Vibe Coding with Windsurf IDE

Published: at 12:03 PMSuggest Changes

Windsurf IDE: The AI-Powered Web Dev IDE

Windsurf is essentially VS Code with Codeium’s AI capabilities baked in (Codeium Windsurf: 100x Engineering Starts Now). It retains the familiar feel of VS Code (including support for most extensions you need) but adds a suite of AI-driven “superpowers” to turbocharge development. It’s like having a junior developer who works at superhuman speed and never needs a coffee break.

There are great alternatives, such as Cursor IDE, but I tend to default to Windsurf IDE to build diverse projects—including Sitecore XM Cloud implementations and Next.js headless websites as I find it somewhat easier to use. It’s lightweight, fast-loading, and offers seamless context switching between coding, AI-assisted chat, and commands (Why Windsurf is the Best Free AI Code Editor You’ve Never Heard Of - DEV Community).

Its standout feature, Cascade, deeply understands my codebase and effortlessly manages complex, multi-step tasks—such as scaffolding new components or refactoring code across entire projects (DEV Community). Combined with powerful AI tools like Autocomplete, Supercomplete, Chat, and Command, Windsurf turns solo coding into vibe coding—intuitive, productive, and genuinely enjoyable (Codeium Windsurf: 100x Engineering Starts Now).

Here’s a refined, engaging rewrite with slightly more concise wording, maintaining key details and incorporating your specific experience:

Key Features That Streamline Web Development

Cascade AI Agent

At Windsurf’s core is Cascade, an AI assistant deeply integrated into your workflow (Windsurf - Cascade). Easily switching between Chat mode (for quick clarifications) and Write mode (where it actively updates code), Cascade accelerates your dev tasks dramatically. A simple natural-language request—like “Create a new Next.js page fetching blog posts into a grid”—instantly generates components, fetch logic, and styling (Windsurf - Cascade), saving considerable coding time.

Cascade’s real strength lies in context-awareness. It tracks recent changes, automatically understands file structure, and handles refactors intelligently—no manual context needed (Windsurf - Cascade). It can even access built-in search or web docs as needed. For solo devs, especially on complex Sitecore XM Cloud and Next.js projects, Cascade feels like an always-available, supercharged coding partner.

Tip: Start small (like optimizing functions), review Cascade’s diffs carefully, and incrementally delegate larger tasks. You’ll soon experience smoother, faster, and more enjoyable development (Codeium Windsurf).

AI Autocomplete and Supercomplete

Windsurf’s Autocomplete significantly speeds up coding by offering intelligent, context-aware suggestions as you type (Codeium Windsurf: 100x Engineering Starts Now). Just type a few characters, and it instantly predicts relevant code snippets or entire functions, ideal for quickly handling repetitive or boilerplate tasks common in web development—particularly with frameworks like Next.js or Sitecore XM Cloud. Accept suggestions easily with a tap of the Tab key, or simply keep typing.

Going a step further, Supercomplete anticipates your higher-level coding goals by analyzing your project’s broader context and patterns. When building standard web patterns—like fetching data or managing state in Next.js apps—Supercomplete intuitively provides larger chunks of boilerplate, reducing manual effort (source). This proactive assistance cuts down repetitive work dramatically, making web development smoother and genuinely enjoyable.

In-Editor Chat and Command

Windsurf’s in-editor Chat feels like having a StackOverflow expert right in your IDE. Unlike generic chatbots, it understands your actual project context, referencing your code directly (with permission) to give tailored answers. This means fewer browser searches for Next.js or Sitecore XM Cloud docs, fewer distractions, and more uninterrupted coding flow (source).

The built-in Command mode further automates repetitive refactoring tasks. Simple prompts like “Convert all ES5 functions to ES6 arrow functions” or “Wrap selected logic into a reusable React hook” trigger instant, intelligent code transformations across your files. It’s essentially a powerful, AI-driven find-and-replace tool, ideal for solo developers who juggle multiple technologies or frameworks like Next.js and Sitecore XM Cloud.

Finally, Windsurf integrates error handling directly into its workflow. Errors from your terminal feed directly into Cascade, providing immediate context-aware troubleshooting. Recent updates made this even smoother, automatically capturing console errors and suggesting fixes on the fly (Windsurf Changelogs). This dramatically reduces debugging headaches, keeping you focused and productive.

Integrated Terminal and Previews

Windsurf enhances web development with an integrated terminal and its new Preview feature, both deeply connected to the Cascade AI assistant. While integrated terminals aren’t unique, Windsurf’s AI integration makes a difference. For example, running npm run dev for Next.js or jss start for Sitecore XM Cloud projects directly within the IDE allows Cascade to monitor your terminal outputs. Encounter a build error or failing test? Cascade can instantly analyze and help debug it, keeping context switches minimal (Windsurf Terminal Integration).

The newly added Previews feature goes even further, embedding a live view of your running app directly in the editor (Windsurf Changelogs). You can select problematic UI elements—like a broken React component or CSS issue—and send their code or console errors straight to Cascade for immediate context-aware troubleshooting. In practice, I’ve found this significantly accelerates iterative debugging and development, turning traditionally tedious tasks into effortless interactions. This tight integration between design, coding, and debugging dramatically boosts productivity and makes coding sessions far more enjoyable.

In-Editor Enhancements: Autocomplete Imports, Auto-linting, and More

Windsurf’s thoughtful features remove friction from everyday coding tasks. Tab-to-Import intelligently handles dependency imports as you type, suggesting inline imports that you can accept instantly—no manual lookups or breaking flow to recall module paths (Windsurf Changelog). This seemingly small feature saves significant mental effort, especially when working extensively with React components or complex Next.js structures.

Additionally, Cascade automatically integrates your project’s ESLint or Prettier rules into its code suggestions, ensuring every snippet matches your exact coding standards from the start. Think of it as a built-in code reviewer, proactively catching stylistic inconsistencies or trivial formatting mistakes before they hit CI or pull-request reviews (source).

Other productivity boosts include Suggested Actions, which gently nudge you towards logical next steps like running the app or adding tests (Neowin). You can even drag-and-drop files directly into the Cascade chat, allowing it to analyze JSON responses or images for generating accurate parsing logic or markup. These in-editor refinements remove tedious manual tasks and let solo developers maintain momentum, enhancing both speed and quality.

Using Windsurf in Next.js / Sitecore XM Cloud projects

Windsurf truly shines when handling the predictable patterns and boilerplate of Next.js development. For example, when creating a new page, I can simply instruct Cascade: “Add a Next.js page at /about with getStaticProps fetching data,” and instantly get a working prototype with the routing, API fetch logic, and even initial styling. Sure, it might need tweaks—but the time saved is huge, especially when navigating Next.js conventions like dynamic routing ([id].js, [...slug].js) and static generation methods.

Cascade also directly integrates Next.js documentation (Chat with Next.js), making targeted assistance easy without manual searches, significantly streamlining my workflow.

Setting up a Next.js site with Sitecore XM Cloud involves substantial boilerplate and integration challenges (Sitecore JSS initializer). Windsurf simplifies this dramatically. After running the initializer, I asked Cascade, “Explain the structure of this Sitecore JSS Next.js app,” and it provided an instant overview of key files and configurations. For integrating new components, I simply provide the JSON from Sitecore, and Cascade generates corresponding React components, suggesting the right mappings for Sitecore’s component factory.

Moreover, Windsurf’s built-in understanding of Sitecore’s Layout Service (How Sitecore XM Cloud and Next.js Work Together) means it can help me quickly wire JSON data into my pages without digging through documentation or trial-and-error coding.

A particularly exciting possibility is Windsurf’s MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration, allowing Cascade to use external knowledge bases like custom Sitecore schemas or internal documentation (Windsurf Wave 3 MCP Integration). While I haven’t fully explored custom MCPs yet, even the built-in intelligence has greatly enhanced my workflow.

Providing rules to Windsurf

I was getting the way Windsurf was generating code that I didn’t ask for, not following the best practices, guidelines, and just plain hallucinating things. Rules is an answer to that - you can guide your AI Assistant with rules that can be configured globally on per-project basis. I tend to use project-specific rules for different projects, because different projects need different rules.

Here’s an example set of rules I took from this YouTube video: Vibe Coding Tutorial and Best Practices

# Technical stack

- Python for the backend
- html/js for the frontend
- SQL databases, never JSON file storage
- Separate databases for dev, test, and prod
- Elasticsearch for search, using elastic.co hosting
- Elastic.co will have dev and prod indexes
- Python tests

# Coding workflow preferences

- Focus on the areas of code relevant to the task
- Do not touch code that is unrelated to the task
- Write thorough tests for all major functionality
- Avoid making major changes to the patterns and architecture of how a feature works, after it has shown to work well, unless explicitly instructed
- Always think about what other methods and areas of code might be affected by code changes

# Coding pattern preferences

- Always prefer simple solutions
- Avoid duplication of code whenever possible, which means checking for other areas of the codebase that might already have similar code and functionality
- Write code that takes into account the different environments: dev, test, and prod
- You are careful to only make changes that are requested or you are confident are well understood and related to the change being requested
- When fixing an issue or bug, do not introduce a new pattern or technology without first exhausting all options for the existing implementation. And if you finally do this, make sure to remove the old implementation afterwards so we don't have duplicate logic
- Keep the codebase very clean and organized
- Avoid writing scripts in files if possible, especially if the script is likely only to be run once
- Avoid having files over 200-300 lines of code. Refactor at that point
- Mocking data is only needed for tests, never mock data for dev or prod
- Never add stubbing or fake data patterns to code that affects the dev or prod environments
- Never overwrite my .env file without first asking and confirming

How to Add Rule Files in Windsurf IDE

To add rule files in Windsurf IDE:

  1. Create a markdown file with your rules (e.g., my-stack.mdc or coding-rules.mdc)
  2. Place this file in your project’s root directory or in a dedicated .windsurf folder
  3. The IDE will automatically attach and reference these rules when making suggestions
  4. You can specify which files should automatically attach to specific rules using the “Auto Attach” feature, as seen in your screenshots with patterns like *.tsx, src/config/**/*.json, *Test.cpp, ...

When creating rule files, organize them by category (technical stack, workflow preferences, pattern preferences) to make them easier to reference and update. The IDE will use these rules to guide its suggestions and avoid deviating from your established patterns.

Conclusion

In an era where solo developers are often expected to deliver results on par with full teams, Windsurf IDE is truly a game-changer. Its AI-driven workflow—including the Cascade agent, intelligent chat, and context-aware commands—feels like having a tireless teammate always ready to help. You can confidently build end-to-end websites faster, while maintaining high-quality code thanks to built-in best practices (auto-linting, suggested actions) and immediate answers to complex questions (Codeium Wave 4 Announcement - Neowin) (Windsurf Changelogs).

Speaking personally, tasks that used to take days now take hours, thanks to Cascade’s instant assistance. Recent updates like Wave 4 and Windsurf Next, featuring live Previews and smarter task automation, continually push the boundaries of IDE capability (Windsurf Wave 4 Updates). Coding feels adventurous again, with AI proactively keeping me unstuck, confident, and consistently productive.

If you’re a solo developer or small team looking to boost your efficiency and creativity, I highly recommend exploring Windsurf IDE. Start small, experiment with Cascade’s powerful features, and watch how quickly it becomes essential. It’s not about replacing human creativity—it’s about equipping yourself with a powerful, enjoyable tool that amplifies your abilities.

References & Further Reading

Next Post
A Company of One