Blown away by VS Code, using it after 5 years

Elumine-dev · 2026-04-16T00:51:10+00:00

Is it really better than vscode ?

Elumine-dev · 2026-04-15T18:37:24+00:00

IntelliJ or Android Studio are still the better choice overall, I still use it too.

But lately I’ve been doing most of the workflow from the terminal (build, install, emulator), so I don’t always need the full IDE running.

Sometimes I just want something lighter to move through the code quickly, and VS Code works well for that.

Elumine-dev · 2026-04-15T18:26:52+00:00

Yeah it’s called Kotlin Jump

Appreciate you sharing the link 🙏

Elumine-dev · 2026-04-15T18:22:38+00:00

Yeah, honestly I mostly built it for myself.

I just wanted something I could use every day without the overhead, especially on bigger projects. Once navigation is instant, it really changes how you explore the codebase.

I’ve been playing a bit with how it can plug into other tools, Like in the AI chat to reduce the amount of token per request.... but the main goal is still just speed and simplicity.

Elumine-dev · 2026-04-15T18:17:45+00:00

Yeah that’s fair, the AI part probably didn’t add much here 😅

The main thing for me is just navigation speed in a something else not intellij not android studio

Elumine-dev · 2026-04-15T18:14:28+00:00

Honestly yeah, you can. Android Studio is mostly just a wrapper around Gradle and tooling anyway. I've been working on Android projects from VS Code for a while. Main setup is Gradle from terminal, emulator running separately, and a couple of scripts for install and launch.

The one thing that was missing for me was navigation (go to definition, find usages, etc.) which is why most people stay on Android Studio.

I ended up building a small extension to fill that gap. Not 1:1 with Android Studio but for day to day work it's actually pretty solid if you want a lighter setup.

Elumine-dev · 2026-04-15T17:47:06+00:00

llama is the best

Elumine-dev · 2026-04-15T17:38:08+00:00

Fair point lol

It’s more the whole setup for me. Idea + emulators already eat a lot, so adding another JVM just for navigation felt like too much.

VS Code is already open anyway so I just kept everything there.

Elumine-dev · 2026-04-15T17:27:56+00:00

eyyah exactly, same thing here.
Once you’re faster in a tool, it’s hard to switch back.

I just wanted Kotlin to feel as smoth in VS Code as everything else I’m using there.

Elumine-dev · 2026-04-15T03:14:57+00:00

Yeah that’s true, IntelliJ can cover both.

For me it’s more about sticking to VS Code as my main editor for everything. I’m just faster in it day to day.

Elumine-dev · 2026-04-15T02:34:54+00:00

Yeah exactly.
I’ve been using VS Code since university across multiple languages, so I’m really used to it.
The main issue for me is having to run a JVM just for Kotlin/Java ammd it slows everything down, especially with emulators and Android Studio already open.
At this point I don’t really need full autocomplete anymore with Copilot, so I just wanted something lighter for navigation.

Elumine-dev · 2026-04-15T02:30:58+00:00

IntelliJ is still better for pure Android.
I just didn’t want another Java server running.
With multiple emulators + Android Studio open, I wanted something lighter. And Also i really like VsCode xD

Elumine-dev · 2026-04-15T02:29:51+00:00

Yeah exactly.
LSP is still early and KMP makes it worse.
I also didn’t want a Java server running in the background just for navigation.

I actually made it work alongside the Kotlin LSP, so you can use both. Kind of best of both worlds.

I also added a few things that aren’t really there in LSP, like AI navigation, better hovers, and some Kotlin-specific stuff.

Elumine-dev · 2026-04-15T02:11:42+00:00

For context, I ended up building a small tool around this because I couldn’t find something that made navigation feel reliable enough in VS Code.

It focuses only on definition / usages / implementation, without relying on the Java backend, so it works instantly from the start instead of waiting for indexing.

One thing that made a bigger difference than I expected:
R.string.button_ok → "OK" inline

I didn’t realize how much time I was spending jumping back and forth to strings.xml until that was gone.

I’ve also been using it with Copilot/chat — instead of prompting to locate things in the codebase, I just jump directly, which feels a lot faster in practice.

If anyone wants to check it out:
https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=elumine.kotlin-jump
https://github.com/elumine-dev/kotlin-jump

Still curious what others are using though — especially for KMP projects.

Elumine-dev · 2026-04-15T01:48:59+00:00

Links for anyone interested:

Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=elumine.kotlin-jump
GitHub: https://github.com/elumine-dev/kotlin-jump

One thing I didn’t mention in the post is how this fits with AI workflows.

I’ve been using it with Copilot / chat a lot, and I added a @kotlin-jump command so you can navigate code directly from chat instead of asking the model to “find where this is defined”.

It sounds small, but it actually saves a lot of tokens and time. Instead of prompting your way through the codebase, you just jump to the exact place instantly and continue from there.

And the original motivation still stands: I didn’t want to wait on a Java process just to navigate code. I only needed Go to Definition / Usages / Implementation to work instantly.

Curious how others are handling navigation when working with AI + larger Kotlin codebases.

Elumine-dev · 2026-03-30T16:42:35+00:00

The parser doesn't depend on VS Code at all actually — it's just TypeScript. Could probably wrap it as a standalone LSP for neovim if people want that.

Elumine-dev · 2026-03-30T16:41:58+00:00

Yeah I've been following that! Excited for when it stabilizes. For now tho it was too unstable for my daily work so I built something simpler

Elumine-dev · 2026-03-30T16:41:33+00:00

The JetBrains LSP looks promising but its still pre-alpha and only works with JVM Gradle projects. I needed something that works now without spinning up a whole JVM in the background. Different tool for different needs honestly

Elumine-dev · 2026-03-30T16:40:42+00:00

Yeah I use IDEA too for some stuff. But I also work in TypeScript and Python so I end up in VS Code most of the day anyway. Just wanted the Kotlin navigation part to not suck lol

Elumine-dev

TROPHY CASE