From Copilot to Cursor to Claude Code for VS Code: My Journey to the Optimal Setup

Introduction

There is a flood of AI coding tools. GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Claude Code, Cline, Continue... There are so many options that it is hard to know what to use.

I wandered through them quite a bit myself.

I eventually settled on VS Code + Claude Code Extension + MAX Plan, but it took a lot of trial and error and money to get here.

For those who are similarly lost, I will write down why I settled on this configuration.