which was just released two weeks ago
Codeium was founded by Varun Mohan and Douglas Chen, graduates of MIT. In August 2024, Codeium announced the completion of a $150 million Series C funding round, valuing the company at $1.25 billion, making it a unicorn in the AI coding assistant space. Investors include well-known venture capital firms such as Kleiner Perkins, Greenoaks, and General Catalyst.
Today, I will give a brief introduction to the Windsuf tool. After I delve into it for a while, I will share specific usage experiences.
Windsurf Editor: Born for the "flow" state
Windsurf Editor is a programming environment that truly integrates developers with AI, offering a smooth experience that feels almost like "magic."
The design goal of Windsurf Editor is to enable AI to collaborate with humans in the most natural way possible. In Windsurf, AI is endowed with an unprecedented combination of capabilities:
Deep codebase understanding Powerful tool integration Real-time awareness of operations within the editor
. It is an upgrade to the traditional chat model, designed to keep developers in a state of "flow" at all times.
Use cases
Let's look at the case first, original post
1. The best AI programming experience
“It's a beautiful experience, so well done.”
includes the following functions:
Frontend and backend architecture Database and authentication system Integration of frontend frameworks
cooperate to complete tasks:
Cascade accurately captures the intent of requirements and provides practical solutions. Pause on key issues to ask developers, ensuring the final outcome meets expectations.
2. Create an application with a single command
“I just built an app with 1 prompt.”
Rapidly build a complete application. From front-end to back-end, no manual operations are required, greatly improving development efficiency.
3. Generate a typing game from prompts
“This new AI tool builds full applications from just a description.”
and all the following operations are completed:
Generate necessary files Install required libraries Launched the complete application
4. Next-generation AI programming
“Super Cool!”
Built, and specifically optimized for AI programming.
5. Create a brick game within 2 minutes
“really was a ✨magical✨ experience.”
is also very friendly. Within just 2 minutes of registration, Windsurf helped developers generate a complete brick-breaking game, which was truly a ✨magical experience✨!
6. Proxy mode + automatic file context selection
"The competition in the AI editor space is really intense 😇."
Programming requires less foundational knowledge than before; as long as you know how to ask questions (be the client 😇), you can really get started.
7. Users are switching to Cascade in large numbers.
“I'm Considering a Full-Time Switch”
Cursor has been experiencing frequent issues recently, including:
Changes cannot be applied correctly in Composer Unexplained file deletion Random timeout phenomena
The performance was outstanding and impressive 🔥.
8. A concise and clear design
“I'll try more use cases to explore its full potential.”
the Windsurf,
Windsurf offers a completely different experience: Windsurf can understand the context of all code in real-time, assisting with smarter development.
9. A transparent and practical programming experience
“I thought @cursor_ai had set the standard, but I'm impressed. Wow.”
Especially commendable:
Clearly presenting the issues Providing intuitive and practical solutions
10. In-depth understanding of codebases and context awareness
“Better Cursor alternative?”
The newly launched AI IDE —— Windsurf, has made an impressive impression. Here are a few areas where it stands out:
Codebase Understanding: Windsurf excels in understanding codebases and dependencies, which directly enhances the quality of the generated code, with very noticeable results. Context Awareness: Windsurf achieves true context awareness; it knows every change the developer makes in the editor. Even without additional prompts from the developer, it can automatically identify and respond. Reflection and Iteration: It is capable of reflecting on its own generated code and attempting to iterate and optimize it. This process of self-improvement is simply a "magical moment".
The video above uses Windsurf to build a PDF converter SaaS product.
What makes Windsurf Editor the first "AI Agentic IDE"?
Flows: A New Paradigm for AI-Human Collaboration
Windsurf Editor introduces an entirely new concept ——
Flows = Agents + Copilots
advantages:
AI can assist users in real-time like a collaborative assistant, helping to solve problems and provide suggestions.
AI is not only an assistant, but can also independently handle complex work tasks, relieving developers of tedious details.
This means that Windsurf not only understands your needs, but can also stay synchronized with you at all times, and even take the initiative to solve problems for developers ahead of time.
Cascade's core capability: reshaping the development experience
It is the soul of Windsurf Editor, and its powerful features make it an ideal tool for developers. Below are its core capabilities:
1. Full context awareness
to operate within production codebases while providing highly relevant suggestions, whether for a single code file or an entire project.
2. Suggest and execute commands
The provided toolkit integrates the following functions:
Actively recommends commands you may need and allows direct execution, improving efficiency. Quickly identify issues in the code and provide intelligent debugging solutions, saving time.
3. Automatic task承接
it can remember your workflow and seamlessly pick up where you left off when you restart. No need to repeat operations, making every coding session more efficient.
4. Multi-file editing
it supports efficient multi-file editing:
Understand the global context of the code and ensure that changes remain consistent across multiple files. AI-assisted step-by-step code optimization to help you complete complex tasks.