Windsurf

Windsurf is an AI-native code editor built by Codeium, the company behind the free Codeium autocomplete extension. In January 2025, they rebranded their editor from 'Codeium Editor' to 'Windsurf' and positioned it as a direct competitor to Cursor. Both are VS Code forks with deep AI integration, but Windsurf takes a different approach to how the AI interacts with your code. The core feature is Cascade—an agentic AI system that doesn't just complete code but actively understands your entire codebase, makes multi-file edits, runs terminal commands, and iterates when something fails. Ask Cascade to 'add authentication to the API' and it reads your existing routes, creates auth middleware, modifies the relevant files, installs dependencies via the terminal, and runs your tests to verify. If tests fail, it reads the error output and fixes the issue. This is what Codeium means by 'flow state coding'—the AI handles the mechanical parts while you focus on the architecture. Windsurf also includes Supercomplete, which goes beyond standard autocomplete by predicting not just the next line but your probable next action. If you just wrote a function signature, Supercomplete suggests the implementation. If you just imported a library, it suggests the initialization code. The predictions are based on local codebase indexing—Windsurf builds semantic embeddings of your project so the AI understands your patterns, naming conventions, and code structure. Because Windsurf is a VS Code fork, your existing VS Code extensions, themes, and keybindings work. The Settings UI looks identical. The terminal, file explorer, and debugging tools are familiar. The difference is that AI is woven into every interaction rather than bolted on as an extension. For developers who tried GitHub Copilot in VS Code and wanted deeper integration, Windsurf and Cursor are the next step—and the choice between them comes down to pricing, model flexibility, and which agent approach you prefer.