Death of the IDE?

6 hours ago

The center of developer work is shifting from traditional IDEs to supervising AI agents that can plan, rewrite files, run tests, and propose changes.
New tools like Cursor's Glass, Conductor, Claude Code Web, GitHub Copilot Agent, and Jules emphasize agent orchestration as the primary interface, with the editor becoming secondary.
The new developer workflow involves specifying intent, delegating tasks to agents, observing progress, reviewing diffs, and merging changes, rather than continuous line-by-line editing.
Key patterns in agent orchestration include work isolation (using git worktrees), task state as the primary UI, background agents, attention management for parallel agents, and integration into the software lifecycle.
While IDEs are not obsolete, they are being de-centered, with developers spending more time supervising and reviewing agent work rather than typing code directly.
Challenges with agent workflows include review fatigue, governance overhead, and the need for deep inspection in cases where agents are 'almost right' but subtly broken.
The future may see IDEs evolving into subordinate tools for targeted inspection and debugging, while orchestration surfaces become the primary workspace for developers.

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