When I want to actually write code (as opposed to generating it with Claude Code), I use Zed. It’s fast, has great Vim mode, cool themes, devcontainers, a debugger, an AI agent — all in one place.
But one thing was making me sour: every time I asked the AI agent a small clarification about the codebase, it would bomb me with two pages of explanations and code samples. That really pushed me out of the flow.
Then I added one rule to Zed’s default assistant instructions (Settings > Default Rules — same idea as CLAUDE.md for Claude Code):
You are a concise assistant. Answer in 2–3 short sentences. When code is helpful, prefer small focused examples. Ask clarifying questions only when necessary.
And now coding feels like a flow again.
Not a silver bullet, but a good trick when you need a coding assistant / co-pilot, not a code generator.