Try Cursor. I’m serious.

I'm sure it's good, but that's not what I'm asking about.

I personally use the Zed editor AI assistant integration with Sonnet for anything AI-related, while using a JetBrains IDE for coding / code reading, side-by-side.

I haven’t found anything comparably good for JetBrains IDEs yet, but I’m also not switching to something else as my main editor.

I use IntelliJ as my main coding tool but also use VSCode and Sublime text. If you have access to local LLMs or have an API key for some the Continue Plugin (basically Cursor but can use in IntelliJ) is the Best of the Best for IntelliJ (IMO). I have a box running some local models including Phind and StarCoder (plus some small embeddings) and have been super happy with the end product. The next up is Google Gemini Code Assist has been the best of the IntelliJ (non-configured) AI tools I have tried. There are better ones out there but IMO not for IntelliJ. It's still free for a few more weeks and I have been using it since the free release, fun to use. Can pre-prompt, say you are an expert XXX, please be funny, fill in the rest of your regular prompts. The Co-Pilot I use for work is very limited and will only answer coding questions. I tried to tell it that it was my coding buddy, and its name was Phil and told me it cannot have a personality or be funny. I believe the paid personal Co-Pilot allows you to choose which LLM it uses (I cannot confirm). The Phind VSCode plugin works really well. Also, the Phind coding models are on par with some of the other big ones and free if you have a subscription (or run locally). Sublime is around to open those GIG+ files as VSCode chocks and not worth the RAM of opening another IntelliJ.

Each task / programming language / query requires trying different LLM models and novel ways of prompting. If it's not work-related (or work pays for the one you use) sending as much of the code as relevant also helps the answers be more useful.

Most of the people I meet that say LLMs are not useful have only tried one (flavor / plugin), do not know how to pre-prompt or prompt, and do not give the tools a chance. Try one or two things, say yep, it's not good and give up.

Still hard for me to admit that Prompt Engineering is a profession, but it's the same as Google Fu. Once you learn it you can become an LLM Ninja!

I do not believe LLMs are coming for my job (just yet) but do believe they are going to be able to replace some people, are useful and those that do not use them will be at a disadvantage.

Github copilot plugin is decent. It's not going to write a whole app for you, but it accelerates repetitive stuff, can give suggestions you didn't think of or save you a trip to the documentation.