Ask HN: How do you use Vim in the era of AI? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: How do you use Vim in the era of AI?

#101

Post by lanadz » Tue, Jul 14, 2026, 1:52 PM UTC

redlewel wrote: post #22

How are you a heavy vim user if you wonder if vim makes sense with ai? There are so many things to do outside of writing code that vim is used for. Also neovim + claude code + open terminal pane in tmux is the goated combo anyway. Especially more lately you need to understand the code you are writing if you want to do anything important in software, and the best way to do that is neovim :)

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Re: Ask HN: How do you use Vim in the era of AI?

#102

Post by MantisShrimp90 » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 3:48 PM UTC

qup wrote: post #87

stvltvs wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any tips on how to switch from Tmux to pure neovim?

I have one: don't. Tmux is basically perfect software. It gets right out of your way. It'll never come out of my development stack, or workflows. Writing code isn't everything. Almost every time I start an apt command or something that might run a little while, I regret it if I'm not in a tmux session. I could sooner do without vim than tmux.

I will concede that this is the primary gap in the ecosystem right now is PERSISTENT terminal buffers but the act of doing terminal work in neovim is straight up nice if you use neovim motions to leverage that relationship.

Terminals resuming in a session is just a feature to be added not a complete functional rewrite.

Re: Ask HN: How do you use Vim in the era of AI?

#103

Post by MantisShrimp90 » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 3:50 PM UTC

stvltvs wrote: post #72

MantisShrimp90 wrote: post #21

(Neo)vim is setup wonderfully for this era. Im with Justin on the take that neovim can replace tmux soon literally all that is left is being able to restart terminal sessions on restart (which is even set as a goal for summer of code). Neovim can already have all the agents running in different terminal buffers or there are plugins popping up every day to have deep integrations with your favorite or we even have some…

Any tips on how to switch from Tmux to pure neovim?

Knowing and leveraging the editor deeply is the best high level advice. Sessions for persistence, windows and buffers to manage screen real-estate (including terminals), and the terminal command itself to run the agentic workflow of your choice.

Re: Ask HN: How do you use Vim in the era of AI?

#104

Post by MantisShrimp90 » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 3:52 PM UTC

rstagi wrote: post #63

MantisShrimp90 wrote: post #21

(Neo)vim is setup wonderfully for this era. Im with Justin on the take that neovim can replace tmux soon literally all that is left is being able to restart terminal sessions on restart (which is even set as a goal for summer of code). Neovim can already have all the agents running in different terminal buffers or there are plugins popping up every day to have deep integrations with your favorite or we even have some…

What you’re saying is super interesting, I’ve been using my setup for so long I might have missed some of the latest updates. I spend most of my time on TMUX with Claude Code and vim side by side btw, but I’m using it just to search some specific code and making small changes. I mostly review on GitHub PRs tbh

Yea by having claude code in a terminal window within neovim rather than tmux you can leverage neovim commands to traverse, copy, paste and otherwise interact with the terminal window like any other buffer.

There are also plugins with more specific workflows but I like really seeing how much vanilla neovim can get done

Re: Ask HN: How do you use Vim in the era of AI?

#105

Post by Gold-Ask-lx » Wed, Jul 15, 2026, 7:01 PM UTC

Even something as simple as using Vim motions to write/edit multi-line prompts is an improvement for me, and this is for things that have nothing to do with coding. But maybe that doesn't really count as "true" vim use?