Avoid the Footguns! A Pocket Guide to Building Reliably with AI-Assisted Development Tools in 2025

AI development tools are great at footguns—traps in code that break things suddenly. If that's ever been you, this post is for you! This is a pocket guide to building reliably in 2025 with AI tools...

AI-powered coding tools have rapidly evolved in late 2024, promising faster development but also introducing new pitfalls. We examine five leading tools – Windsurf, Cursor, Lovable, Bolt.new, and Replit – and how builders can use them safely and effectively. For each, we cover the AI models behind them, common failure modes, prompting best practices, optimal use cases, and real examples of success and failure.

And of course, I put what you probably most want to know first: which tool would I pick right now? Which is my favorite and why? The truth is I have three favorites and I refuse to entirely pick between them (lol) but I have good reasons for each, and I think it gets at one of the core insights for building in 2025: successful builders in 2025 know their own skill level, and have a very clear idea of what they want to build. Tool choices flow from there. If I could say one thing to anyone wanting to build AI tools, it is know your goals! If you know your goals, everything else will probably work out.