How to Use Windsurf

Windsurf is Codeium’s AI-native editor — a VS Code fork built around Cascade, an agent that reads your whole codebase, plans multi-file changes, and keeps itself in sync as you edit. It is the most obvious Cursor alternative and in some workflows feels noticeably more proactive.

What Windsurf actually is

Windsurf is the editor; Cascade is the agent inside it. Cascade has full repo awareness through Codeium’s indexer, can run terminal commands, and is designed around what Codeium calls “flows” — it watches what you do and stays collaborative instead of waiting for a fresh prompt each turn. Underneath, it routes to frontier models (Claude, GPT, Gemini) plus Codeium’s own SWE-1 family.

Installing

Download the installer from windsurf.com for macOS, Windows, or Linux. Sign in with a Codeium account and import your VS Code settings and extensions on first launch — it is a fork, so almost everything carries over. The free tier gives you a generous autocomplete quota and a smaller Cascade credit bucket to try the agent.

A first session

Open a repo, hit Cmd+L to open Cascade, and describe the change: “move the rate limiter out of the route handler into middleware and add a test that hits it thrice in a second.” Cascade proposes a plan, touches the relevant files, runs commands you approve, and shows diffs inline. Use Write mode to let it edit freely and Chat mode to keep it read-only while you think.

Rules and memories

Drop a .windsurfrules at the repo root for project rules (“we use Drizzle, not Prisma; always add a migration file”) and use the global rules panel for personal preferences. Cascade also has a Memories system that persists facts across sessions — review it occasionally, because a bad memory (“the user prefers callbacks over promises”) will poison every future turn until you delete it.

Configuration pitfalls

Turn off auto-accept for shell commands until you trust Cascade with your environment; it will cheerfully run pnpm install or a migration if you let it. Pin a default model in settings so you are not silently bounced onto a cheaper tier mid-refactor. And check the index status before the first big task — Cascade is dramatically better once the initial repo index finishes.

When Windsurf shines

Greenfield features and non-trivial refactors where you want one tool that plans, edits, and runs commands with good codebase awareness. The flow-style UI is genuinely more ergonomic than bouncing between a chat panel and files, and the autocomplete is best-in-class on large repos thanks to the indexer.

When not to use it

If you are deeply wired into JetBrains shortcuts, switching editors for an agent is a big ask — Continue or the JetBrains AI Assistant are saner choices. Same if your company forbids a second editor install. And for scripted, headless agent work (CI, bots), a CLI like Aider or OpenCode fits better than an editor-bound tool.