IDE
An editor bundled with project tooling — file tree, terminal, debugger, language server — for writing software.
Definition
An Integrated Development Environment combines a code editor with the surrounding tools a programmer needs: a project view, an integrated terminal, a debugger, a Git client, and language-aware autocomplete via LSP. Common IDEs include VS Code, Cursor, the JetBrains family, Neovim with plugins, and Xcode. Modern AI coding assistants like Claude Code integrate with these IDEs through extensions.
When to use
See also
- LSP — Protocol letting any editor talk to any language's analysis backend — defines completion, hover, go-to-definition.
- VS Code — Microsoft's free cross-platform code editor, the most widely used IDE for general-purpose development.
- Cursor — An AI-first code editor forked from VS Code that integrates LLM completions, chat, and agent loops natively.