Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code, usually called VS Code, is the most widely used code editor among developers. It is light enough to open quickly yet has what most people need: syntax highlighting, a debugger, integrated terminal, Git support, and a huge extension marketplace that adds languages, linters, themes, and tools. The core is open source, and it runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It also has a browser version, and remote development features let you work inside containers, over SSH, or in cloud environments.

AI is now a built-in part of it. GitHub Copilot offers inline code suggestions as you type, a chat panel that can answer questions about your project, and an agent mode that can plan a task, edit several files, run terminal commands, and fix errors it runs into. VS Code also supports the Model Context Protocol, so agents can connect to outside tools and data sources, and you can use models from different providers. Many other AI coding tools, including Cursor and Windsurf, started as forks of VS Code, which is a sign of how much of the ecosystem is built on it.

The editor itself costs nothing. Copilot has a free tier with limited use and paid plans for heavier use and teams. The official downloads from Microsoft include telemetry and some proprietary parts, which is why community builds such as VSCodium exist for people who want a fully open-source binary. Compared with full IDEs like IntelliJ or Visual Studio, VS Code does less out of the box and relies on extensions, which can mean more setup but a faster, more flexible editor.