Interesting read, but strange to totally ignore the macOS ChatGPT app that optionally integrates with a terminal session, the currently opened VSCode editor tab, XCode. etc. I use this combination at least 2 or 3 times a month, and even if my monthly use is less that 40 minutes total, it is a really good tool to have in your toolbelt.

The other thing I disagree with is the coverage of gemnini-cli: if you use gemini-cli for a single long work session, then you must set your Google API key as an environment variable when starting gemini-cli, otherwise you end up after a short while using Gemini-2.5-flash, and that leads to unhappy results. So, use gemini-cli for free for short and focused 3 or 4 minute work sessions and you are good, or pay for longer work sessions, and you are good.

I do have a random off topic comment: I just don’t get it: why do people live all day in an LLM-infused coding environment? LLM based tooling is great, but I view it as something I reach for a few times a day for coding and that feels just right. Separately, for non-coding tasks, reaching for LLM chat environments for research and brainstorming is helpful, but who really needs to do that more than once or twice a day?