I build iPhone and Android apps as a solo developer while managing four AI knowledge base sites under the Dolice Labs umbrella.
Since coding takes up most of my day, the quality of my development tools directly impacts my productivity. Antigravity (formerly Windsurf) changed that equation dramatically.
My Editor Journey to Antigravity
For years, I used Xcode and Android Studio for mobile development, with VS Code handling the web side. When GitHub Copilot launched, I became interested in AI-assisted editors and gave Cursor a try.
My first session with Antigravity felt different from Cursor right away. It wasn't just code completion — the Cascade AI agent understood the entire project context and made suggestions accordingly. Cross-file refactoring and context-aware code generation felt natural and effortless.
Where Antigravity Shines in Site Management
My four sites (including Antigravity Lab) are all built with Next.js 16 + TypeScript + Cloudflare Workers. Antigravity excels with this tech stack:
Cascading component updates — When updating Stripe Price IDs in PremiumPaywall.tsx, I also need changes in SupportClient.tsx, MembershipCTA.tsx, and membership/page.tsx. Antigravity suggests related file changes automatically. Since all four sites share the same architecture, I can apply one site's fix pattern to the other three instantly.
CSS variable management at scale — Managing dark and light mode CSS variables across four sites is error-prone by hand. Antigravity's multi-file editing lets me propagate globals.css color adjustments consistently across every site.
MDX article scaffolding — Adding articles to a new category involves frontmatter formatting, file path conventions, and category ID consistency. Because Antigravity understands the project structure, it generates correctly formatted templates on the first try.
Impact on App Development
Antigravity has become indispensable for my primary work in mobile app development:
Swift/Kotlin parallel generation — I can generate both Swift (iOS) and Kotlin (Android) code from the same feature spec. What used to take half a day of porting now takes 1–2 hours.
Faster bug diagnosis — Pasting crash logs into Antigravity pinpoints the relevant code and suggests fixes. The entire cycle from log analysis to code fix happens inside the editor.
Confident refactoring — Structural changes like "split this function" or "extract this into a utility" come with full awareness of the impact radius, dramatically reducing the fear of breaking things.
The Numbers
After about three weeks of full adoption:
| | Before | After | |---|---|---| | Feature implementation speed | 1 feature / 2–3 days | 1 feature / half day–1 day | | Bug fix turnaround | 1–3 hours | 15–30 minutes | | Common fixes across 4 sites | 30 min × 4 sites | 30 min total | | Code review quality | Manual review only | AI + manual double-check |
The "common fixes across 4 sites" improvement has been the most dramatic. An OGP configuration fix that used to consume half a day now takes 30 minutes — fix one site, let Antigravity replicate across the other three.
Honest Caveats
It's not a silver bullet.
Context limitations with large projects — In large codebases, the AI's context window has limits. Site-specific values like GA IDs, Stripe Price IDs, and color palettes that differ subtly between sites still require manual verification.
Don't blindly accept suggestions — Code generation quality is high, but business logic validation is still a human responsibility. "Code that works" and "code that's correct" aren't always the same thing.
Git discipline matters more than ever — Always create a commit point before applying AI suggestions. Being able to roll back quickly is fundamental, but it's especially critical when working with AI tools.
Looking Ahead
Antigravity keeps improving with each update — the recent advances in Cascade's multi-file awareness and contextual understanding have been impressive.
For indie developers, AI coding tools are shifting from "nice to have" to "essential." This is especially true if you're juggling multiple projects or managing several sites with shared architectures.
If you're currently using VS Code or Cursor and looking for a deeper AI-assisted experience, I'd encourage you to give Antigravity a try. The migration cost is surprisingly low — your VS Code extensions carry over seamlessly.