Cursor 3 vs Codex vs T3 Code: Who Wins?

They rebuilt the whole thing from scratch and centered it around AI agents instead of files. So, this is a massive paradigm shift, especially for Cursor. Command AI I started to find Cursor to be really clunky, really just full of just awful choices. It started to turn into a vibe coded slot, to be honest. So, what you see here is the old Cursor. And the issue with it is it's crammed with a bunch of like UI choices that are very questionable, very difficult to navigate between, and it's really easy to get a completely messed up UI per project, per instance that you open. But now, there is this new button, agent window, which is Cursor 3, which looks awfully like looking like what? You know what this looks like? This looks like exactly like the Codex app. What you see here is a simpler UI where you have your chats and projects. Yes, projects, like plural, multiple projects on the side, and per project you can have a different chat going on, an agent doing something, and then you jump between these projects without looking too much into the code. If you want, you can you still have uh the browser, you have the terminal, you have the files, which I really like. This is what I prefer uh more more compared to something like the Codex app, but I'm not sure if it's needed. It's just that it's a nice to have. But yeah, so this is the the new Cursor with with the focus on the UI being much simpler, where you focus just on multiple projects and multiple chats. You You focus on giving away tasks and not looking at the files or the code or anything like that. Uh as you know, I've been using uh Codex app for the majority of my work in the past. I made a switch recently, like as of maybe two, three days ago, to T3code. So, this is by Theo. And the reason I moved to T3code, and as you see, all of these have the same exact UI. The UI is almost identical. You have projects and chats. That's it. And then in each you can have a new agent. You You have a new project. You can have uh a new chat. You tell the agent to do something. The reason I I like T3code is that I can have Claude or Codex. And these are running from my subscription that I already have. So, I don't have to pay extra. And T3code itself is free. It's open source and free. So, it's just using my already existing Claude and Codex um subscriptions in this much simpler, nicer UI. Uh what Cursor is doing is exactly that. It's the exact same concept, but as you probably have seen, here at the bottom it says free plan. I was paying for Cursor for two accounts actually at at some point. But now I'm on the free plan because I don't know. I I haven't used it as much. But with this, I don't know. I kind of like the idea of having my files just as an option to um to see here with my terminal uh with my browser it's just nice to have the option. But yeah, if I go into settings, here I see a lot more like a lot of option already exist options things like agents that can uh that you can change you have the model selector. So it's it seems like the cursor 3.0 is fairly advanced compared to the other tools. Uh so it's not a bare bone. That's what I'm trying to say. But they have plugins, they have rules and skills. But in a way these are not necessarily something that you cannot add to the others either here in Codex uh you can do pretty much the same thing. You you have the MCP servers, you have here you have environments, uh things like that with T3, uh it's the the least advanced one. But I do believe he has a good sense of like product design for what this should be. Uh so I'm giving it a try. At the end of the day all of these are the same concept. You might prefer this just a good old terminal. And what I really uh miss sometimes about using a terminal is this. Uh I I just you know, having four different windows, four different things going on at the same time, having tabs. I wish I could do the same. I was even thinking like uh T3 code is open source. I was thinking like, can I just do some live coding and take this and have like multiple versions of this running on a canvas. Yes, on on a canvas like on a Figma like canvas. So, I can zoom and pan and have like new notes open. It just all of this is just about how we are trying to do this agentic work that is not completely figured out, but it seems like more and more companies are going this direction, which is not looking at the code. Kind of separate news, still related to cursor. They have this design mode apparently that I should have, but I can't access it. So, it says it is with control shift D. And here, if I just let's let me minimize everything. If I go here to keyboard shortcuts, you see I have this toggle design mode shift command D. Right? Here, I press shift command D. Nothing happens. I have this old selector, which is different. So, it seems like this one let's let's play the video. It's not just a selector. You could do this before, but there is something new about it. So, it seems like now you can draw I guess this is just a screenshot that is going to be sent to the to the model. You can absolutely do this manually, but it is just much nicer to have built in the tool. But, as I I I can't access Well, it seems like this is in Maybe I'm wrong. It seems like this is inside of the cursor three. So, but why is it showing in cursor two? Yeah, this is this is where it's becoming kind of a mess. Yeah, I'll I'll try to get it working. I do think like right now the T3 code for me is a winner. Because it is Codex was for me already the winner, but Codex allowed you just to use the Codex AI. With T3, I can use my Claude and Codex, whichever I want. It is it is absolutely like a game changer for me. Maybe I only wish to have the browser here just just so it is a bit more clean. This is part of a larger conversation on my show, Command AI, which we stream live every single week. We discuss the news and all things related to AI in the world of design and web. Catch us next week and join in the banter. Command AI