Why We Run Three Different AI Coding Agents Daily — And Which Wins Where

TL;DR: After 6 months production use: Continue.dev + Zed owns >90 min sessions (persistent terminal/DB context). Cline + VS Code owns greenfield features (terminal-native, BYOK). Cursor owns <30 min TypeScript type surgery (best LSP integration). Stop looking for “the one.” Full comparison →

The Context

Three-dev team, B2B SaaS (Next.js/React + tRPC/Express/Go + PostgreSQL). Jan 2025: Cursor Pro for everything. By June 2026, every dev hit Cursor’s reliability ceiling on long sessions (context loss, RAM bloat, forced restarts). Tested 8 agents across 50+ real tasks. Pattern emerged: task duration × statefulness × specificity determines winner.

What We Tested

Agent	Primary Use Case	Session Length	Verdict	Why
Continue.dev (Zed, Ollama)	Refactors, migrations, debugging, multi-file features	2-6 hours	✅	Native Zed speed, terminal/DB context persists, no vendor lock-in, $0
Cline (VS Code, OpenRouter)	Greenfield: new API, feature scaffolding, test generation, docs	30-90 min	✅	Terminal-native loops, BYOK (OpenRouter), autonomous command approval, open source
Cursor Pro (Claude 3.5 Sonnet)	TypeScript type surgery, inline LSP diagnostics, quick fixes	<30 min	✅	Best TS LSP integration, catches type errors mid-edit, fast for surgical edits
Aider (terminal, BYOK)	Git-native patches, cross-repo changes	15-60 min	⚠️	Great for patch workflow; no IDE integration, terminal-only limits adoption
Windsurf Cascade	Persistent context in VS Code fork	1-3 hours	⚠️	Good long-session reliability; $15/mo; VS Code fork = eventual drift risk
Claude Code (multi-agent)	Parallel greenfield spikes	45-90 min	⚠️	Fast parallel scaffolding; fails on shared state (see multi-agent eval)

The Pivot Point

June 3, 2026: 4-hour Stripe webhook migration in Cursor — lost stripe listen tunnel + local Supabase 3×, 45 min recovery. Same task next week in Zed + Continue.dev: agent kept tunnel PID, DB connection, 14-file context entire session. Finished in one sitting. Context persistence ≠ model quality. Continue.dev’s terminal tool + Zed’s native process management = agent sees live state. Cursor’s Electron architecture = context resets on memory pressure.

What We Use Now

Task-router convention (team agreement, not tool-enforced):

>90 min, stateful (refactor/migration/debug)  →  `zed` + Continue.dev (Ollama)
30-90 min, greenfield (new feature/tests/docs)  →  `code` + Cline (OpenRouter/Claude 3.5)
<30 min, TypeScript-heavy (types/fixes)        →  `cursor` (Pro, Claude 3.5)
Git patches, cross-repo                        →  `aider` (terminal)

Continue.dev config (shared via repo):

// .continue/config.json
{
  "models": [
    {"title": "Planner", "provider": "ollama", "model": "qwen2.5-coder:32b"},
    {"title": "Executor", "provider": "ollama", "model": "deepseek-coder:33b"}
  ],
  "tabs": [{"name": "Planner", "model": "Planner"}, {"name": "Executor", "model": "Executor"}],
  "contextProviders": ["terminal", "files", "code", "diff", "docs"]
}

Cline config (shared via repo):

// .cline/config.json
{
  "apiProvider": "openrouter",
  "model": "anthropic/claude-3.5-sonnet",
  "allowCommands": ["npm run dev", "npm test", "npm run build", "psql", "stripe listen"],
  "autoApprove": ["read", "write", "edit", "terminal"]
}

When You’d Choose Differently

• Single agent (Cursor/Windsurf) if: team <3, low task variety, no ops appetite for local models/BYOK, TypeScript-heavy codebase
• Enterprise (GitHub Copilot Enterprise, Cursor Business) if: IP isolation, audit trails, centralized billing, compliance
• Aider-only if: tmux-native, git-centric, zero IDE dependency preferred

Tool Crucible Rating (Per Agent)

Dimension	Continue.dev	Cline	Cursor	Aider
Overall	5	4	3	3
Long Session Reliability	5	4	2	4
Greenfield Autonomy	4	5	3	3
TypeScript LSP Integration	3	3	5	2
Cost (team/mo)	$0	BYOK	$60	$0
Vendor Lock-in	None	None	High	None

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This is part of our AI Coding Agent Evaluation series. See full comparison: AI Coding Agents 2026: Task Mapping Guide — Which Agent for Which Job