What an IDE is actually for in the agent era: diffs, tests, docs and context
Sam_Witteveen · x · 2026-11-05
Replying to JetBrains' blog on the future of IDEs, Sam Witteveen lists what he actually uses an IDE for these days: reviewing diffs to see what the agent changed, navigating code, running tests (and checking they actually test something), reading the docs the agent wrote, and giving agents better context than grep can.
The list sketches a new division of labor: agents write the code, humans verify, navigate, and feed context.
Related event: JetBrains argues the IDE still matters in the agentic era(4 posts)→
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