Types of AI coding agents: a complete guide to choosing the right one for your Mac

A year ago most people had one AI coding tool, if any. Now a normal Mac has three or four: an agent in the terminal, an AI editor, an extension in VS Code and a chat app with a few MCP servers plugged in. They all write code. They don’t all reach the same parts of your Mac, and they don’t all let you stop them the same way. People ask us which one is “safe” more than almost anything else.

So here’s our guide to the AI coding agents you’ll most likely find on a Mac today: what kind of tool each one is, how much of your machine it can touch, what it’s best for, and what Plango does to keep it in check.

Why the type of agent actually matters

Not all agents are built the same. A terminal agent runs shell commands as you, with the same files, keys and network you have. An AI editor does the same, but behind a nicer window. A chat app can only do what its MCP servers let it do, which sounds safer until you notice how many MCP servers can read any file you point them at.

Pick the wrong tool for the job and you either fight it all day or hand it far more access than the job needs. Writing a quick script doesn’t call for an agent that can push to production. Refactoring a big codebase does call for one that can run your tests.

Reach chart: from boxed in to full access

This is how much of your Mac each agent can reach out of the box, before you change any settings. “Plango guard” means Plango checks each action before it runs.

Your settings can move any of these up or down the chart. An agent you’ve told to “always allow” sits at the top no matter what kind of tool it is.

Quick picks: what are you doing?

• Big refactors and long tasks: Claude Code, Codex or Gemini CLI.
• Writing code with an AI next to you: Cursor, Windsurf or Zed.
• Staying in VS Code: Cline, Continue or GitHub Copilot.
• Asking questions about your files without running anything: Claude Desktop.

The most common AI coding agents and what they’re best for

Claude Code

Terminal agent

If one agent has had a moment this year, it’s Claude Code. You give it a task in plain words and it reads the code, runs commands, edits files and checks its own work, sometimes for an hour at a stretch. It’s very good at big changes that touch many files.

That power cuts both ways. Claude Code runs as you, so it can read your SSH keys and .env files just as easily as your source code. Plango hooks into it and rates every command, file read and web fetch before it runs.

Best for: Refactors, Long tasks, Fixing failing tests

Cursor

AI editor and CLI

Cursor is a code editor built around AI. You can chat with it, let it edit a few lines, or hand it a whole task in agent mode. There’s also a command-line version for people who live in the terminal.

Cursor’s agent can run shell commands and install MCP servers, and in July a single link was enough to add an attacker’s MCP server to it. Plango guards both the editor and the CLI, and flags any new server that shows up in ~/.cursor/mcp.json.

Best for: Day-to-day coding, Small edits, Learning a new codebase

Windsurf

AI editor

Windsurf is another AI-first editor, with an agent that plans a change, makes it and runs the commands it needs. Many people like how much it keeps track of what you were doing a minute ago.

Earlier this year a crafted web page could rewrite Windsurf’s MCP config without a click (CVE-2026-30615). Plango guards Windsurf’s actions and marks any server it hasn’t seen before as New.

Best for: Day-to-day coding, Multi-file edits

Codex

Terminal agent

OpenAI’s Codex runs in your terminal and does its work inside a sandbox by default, which limits where it can write and whether it can reach the network. That makes it one of the more careful agents out of the box.

One thing to know: Codex can’t pause and ask you about an action. So Plango gives Codex a clear yes or no. High and Critical actions are blocked, the rest run.

Best for: Long tasks, Working in a sandbox, Scripts

Gemini CLI

Terminal agent

Google’s Gemini CLI is open source and runs in the terminal, much like Claude Code. It handles very large amounts of code at once, which helps when you need it to understand a whole project before it changes anything.

Plango hooks into Gemini CLI and rates every tool call, and reads its MCP servers from ~/.gemini/settings.json.

Best for: Large codebases, Explaining code, Open-source fans

GitHub Copilot

Extension and CLI

Copilot started as autocomplete and grew into an agent, both inside VS Code and in the terminal as Copilot CLI. If your team already pays for GitHub, it’s often the one you already have.

Plango guards every action Copilot CLI takes, and reads the MCP servers set up for Copilot and VS Code.

Best for: Teams on GitHub, Autocomplete, Pull requests

Cline

VS Code extension

Cline is an open-source agent that lives in VS Code and shows you each step before it takes it. You approve the file edit, then the command, then the next one. It’s slower, but you always know what it’s doing.

Approving every step gets old fast, and most people end up turning on auto-approve. That’s when Plango earns its keep: it keeps checking each action after you’ve stopped reading them.

Best for: Careful work, Learning how agents think, VS Code users

Antigravity

AI editor and CLI

Google’s Antigravity is built around agents first and the editor second. You hand out tasks, several agents work on them at once, and some of them can drive a browser to test what they built.

More agents at once means more actions you won’t watch. Plango guards Antigravity’s editor and CLI agents the same way it guards the rest.

Best for: Running several tasks at once, Testing web apps

Claude Desktop

Chat app

Claude Desktop is a chat app, not a coding tool, but plenty of developers plug MCP servers into it so it can read files, query a database or open GitHub issues. On its own it can’t run anything on your Mac.

The MCP servers are the risky part. Plango finds every server in claude_desktop_config.json, rates it, and can run it in a sandbox that keeps it away from your keys and browser data.

Best for: Questions about your code, Planning, Light MCP use

Zed and Continue

Editor and extension

Zed is a fast editor with an AI assistant built in. Continue is an open-source assistant for VS Code and JetBrains that works with almost any model, including ones running on your own Mac. Both mostly reach your Mac through MCP servers, and Plango reads and rates those for both.

Best for: Speed, Choosing your own model, Local models

Tips for picking a safe agent

• Settings file: Check where the agent keeps its settings and MCP servers. If you can’t find them, you can’t check them.
• Approvals: See what it asks you about and what it just does. “Always allow” is the setting that matters most.
• Sandbox: Find out if commands run inside a sandbox or straight on your Mac.
• Hooks: Agents with hooks let a tool like Plango check each action before it runs. Agents without them can only be checked after the fact.

Keeping your agents in check

Whichever agent you pick, the basics are the same. Keep secrets out of .env files and in your Keychain. Don’t give an agent access to folders it doesn’t need. Read the MCP servers you install the way you’d read a stranger’s shell script, because that’s what they are.

Plango does the boring part for you. It finds every agent and MCP server on your Mac, rates each action from Info to Critical before it runs, and in Protect mode blocks the High and Critical ones. One log shows what every agent did and why.

Run any agent you like, with Plango watching

You don’t have to pick just one. Most of the people we talk to use a terminal agent for big jobs and an editor for everything else. Plango guards all of them from one app, for $4.99 a month, with a free trial to start. Download it at installplango.com.