A GUI IDE is great for local development, but it quickly falls apart when you transition to headless servers, low-power client machines, or remote clouds.
If you pair an AI agent like Antigravity CLI with a native-first Neovim configuration, you can bypass complex setups entirely. Since the AI assistant is the one doing the heavy writing, refactoring, and saving of files, you don't need to be a Vim keyboard wizard to use Neovim. The editor simply becomes a fast, native terminal pane for inspecting the code and reviewing git diffs.
By pairing the two, you can build a modern, high-performance workspace built on native features that runs perfectly in any terminal.
Here is the backstory of how we ended up with this setup, and why going native-first in Neovim became our preferred remote development tool.
My 10-year-old MacBook Pro recently had its screen break. It still works fine, but it is now permanently anchored to my desk with an external monitor. Buying a new laptop is too expensive right now, but I have an iPad that I use when traveling.
