Glossary Tool
AI Coding Assistant
An AI coding assistant is a tool that uses language models to help write, explain, review, refactor, or navigate code.
AI coding assistant covers tools that sit near the editor or repository and help with code. Some autocomplete a line. Some, such as Claude Code and Codex, can edit files, run commands, and work through a task across a repo.
They are useful for boilerplate, unfamiliar APIs, test scaffolding, and making sense of code you have not touched in months. They are less useful when you stop reading what they changed.
The good workflow is still boring: small changes, review the diff, run the tests, commit often. The assistant can move quickly. That is exactly why the human needs to keep a hand on the brake.