Vibe Coding Apps I Actually Use: A Day in My Headphones

Quick plan (so you know where I’m going):

Morning setup: Raycast, Zed, Endel, Hue lights
Deep work: Zed vs. Cursor, plus Warp terminal
Midday curveballs: iPad fixes with Working Copy and Textastic
Fun stuff: Play.js for quick Node tinkering
Who these apps fit best, and what bugged me

Need the TL;DR? The whole cheat-sheet lives over here.

So… what’s a “vibe” coding app?

For me, it’s an app that makes code feel calm, fast, and a little fun. It keeps me focused. It gets out of my way. And yes, it looks nice without trying too hard. If you want a structured walkthrough of what that really means in practice, my hands-on vibe-coding guide breaks it down with real code snippets.

I code on a 14-inch MacBook Pro (M2 Pro) at a small desk by a window. I wear AirPods Pro. I keep a cheap LED strip behind my monitor. It’s not fancy. But the vibe matters. It keeps me in the chair. (If you're hunting for even more gear, here's my take on the vibe-coding tools that keep me in flow.)

Here’s what I actually use, every week.

Morning setup that sets the mood

I start with Raycast. It’s a launcher. I hit Command+Space (well, my custom hotkey), type “zed,” and boom—Zed opens my main repo. I also run Endel in Focus mode. It’s soft, not sleepy. No lyrics. I set my lights in the Philips Hue app to “Arctic Aurora.” Cool and clean. Is it silly? Maybe. But it works. Need something that meshes better with design flows? Here's what a month of vibe-coding inside Figma felt like.

Zed: my main editor when I want speed

Zed is my default on macOS now. It’s quick. File switch is instant. Search feels snappy. The editor never stutters on my machine, even with big TypeScript projects.

Stuff I like:

The themes look smooth. I use “Moonlight” or “Espresso.” JetBrains Mono, size 13.
The command palette is fast. I live in it.
Multi-cursor editing feels crisp.
Live collaboration is built in. I used it last week to pair on a nasty reducer. We even used the voice room. It worked fine over my home Wi-Fi.

Stuff that bugs me:

Extensions are fewer than VS Code. Tailwind hints are not as rich.
Python language server froze on me once. I had to restart the server from the status bar. Not hard, still a hiccup.

Real moment: I built a small SvelteKit landing page in Zed. Hot reload was smooth through my dev server. I switched branches a lot, and Zed kept up. No weird lag. I didn’t think about the tool. That’s the point. For a head-to-head with another minimalist editor, my week with Base44 highlights where Zed still wins.

Cursor: my “help me fix this” buddy

Cursor is the VS Code fork with AI baked in. I don’t live in it all day. I pop it open for refactors.

Best part: I select a mess of code, press a hotkey, and ask, “Please convert this class to React hooks.” It edits the file, shows a diff, and keeps comments clean. Two weeks ago, it helped me replace a homegrown date helper with Day.js across three files. It also added one unit test stub. Nice touch.

Gripes:

It uses more CPU on my Mac than Zed. My fans spun up during a long context run. Not loud, but I noticed.
It sometimes guesses the wrong files to include. I had to point it at the right folder and retry.

I treat Cursor like a coworker who’s great at grunt work but needs clear tasks. When I do that, it shines. If you’re curious how far that AI partnership can stretch, read about the week I let an AI “CEO” steer my coding decisions.

Nova: polished, cozy, very Mac

Nova by Panic has a sweet feel. I use it for small static sites and SFTP work. Their built-in publish tool is a gem. I connect to a tiny VPS, hit “Save,” and it ships the file. No terminal. No rsync script. If you work with simple stacks, this is comfy.

Downsides:

TypeScript support is fine, not great.
The plugin scene is smaller. I miss some tools I use elsewhere.

Still, when I’m doing plain HTML/CSS and a sprinkle of JS, Nova feels like a tidy desk. Everything in reach.

Warp: the terminal that doesn’t make me squint

Warp chunks each command into “blocks.” I label long runs like “seed db” or “deploy canary.” It helps me find things fast later. The AI command search is handy, too. I once typed, “Show me how to tail only error logs from pm2.” It gave me a clean command with a short note. Saved me a trip through man pages.

Quibbles:

You need an account to use all the features. Not everyone will love that.
On one heavy day, GPU usage spiked while I scrolled a huge log. It settled after a restart.

Still, Warp keeps my terminal clean, readable, and… kind. That’s rare. For a flashier, GPU-powered alternative, I recently wrote a hands-on review of Bolt that might be up your alley.

When life tosses a curveball: coding on my iPad

This part is not theory. It saved me on a Saturday. That kind of on-the-go flexibility is also why I spent 30 days exploring vibe-coding jobs—the flexibility pays off when real life intrudes.

I was at my kid’s soccer practice with my iPad Air and Magic Keyboard. A client pinged me about a z-index bug that hid a dropdown behind a header. I used:

Working Copy for Git. I pulled the branch, made a new one, and opened the file in…
Textastic for editing. Syntax highlight, fast scroll, no drama.

I bumped the z-index, added position rules, and saved. Back in Working Copy, I pushed and made a quick commit message. There was a small merge conflict later that day. Working Copy’s 3-way diff view is tight on an iPad screen, but it worked. I merged, tested, done.

Notes:

Working Copy is rock solid. I pay for it. Worth it.
Textastic is fast and simple. No terminal, though. It pairs well with a remote server, but on iPad, you’re not running full dev stacks.

One snag: Git LFS on a big media repo gave me trouble last month. I had to finish that one on my Mac.

Play.js: quick Node tinkering on the couch

Play.js lets me run Node on iPad. I used it to mock a small API for a school tool. axios installed fine. Express worked. A few npm packages with native bits didn’t. That’s the catch. Still, for little demos or teaching moments, it’s great.

The quiet helpers: sound and light

Endel: I use Focus mode for 50/10 sprints. The sound shifts softly. It keeps me in flow.
Dark Noise: When I want rain or a café vibe, I switch to this app.
Philips Hue: “Arctic Aurora” in the morning, “Dimmed” at night. Not a must. But my brain ties those scenes to work time.

You know what? I used to shrug at this stuff. Now I treat it like a chair. You don’t think about it when it’s right. You feel it when it’s wrong.

Some dev friends also ask how I flip the switch when the workday ends. Everyone’s unwind ritual is different—maybe it’s cooking, gaming, or diving into content that’s a bit more adult than debugging logs. If your chill-out routine leans toward the steamy side, take a peek at ce guide consacré aux univers “amateur et sexe” ; it walks through safe-browsing tips, privacy best practices, and how to avoid the usual click-bait traps so you can relax without worrying about sketchy pop-ups or data leaks. And if you’re curious about moving from screen-time to real-life connections in a low-friction way, the local