I spent 6 months trying code editors

Robinson learned Vim motions and built a Neovim setup with Neovim Kickstart during parental leave. He enjoyed customizing it and created a mini-course, “Vim for React Developers.” The experience also gave him a new appreciation for VS Code’s language support and visual Git tools.

Neovim’s configuration occasionally broke, and maintaining it became a distraction when he needed to work. Zed offered a polished daily interface and strong Vim mode. Robinson found its visual Git tools and AI composer less mature than he wanted, though he saw the team making progress.

Cursor felt familiar because it builds on the VS Code foundation, and Robinson liked its autocomplete and Composer agent workflow. He found it useful for smaller changes and getting oriented in unfamiliar code, but said results in large codebases often needed more guidance. He also demonstrated Cursor connecting to a Vercel MCP server to list team projects, with authorization.

Robinson plans to keep using Cursor, especially for its autocomplete, imports, and AI interaction design. He still values Neovim and Zed, and says he may try Windsurf next. He sees editor tools and AI capabilities continuing to change quickly.