ThinkRail by JetBrains
Ranked 6 of 9 AI code editors by recommenders
Liked for worktrees as the core unit and use of the Pi agent core. Most common caveat: critics call it a VS Code wrapper that is feature-incomplete.
Liked for worktrees as the core unit and use of the Pi agent core. Most common caveat: critics call it a VS Code wrapper that is feature-incomplete.
38 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 27
- approval share
- 29%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Worktrees as the core unit
“Worktrees as the essential unit of the project interface, not a secondary feature.”
Comment from 25 Aug 2026 in “ThinkRail (JetBrains incubator) – A Web-Based GUI for Pi Coding Agent” “Now I can open each worktree in a separate window as if it were its own project.”
Comment from 25 Oct 2026 in “JetBrains Thinkrail” Promising, polished interface direction
“This is moving in the direction towards a final interface, very good.”
Comment from 25 Oct 2026 in “JetBrains Thinkrail” “I like what they did with the website UI”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “ThinkRail from JetBrains”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
AI-generated, marketing-style writing
“Looks interesting, but they need to clean up the claudese in those bullet points”
Comment from 25 Oct 2026 in “JetBrains Thinkrail” “It is an "agentic IDE", a tool intended for people who don't bother writing a readme.”
Comment from 26 Oct 2026 in “JetBrains Thinkrail” “How is this llm-vomit "specs that are ground truth" etc.?”
Comment from 25 Oct 2026 in “JetBrains Thinkrail” - Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “ThinkRail from JetBrains”
VS Code wrapper like other editors
“instead they decided to make some kind of VS code wrapper and hope people pay it over other editors”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “ThinkRail from JetBrains” “Not if they're going to be a VSCode skin like everyone else.”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “ThinkRail from JetBrains” “An AI slop webpage trying to sell me VS Code bullshit.”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “ThinkRail from JetBrains” Feature-incomplete, may not last
“That doesn't exactly inspire confidence that this product will stick around.”
Comment from 26 Oct 2026 in “JetBrains Thinkrail” “They now have both Air and ThinkRail in a feature-incomplete state”
Comment from 24 Oct 2026 in “ThinkRail from JetBrains” “Overall it just looks like an experimental direction for IDE dev.”
Comment from 25 Oct 2026 in “JetBrains Thinkrail”
Other AI code editors people recommend
The four most recommended other AI code editors, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cursor | 853 | 820 | 51% | 13 | 1 yr65 owners | — |
| Google Antigravity | 337 | 576 | 37% | 13 | 1 mo26 owners | — |
| Windsurf | 42 | 27 | 61% | 10 | — | — |
| AWS Kiro | 36 | 37 | 49% | 11 | — | — |
| ThinkRail by JetBrainsThis page | 11 | 27 | 29% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
37 of the 41 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“they all look basically identical”
“Not even using their own core engine is genuinely bleak.”
“That doesn't exactly inspire confidence that this product will stick around.”
“this project only monitors pi sessions which is a shame”
“This just exudes lack of effort.”
“It is an "agentic IDE", a tool intended for people who don't bother writing a readme.”
“Doesn’t bode well for their Java stack.”
“They're too hung up on their next product being more of the same.”
“Overall it just looks like an experimental direction for IDE dev.”
“they can't sell a Cursor competitor from 2024 anymore”
“for a while there was an escaping issue”
“Instead they phoned it in and pasted that slop”
“personally I am not seeing next level devexp yet”
“Where is local model support and just any openai compatible api support?”
“I don't see the point of those new-IDEs.”
“you're competing with the monthly cost of my Claude subscription for value”
“most of this seems like it would be cutting edge in 2025”
“I cannot express how happy I am that it uses a Pi core”
“Now I can open each worktree in a separate window as if it were its own project.”
“Kind of feels like there's little point using it if it's just going to copy Git's mistakes.”
“Looks interesting, but they need to clean up the claudese in those bullet points”
“How is this llm-vomit "specs that are ground truth" etc.?”
“This is exactly what I was missing”
“This is moving in the direction towards a final interface, very good.”
“This is a cool product. Clearly, they made the agent chat pane the primary feature”
“An AI slop webpage trying to sell me VS Code bullshit.”
“I really don't understand how this is so hard for JetBrains.”
“I like what they did with the website UI”
“I think they've already lost to Claude Code.”
“instead they decided to make some kind of VS code wrapper and hope people pay it over other editors”
“Have you tried both that and ThinkRail or Air?”
“yet another LLM wrapper that seems to be totally unrelated to the existing offering”
“I just want AI integrated better in workflow I already use.”
“They now have both Air and ThinkRail in a feature-incomplete state”
“Not if they're going to be a VSCode skin like everyone else.”
“I don't think it'll make any sense in a few months.”
“Worktrees as the essential unit of the project interface, not a secondary feature.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.