Death of the IDE?

The center of developer work is shifting from continuous file editing in IDEs toward supervising and orchestrating AI agents. Tools like Cursor Glass, Claude Code Web, GitHub Copilot Agents, Conductor, and Jules are converging on shared patterns: parallel isolated workspaces (git worktrees), task-state as the primary UI, background async execution, and attention routing for concurrent agents. The new developer loop is 'specify intent → delegate → observe → review diffs → merge' rather than line-by-line editing. However, IDEs remain essential for precise debugging, complex multi-file navigation, and catching the 90%-correct-but-subtly-broken agent output. The conclusion is that IDEs aren't dying but being de-centered — becoming one subordinate instrument among many, while orchestration dashboards and control planes become the primary workspace. New challenges include review fatigue from parallel agent diffs and expanded security/governance surfaces.