A Straightforward Answer to "What Tool Should I Use?"

Unsure where to start? Visual Studio Code with GitHub Copilot or Claude Code.

We’ve always said that the choice of agentic coding tool doesn’t matter much. Most available agents are roughly equivalent and interchangeable. Pick something you like, that feels comfortable, that’s affordable, and that you have easy access to. Learn to use it well. The fundamentals transfer across tools. (For the curious, we’ve covered many options in our tool reviews.)

But we’ve heard the feedback — including from students in our most recent cohort, who had plenty of kind things to say about the course but also offered this fair critique: when you’re just getting started, “it depends” isn’t the most helpful answer. You want something concrete.

So here’s a concrete answer.

Our Recommendation

Editor: Visual Studio Code

VS Code is free, open source, and by far the most popular code editor. It’s easy to install and will serve you well.

AI Agent: GitHub Copilot and/or Claude Code

You’ll want Agentic AI capabilities on top of VS Code, in the terminal, and in the cloud. Either of these will work excellently — or both, if you can afford it and want to experience different models and approaches.

GitHub Copilot provides access to models from multiple providers, including the best models like Anthropic’s Claude 4.5, OpenAI’s GPT-5.2, and Google’s Gemini 3. It also supports a wide variety of models from other providers. The Pro subscription is $10/month ($100/year) and is genuinely enough for most people getting started. Pro+ at $39/month adds more usage and access to additional models. You can also pay per use for additional requests if you need them.

Claude Code is the tool that kicked off the agentic coding revolution and remains one of the most feature-rich and sophisticated options available. It provides access to Anthropic’s models, including Claude 4.5 Opus, which tend to be excellent for coding tasks. You’ll need at least a Claude Pro subscription ($20/month) to use it, and most users doing substantial work will want Max ($100 or $200/month) for higher usage limits.

Both agents are available as extensions for VS Code, as command-line tools for the terminal, and as hosted web agents for asynchronous work (we cover all modalities in the course). Both have huge communities and all the latest features.

But What If I’m Using Something Else?

That’s great! This recommendation is specifically for people who are unsure where to start and want a straightforward answer. If you’re already comfortable with a different tool, or your team uses something else, or another option is more accessible or affordable for you — stick with what works.

In the course, we use GitHub Copilot and Claude Code frequently, but we teach the principles and techniques that apply across all tools. We help students work with whatever setup they have.

Need Help Getting Set Up?

If you’re joining the next cohort on January 12th, or you just want some hands-on help getting started, drop into one of the Sunday School: Drop-In, Vibe On sessions - completely free.

There’s a session tomorrow, Sunday December 28th, and another on Sunday January 11th (right before the course starts), then every other Sunday after that. Bring your questions, get unstuck, watch live demos. No preparation needed.