and database. You iterate in the browser.

When to use it: You want to go from idea to working prototype in hours, not days.

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Lovable

How it works: Describe what you want or import a design, and Lovable generates a polished application. It blends design tools with code generation.

When to use it: You're validating an idea and want the best-looking result fastest — especially if you're not a developer.

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Replit

How it works: Write prompts, edit code, and deploy — all from the same platform. Replit's AI agent can build entire applications from descriptions.

When to use it: You're learning, experimenting, or want a quick environment without any setup.

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Codex by OpenAI

How it works: You give Codex a task — fix a bug, add a feature, write tests — and it spins up a cloud sandbox with your repo, makes the changes, and opens a pull request. It works asynchronously, so you can assign multiple tasks and review the results later.

When to use it: You want to delegate coding tasks and review results as pull requests — more like managing a junior developer than pair programming.

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Antigravity by Google

How it works: Describe your app idea, and Antigravity generates a working application using Google's infrastructure. It handles frontend, backend, database, and deployment — all within the Google ecosystem.

When to use it: You're already in the Google ecosystem or want tight integration with Firebase and Google Cloud services.

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My Setup: VS Code + Claude

Here's why this works better for me than the alternatives:

Why VS Code over the Claude app?

The Claude desktop app is fantastic for writing, research, and conversation. But for coding, you want the AI living inside your editor — not in a separate window where you're copy-pasting code back and forth.

In VS Code with Claude:

• Claude can see my entire project structure
• It can read and edit files directly
• I can review changes as diffs before accepting
• Everything stays in one place — no context switching

My actual workflow:

1. Open my project in VS Code
2. Use Claude Code to describe what I want to build or change
3. Review the suggested changes in the diff view
4. Accept, modify, or reject — then test
5. Commit with Git when it works

It's not the flashiest setup. But it's the one I actually ship with every day.

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Choosing Your Stack

There's no single best tool. Most effective builders use a combination:

Quick decision matrix:

Your situation	Best starting point
Non-technical, validating an idea	Lovable
Developer, want speed boost	Cursor
Advanced dev, complex project	Claude Code
Quick prototype needed	Bolt
Learning to code	Replit

The tool matters less than your ability to describe what you want clearly. That's the skill that transfers across all of them.