Which ChatGPT tools are best for software development?

Question

Which ChatGPT tools or wrappers are actually worth the money for software dev because I am honestly so fed up with the vanilla web interface lately. It keeps cutting off my code blocks right in the middle of a function and when I hit continue it just repeats the first half or hallucinates some weird library that doesn't exist. I am trying to finish up a full-stack site for a local animal shelter here in Chicago and I've got a hard deadline by this Friday so the clock is ticking and I am just wasting time copy-pasting stuff back and forth. Its so frustrating when it forgets the context of a component I literally just explained ten minutes ago. I looked into Cursor and some other VS Code extensions but I dont know which ones are actually legit versus just hype. I have a budget of maybe 40 bucks a month for tools if it actually saves my sanity and speeds up my workflow. Is anyone using something like Cody or maybe just a specific API wrapper that handles large files better? I need something that wont choke when I feed it more than 50 lines of code at once... it's just getting impossible to work like this.

IsleOfWightSails · Accepted Answer

> I looked into Cursor and some other VS Code extensions but I dont know which ones are actually legit versus just hype. Cursor AI Code Editor Pro is the most reliable choice right now. It indexes your codebase locally, so it understands your project structure instead of guessing. Since it uses the API directly, it doesnt cut off mid-code like the web UI. It is a stable fork of VS Code, so your workflow stays consistent while fixing those context issues. Its a solid tool.

hxiixufrjk · Answer

I went through this exact same headache last year while rebuilding a legacy CRM. The vanilla browser version is basically a toy once you get past a single file... it just loses the plot. I spent three hours debugging a ghost variable that the web UI swore was in my index file but actually never existed. tbh it was a nightmare. I switched to specialized extensions and it saved my neck. Look into these two:

Sourcegraph Cody Pro Individual Plan - its context fetching is miles ahead of the web chat because it scans your whole repo for relevant snippets.

Continue.dev VS Code Extension - this is great because you can hook up Anthropic Claude 3.5 Sonnet API which is honestly beating GPT-4o at complex logic right now. Setting these up takes five minutes. Since you have that animal shelter deadline, let one index your files and youll stop seeing those cut-off functions.

Davidlof · Answer

Honestly, I feel your pain. I had issues with the vanilla interface for months, and unfortunately, it is just not as good as expected for actual production work. It is way too easy for the context window to drift when you are dealing with a full-stack project. Since you have a deadline on Friday, sticking with browser-based tools is just going to keep costing you hours in debugging time. Since others already mentioned the usual suspects, here are two alternatives that actually handle project-level context properly:

Continue extension. It is open source and lets you plug in your own API keys. I use it with OpenAI GPT-4o because it keeps the context window local to your IDE and doesn't hallucinate as much when referencing multiple files.

Windsurf. It is a newer agentic IDE that feels much more reliable than standard wrappers. It tracks your terminal state and file changes way better, so it actually remembers what you did ten minutes ago. It has been a lifesaver for my recent React projects. Save your sanity and switch to one of these before your deadline. Good luck with the shelter site.