VS Code is to modern text editors what Chromium is to browsers: a fork magnet. A slew of niche spins have emerged, each putting their own spin on Microsoft’s massively popular original.
The latest to join the fray is Void.
The Github page for Void describes it as an open-source alternative to Cursor.
Cursor is a subscription-based, cross-platform AI-powered text editor (and VS Code fork) that has gained considerable attention. It offers AI-powered code completion, predictive coding, code generation, edit suggestions, and predictive cursor positioning.
It’s even said to be popular with developers working on AI at companies like OpenAI and MidJourney, which is something.
But while Cursor has a free plan, most of the “good” features require a paid subscription, and there is some privacy baggage that it appears only users of the $80/m plan can opt-out of.
Enter the Void
Void is positioning itself as a free, open-source rival to Cursor, albeit with notable differences.
While Void is AI-centric it’s not chained to a specific set of cloud-based, proprietary LLMs like Cursor it. It aims to work just with any locally hosted LLM, of which many open-source ones exist.
And for those who do have a preferred cloud model, e.g., Claude, Gemini, ChatGPT, etc Void says it can connect to them directly — directly being key here; the editor won’t act as a ‘middle-man’ listening in between your queries and the responses.
All of the core AI code editing features one might expect are said to be present in Void, including code auto-completion, inline auto-editing, and a sidebar from which to post questions and receive answers (correct, sloppy, or hallucination).
Void’s development team, backed by Y Combinator, is encouraging developers to muck in and collaborate, help shape the roadmap, and start adding to the available AI integrations and so on.
A selection of experimental AI features will be available to test, including the big one: code generation, plus a range of community-contributed features like AI-powered code search.
Fork Buddies
Bored of VS Code?
Not all new text editors are forks. In July the open-source, Rust-based text editor Zedlaunched on Linux. While the Zed community and plugin ecosystem is smaller and less varied than VS Code, it’s growing. To cycle back to the Chromium analogy at the start: while VS Code is powerful and popular, it’s important it doesn’t become an homogeny. Innovation outside its garden is vital for choice.
The upside to being a VS Code fork as opposed to a ‘from scratch’ effort is compatibility with the huge array of VS Code themes, plugins, and add-ons that exist.
That, plus the same underlying codebase as VS Code, means those who enter the switch to Void won’t be completely at sea: they can port over their keybindings and other settings.
Download Void Editor
Void is free, open-source software under active development.
No binary builds have been released for Windows, macOS, or Linux as of writing, but there is a waitlist interested users can join to be notified once they’re available.
Otherwise, those who are dab hands at compiling can fetch the source code from Github and build it to try it out.
More details on the Void website.