Recently I’ve been playing around with AI-generated code to create some simple prototypes. Mainly, I’ve used Gemini 3 pro (web interface, no API), for one-shot code generation and for the first time I’ve been impressed. Additionally, in the last VSCode update, I left copilot active, and I must say it is somewhat helpful (although at times also annoying). Now, I’m wondering, from those of you that have developed a workflow where you have AI-code-generation integrated, what tools do you use? What LLM providers delivers you the best results? I have no GPU, and programming is not my main job (that is, every few weeks or so, I need to write code for several days), so I prefer something that does not require any heavy upfront investment in time/infrastructure. Anyone using Helix editor?
I have not really tried any of the AI integrations into editors or IDE's so cannot make comparative statements. Rather I have been using the Warp terminal that has an AI "mode", as it were. Basically you chat with your AI in the same terminal you use to interact with your OS. You can select from a bunch of different models to use.
I started playing with Warp terminal because I heard it was written in Rust and was super fast, turned out to be an excellent terminal, the AI integration is a bonus that turns out to work really well.
I heard that "Gemini-CLI" and GPT Codex are useful for working with larger projects in the terminal. Now there is also Gemini Conductor. I think ClaudeAI has a similar tool, but it uses not their latest AI Opus 4.5 for the cheap 20 $ subscription. I am subscribed only to Gemini and OpenAI (20$ each), and intend to test them soon. I think the Zed editor has also AI integration.
As a terminal-centric user, Claude Code works very well. The £15/month Pro plan provides access to both the Sonnet (faster) and Opus (smarter) models. A year ago coding models struggled with Rust compared to Python or JS, but the current generation can work effectively with it.
Are you sure that Claude code supports their latest and biggest model Opus 4.5? Some weeks ago I was going to subscribe additional to the Claude $20 plan. But I finally have not done it, as it was reported that Opus 4.5 needs the $100 subscription. Claude code is really good, but GPT 5.2 and Gemini 3.0 should be close. And I think Gemini-CLI can be used without a paid subscription!
I’m sure because I’ve been using it yesterday and today on the Pro plan.
So, you are all basically using CLI tools, nothing like roo code or similar. And you are using the “big boys” models, no DeepSeek, Mistral, etc. Interesting.
I have been using claude code, it's pretty helpful for generating trivial code, even non-trivial things too if you know what you want it to do (I mostly just use it to generate tests/benches/docs etc because I am too lazy, and don't have enough time to add these anyway :'D). But gets very confused when working on more complex problems (like concurrency, proc-macros etc). It's noticeably better at writing python, js, ts, go etc compared to rust. But seems to be getting better at rust too, but uses older patterns that aren't idiomatic/current anymore.
I personally use Claude Code or Codex from the terminal. I find that Claude is \much better with slightly more ambiguous prompts because it asks follow-up questions, but if I write 5 KB of a detailed plan and just throw it at Codex, it'll probably spit out some very good code in about 20 minutes.