Three tools, one job
A terminal agent, an editor agent and a browser chat. The important difference is what each one can see and do.
There are three shapes of AI tool and you will use all of them this week.
A terminal agent runs inside your project folder. It can open and change files, run commands such as installing a package or starting the server, run tests, and then read the output.
An editor agent lives inside your code editor. Same abilities, different feel: you watch each edit land in the file in front of you and accept or reject it.
A browser chat is a tab. It has never seen your project and cannot run anything. It knows only what you paste.
That last one is not a lesser tool. It is simply built for a different job. For a concept question, a browser chat is often the best choice because it is quick, usually free, and does not need access to your project.
Work the picker below through all five tasks. You are not learning a product; you are learning two questions that decide every one of them.
Which tool, for which job
The button does nothing when clicked.
It can read the file, change it, run the dev server and check the error came back clean: the whole loop without you relaying anything.
- sees
- every file in the folder, and can open more as it needs them
- runs
- can run your commands
- edits
- edits files directly and shows you the diff
Same loop, and you watch each edit land in the file you are looking at. Usually the most comfortable way to fix something small.
- sees
- the open file, the selection, and files it is pointed at
- runs
- can run your commands
- edits
- edits in place, with accept and reject per change
You paste the code, it suggests a fix, you paste it back and try it. Three manual steps per attempt, and it never sees whether the fix worked.
- sees
- only what you paste into it
- runs
- cannot run anything
- edits
- hands you text to copy back yourself
Debugging is a loop. A tool that cannot run the code has to borrow your hands for every turn of it.
Every verdict above comes from two questions: can it read your files, and can it run your commands. There is no best tool. There is a job, and a tool that can or cannot see it.
You should now be able to
- Say what each of the three tools can and cannot reach
- Pick the right one for a given task without deliberating
- Explain why a browser chat cannot help with a twelve-file change
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