If you’re a software developer, you’ve probably used an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) like Visual Studio Code to write, test, and debug code.
Now imagine that same workspace, but with an intelligent assistant that does some of the work for you. That, in essence, is Windsurf. Let’s go over the essentials of this new AI tool.
What is Windsurf Editor?
To give you a quick idea, Windsurf is like a Visual Studio Code pumped up with AI on steroids. Technically, it’s a fork of VS Code, which means it takes the solid, open-source foundation of VS Code and adds new AI-powered functionalities.
What Makes Windsurf Different?
Windsurf’s standout feature is its autonomous AI agent, called Cascade, that can understand natural language, perform complex coding tasks, and interact with your project. Think about having a virtual programming buddy you can talk to and ask to do things.
This agent not only understands your commands but is also capable of chaining together several complex actions to achieve your goals, like:
- Read library documentation: You can ask it to search for specific information on the web or even pass it a repository link.
- Modify your code: It can help you refactor, add new features, or fix bugs.
- Manage your environment: It can create new folders or execute commands directly in your terminal.
💡This autonomous agent isn’t here to replace you as a programmer. Instead, it aims for an intelligent collaboration. You NEED to give them the context and instructions, MUST review its suggestions, and HAVE TO accept or decline the results.
The Tools Behind the Agent
To carry out these complex tasks, Windsurf provides its autonomous agent with a series of specialized tools:
🔍 Search & Discovery
- grep: Searches for text in files
- listdir: Lists project folders and files
- web search: Looks things up online
- embedding search: Finds semantically related content, even if you don’t use the exact same words
- MCP: Stands for Model Context Protocol. It allows the AI to safely use external tools (often built by third parties) by following a structured set of rules.
✏️ Editing & Modification
- make edit: Makes inline code edits
- add file: Creates new files
- and other requests
✅ Verification & Execution
- Runs terminal commands
- Executes tests or scripts to confirm things are working
How Does Windsurf Editor Work?
Windsurf’s workflow has three key parts:
- The Prompt: You give the instruction (prompt) to the agent through a conversational interface that can understand text, images, sound, and video.
- The Brain: The brain of Windsurf uses the LLM of your choice, interprets your instruction and determines what needs to be done.
- The Tools: Based on your prompt, the LLM learns to select and use the appropriate tools (read files, edit, search, etc.) to fulfill your request.
It’s important to understand that LLMs are probabilistic, meaning that given the same instruction, they won’t always generate the same response.
In the context of programming, where we seek precise results, this highlights the importance of clear human guidance and careful review of what the agent proposes. If your instruction is ambiguous, the result could be either useful or completely wrong.
What Windsurf Can (and Can’t) Do
Windsurf runs on different large language models (LLMs), like the ones behind ChatGPT or Gemini. These are foundational models trained on massive amounts of data, giving them broad general knowledge.
Each prompt uses “credits” that get renowned each month if you have a pro or enterprise plan. Be careful as more advanced models are more expensive and cost more credits per prompt.
However, they don’t know everything. If something wasn’t part of the training data, or if it happened after the model’s cutoff date (e.g., June 2024), the model won’t know it unless you tell it. This means it wont be able to use the latest version of some libraries so always ask the model “what’s the latest version of x” to double check.
Also, no AI model fully understands the current state of your code or documents out of the box. That’s why Windsurf uses the tools mentioned above to explore your project and understand it, just like a developer would.
Windsurf relies heavily on context, meaning what you’ve asked before, what files it has seen, and any information you’ve shared in the session. But it doesn’t “learn” new information permanently. For example, if you send it a link, it might use that content during the current conversation, but it won’t remember it afterward. It treats that as temporary context, not long-term memory.
Final Thoughts
Being among the first IDEs to fully integrate an autonomous AI agent, Windsurf offers a unique approach to coding. Used well, it can help you stay in flow, reduce context-switching, and explore solutions faster.
Ready to start programming with Windsurf? Check out our step-by-step guide and tips here.
