Ask HN: How do you use Vim in the era of AI?

I started using Neovim - AstroNvim specifically is pretty good - to keep my hands on the keyboard at all times, of course, but also to scroll through Claude Code's output in a terminal using vim motions, read the code it's outputting and the oftentimes overly verbose explanations it's giving.

Most of all, Neovim is helping me keep an eye on the code I develop at all times, and helping me keep writing code manually as well. It think it's especially important to be mindful about what we're doing these days because we're at risk of all becoming vibe coders as the AI assistants improve.

In essence, this is how: hjkl, G, gg, $, 0, w, b, e, <leader>e, <leader>o, <leader>ff, <leader>fw, /, dd, dw, grr, ]b, [b, :w, :q, :wq ... :)

How are you a heavy vim user if you wonder if vim makes sense with ai? There are so many things to do outside of writing code that vim is used for.

Also neovim + claude code + open terminal pane in tmux is the goated combo anyway. Especially more lately you need to understand the code you are writing if you want to do anything important in software, and the best way to do that is neovim :)

I wrote my own neovim AI harnesshttps://github.com/dlants/magenta.nvim

And wrote about my thoughts on the relevance of nvim here https://dlants.me/ai-whiplash.html

It's been many months, and I thoroughly prefer my harness inside of nvim as my day to day development environment. Using Claude code or cursor makes me feel very removed from the code.

Exploring code, gathering context and tweaking prompts/giving guidance to the agent are very much enhanced by neovim.

The biggest boon has been the fact that agents make customizing neovim a lot easier. Writing new bindings, config, and even building novel plugins.

Here's a few that I built that fit into my workflow:

- a tool for reviewing commits / branches / wip. https://github.com/dlants/glean

- an iterative grepper https://github.com/dlants/shuck

- a file picker that renders in your current window (like oil) and uses more intelligent signals for ranking (like frecency) https://github.com/dlants/needle

Use it to write and edit code when that makes sense for you to do so. Just like you always have. It's an extremely useful skill to have even still.

I've had much more success with agents reviewing my code and offering inline autocomplete over LSP than I have with letting the agents write the code, which I then try to review. I end up with a much better mental model of the code and higher quality output than either I or the agent could do alone.

"how do you use an ax in the age of AI"

Exactly the same as I used it on the age of frameworks, the age of Java and .NET, the age of compilers, the age of ...: you take it by the helve and swing the business end towards the object.

I use jj vcs and now most of my time is spent reading the code, so I use diffview.nvim (https://github.com/sindrets/diffview.nvim) with some customizations for jj to read diffs. I also use the snacks picker/explorer to search for code.

(Neo)vim is setup wonderfully for this era. Im with Justin on the take that neovim can replace tmux soon literally all that is left is being able to restart terminal sessions on restart (which is even set as a goal for summer of code).

Neovim can already have all the agents running in different terminal buffers or there are plugins popping up every day to have deep integrations with your favorite or we even have some interesting harnesses that are unique to neovim like sidekick.

As always, the ability to compose small tools and edit any file allow neovim to stay relevant and more powerful than ever in my opinion while not forcing workflow changes like the others

It makes sense even more. If you never enter "insert" mode, you still have powerful navigation and overview capabilities. `*`, `#`, n/p, :set fdm=indent + zM/zR, gf/gx, :bp, the venerable `}/{` pairing, and simply `C-n/C-p` while composing prompts can be useful.

AI + Prompting can get you there, but it's still fairly laggy. Honestly, VSCode (aka: Cursor) w/ the vim plugin, and `F2-rename` has been the sweet spot for me. Reviewing diffs with `git diff | view -` and browsing them with vim is another useful.

:wq

like normal?

but i don't use ai to write code for me -- i use it as a companion thing where i ask questions and then, instead of asking for code, i implement everything myself.

it keeps me sharp and helps me understand the lastest ai stuff.

I use vim and claude code (fable) inside of herdr.

I can jump to one tab look at the code, jump back over and talk to claude for a little.

I can spread this all across several projects using herdrs workspaces.

I still write code when it makes sense.

Sometimes i annotate the code with comments, hop back over and ask the LLM to consume the annotations i just added and make changes.

Sometimes i ask the LLM to analyze lots of code, and come up with a plan of attack for me, then i go implement it myself.

For Personal projects I write much more of the code myself still, because i enjoy it. For work, i do whatever gets the best outcome most efficiently.

I see a lot of valid points, so let me specify better: now that the way we write code drastically changed, did you change anything in your vim setup? Like plugins, habits, anything?

Right now I'm using TMUX with Claude Code and Vim side-by-side, but I mostly use vim to look at the code and make small changes, while I review the code changes directly on GitHub PRs.

And yes, I admit I look at the code less than before. For as much as I'd like to say it's untrue, I'm increasingly spending time in crafting skills to make sure they don't break the code, trusting the Coding Agent more and more, and consequently looking less at the code itself (which it doesn't mean I don't know how it works, I am in a sort of "reviewer mode" as a coworker writes it, with additional care and attention ofc).

So yeah I was wondering how did it change for you and if you think it still makes sense (it's my understanding that the agreement is "yes" apparently, with which I tend to agree!)

I've barely touched Intellij for the last half year or so. I rarely edit code manually at this point. I also did not renew my subscription and am back on the community edition.

I've noticed that my preferences for tools and languages is shifting as well. I'm happy to work with stuff that I previously would have not touched now because it would take me too long to get up to speed with languages, frameworks, etc. That stuff no longer blocks me from being productive. I still care about code quality, good design, etc. but a lot of that stuff doesn't require me to micro manage a code base. In the rare case I want to open something in an editor, I use vs code. I've removed a lot of the plugins in that as I'm not really using them any more.

I actually do reach for vi on the command line sometimes. But I've never been very good with it. I know how to do simple edits and save the file. I just never really got into it. I memorized a handful of key bindings somewhere in the nineties and that's it. I know some people that live in this editor and swear by it but for me it's just something that's there by default that is vaguely useful in a pinch if there's nothing else.

You're not looking at the code?

Tmux with vim as a 50% split, I’ll run an agent in a quarter split.

I have neovim hooked up to a local llama.cpp (through lemonade) for completion, but I have not found a plugin that I’m happy with. Avante is probably the closest because you can give inline instructions, but it both got very very heavily and stopped working with small LLMs so I uninstalled it. I’m using minuet currently.

Usually I keep terminal split open with the agent side by side and make edits by hand where needed or for reviewing the code. Inside the vim itself I have a small plugin that you can feed a block of text with the comment instructing LLM what to do. It then replaces the text with the result of execution. Super useful for small edits here and there that don't require full session. I also have preconfigured neoterm float with the pi agent, that allows me to jump into the session right away.

I run claude cli inside nvim as my main ide. It is 3 pane: nvim-tree/editor/agent terminal + popup terminal, I switch M-1/2/3/4 between those. ~700 lines of lua config. It has editor sync on agent writes, auto format hooks for claude, os alerts, resume claude session, and usual vim telescope/lsp/gitgutter.

Quite satisfied with that, haven't opened vscode/zed in a while. Making something like that is easy with LLMs now.

I don't think anything has changed for me regarding my vim usage. Previously, I would use vim to make simple changes in the code or configuration files, making larger changes in VS Code. Now, with agents, I never need to make larger code changes manually so I completely ditched VS Code, but I keep using vim in the same way as I did before: for small changes which I want to make manually, for editing configs, or as a scratchpad.

Moved on to vis a few years ago and never looked back to vim/neovim. Granted, it doesn't have all the sparkles of the former, but it's way leaner and snappier - and you can tell there's no ai in it.

https://github.com/martanne/vis

I switched from using Vim as my primary editor to using Zed's Vim Mode. When you have a second process editing your project in the background you need an editor that can display those changes immediately without clunky buffer reloads.

I've also customized Zed's UI to optimize for reading and reviewing code, and mostly adding notes or small focused edits, rather than writing entire files from scratch.

On about day 2 of using Fable I realized that the .vimrc I'd been maintaining for 15-20 years would probably never change again.

With Opus I still feel like I'm pair coding and want to get in there and make some changes myself, but working with Fable (even Fable managing Opus agents) had me in a completely different mindset, one where I realized I would just be getting in the way.

I use Emacs more in the era of AI than I did prior.

I'm writing less code, but I'm reviewing more code. And I use magit in Emacs for reviewing code.

And I run my agents inside my emacs. I use my emacs like most others use tmux -- my emacs session is persistent and I connect with emacsclient.

I am sort of a no UI (except browser) user for a very long time now, and vim is still incredibly useful.

Granted, the language servers are getting dusted, but it's much nicer to write goals in markdown in vim and send it to LLM in a self-written harness CLI; and even look at the results in the same way. All unix. LLM is just the latest toolbox addition.

i use vim quite a bit! I find that in this new era, i'm in the command line a lot and like to stay in the command line. vim (I use neovim) is a good way to do that.

Furthermore, a lot of my workflow is now done on remote servers (i love exe.dev) where claude code is sandboxed to an extent (it can still cause damage, just not to my main computer's file system). When I'm configuring those, i have a setup script that installs all of my vim files just the way i like them, so vim behaves exactly the same on a remote server as it does locally. I can edit things as needed. I can also access claude code on those servers as well. So working on my remote machine feels a lot like workin locally [1].

[1] I'm aware that i can setup cursor or vs code to access SSH servers, but it's just not as easy and doesn't feel as natural, IMO. There's something i like about needing to call `ssh remote-server` first.

I did a write-up at https://blog.miloslavhomer.cz/vibing-with-french-models-in-n....

It really can be a fancy auto complete, but more agentic usage moved out of the editors (and I think that's a good thing).

I usually have tmux with two tabs - one opencode one neovim (and a third for cli )

Definitely not a vim power user though. I just like writing markdown spec-ish prompts and opencode simplistic input box isn’t ideal for that

Hasn't changed at all since AI agents became a thing. tmux, nvim with a few plugins, mainly fzf and LSP support. If I do use an AI agent, I just run it in another tmux window.

I still use Vim, but totally different from before. I don’t care about efficient movement/editing bindings. All I use it for now is navigating and viewing files.

^G in Claude and Codex will drop you into $EDITOR to edit your prompt. I use that all the time.

"vimdiff" is a really great way to review code changes side-by-side.

I use it to write instructions, obviously. I thought everyone was using C-g on Claude Code

I have my own coding harness (std::slop), in that i focus on a vim centric flow. Basically a few commands open. up my $EDITOR which is vim.

1. /edit => opens in editor

2. /feedback => opens the last llm message in an editor so i can inline feedback. Think inline responses in email vs bottom posting.

3. /review => same as /feedback but opens up the diff so i do an inline review. Yes I still read the code it ships.

So basically in this flow vim becomes integral to doing anything involved.

copilot.lua, CodeCompanion when I want in-editor agents (hooked up to OpenCode), OpenCode web for most everything else. Neovim works fine in OpenCode web's terminal too.

Funnily enough, I have my agent use vim sometimes.

I prefer commits to be granular to the extent that I manually edit the patch in git add -p, albeit rarely. So I have a pty plugin that my agent literally sends control codes to. This is also useful in general for LLMs driving any interactive terminal program. Long live text, I guess.

Vim helps me ground my AI usage to my workflow. It is so pleasurable to edit text with Vim that it keeps me writing skeletons for the AI to fill according to my design instead of delegating design to the AI.

Vim/Neovim have only grown more powerful in the age of AI, not less. I am certain that even 30 years from now developers will still be using some form of vim.

I’m not using any AI. A lot of us aren’t. Vim has done me well for 30 years so I’m not going to throw that away to sharecrop on someone else’s land.

The intersection of people who like vim and ai is basically nil