💻 Coding with AI

GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot is an AI coding assistant built directly into VS Code and JetBrains IDEs. It suggests whole lines or functions as you type, explains code on demand, generates tests, and has a chat interface for complex refactors. At $19/month it is one of the highest-ROI developer subscriptions available.

• Copilot integrates directly into VS Code and JetBrains IDEs
• Generates code completions, tests, and documentation inline
• Studies show Copilot users complete coding tasks 55% faster on average

Did you know? GitHub reports that 55% of code in new files is now written by Copilot in repos where it is enabled — more than half of new code is AI-generated.

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Cursor Editor

Cursor is a VS Code fork built around AI from the ground up. Unlike Copilot, it can read your entire codebase and answer questions about it, make multi-file edits in one command, and generate complete features with context from your whole project. Many engineers in 2026 use Cursor as their primary IDE.

• Cursor reads your whole codebase for context-aware suggestions
• Multi-file edits in one command — change architecture, not just lines
• At $20/month it is many engineers' primary IDE in 2026

Did you know? Cursor reached $100M in annual revenue in under two years — the fastest-growing developer tool ever, built by a team of 20 people.

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Claude for Code

Claude 3.5 Sonnet consistently tops coding benchmarks — SWE-bench (resolving real GitHub issues), HumanEval (code generation accuracy), and internal engineering evals at major companies. Its 200K context means it can read an entire large codebase and reason across all of it.

• Claude 3.5 Sonnet leads SWE-bench and HumanEval coding benchmarks
• 200K context window can hold an entire medium codebase
• Preferred by many senior engineers for complex architectural tasks

Did you know? Anthropic reported that Claude 3.5 Sonnet can resolve 49% of real GitHub issues automatically — without any human intervention.

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AI-Assisted Testing

One of the highest-value AI coding use cases is generating tests. Give AI your function, ask for a comprehensive test suite, and get full coverage in seconds. This removes the friction that causes most engineers to skip testing — AI makes TDD dramatically easier to practise.

• AI can generate complete test suites from a function in seconds
• Dramatically reduces the friction that leads to skipping tests
• Enables real TDD: write the test prompt first, generate both test and code

Did you know? Studies show developers using AI for testing write 2× more test cases per hour — and higher-coverage tests — than those without it.

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Code Review with AI

Paste a diff or function into Claude and ask for a code review: security issues, performance problems, edge cases, and style suggestions. AI catches 60-80% of the issues a human reviewer would find, in seconds. Use it before every human review to level up code quality.

• AI code review catches security issues, edge cases, and style problems
• Use before human review to catch obvious issues instantly
• Claude and GPT-4 find 60-80% of issues a human reviewer would find

Did you know? GitHub found that AI code review reduces the average pull request review cycle time by 40% — speeding up the whole engineering pipeline.