Google Antigravity: The Agent-First IDE Challenging Cursor and Copilot

Google Antigravity: Building Apps with an Agent-First IDE

TLDR: Google's Antigravity is an experimental AI IDE that coordinates multiple agents with access to editor, terminal, and browser. Built on Gemini 3 and VS Code's foundation, it introduces artifact-based transparency for verifying AI work and positions itself against Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and Claude Code.

Google has entered the AI coding tools competition with Antigravity, released alongside Gemini 3. While competitors focus on single AI assistants responding to prompts, Antigravity takes an "agent-first" approach - coordinating multiple AI agents that work in parallel across different tasks. One agent might write unit tests while another fetches documentation from the web, all orchestrated within the IDE.

The architecture splits into two views. Editor view works like traditional AI-assisted coding - familiar VS Code interface with an AI sidebar for autocomplete and chat. Manager view serves as mission control for multiple agents, enabling what Google describes as "spawning, orchestrating, and observing multiple agents across multiple workspaces in parallel." The comparison to supervising a team of AI juniors is intentional.

What distinguishes Antigravity from competitors is the artifact system. As agents work, they generate receipts of their actions: to-do lists, step-by-step plans, code diff summaries, screenshots, and browser session recordings. This provides transparency before merging changes - you can verify what the AI actually did rather than trusting a black-box model. The author notes this validation separates genuine AI-assisted engineering from pure "vibe coding."

The multi-model support is notably un-Google-like. While Antigravity shines with Gemini 3, it also supports Claude 4.5 and an open-source GPT option. Google isn't locking developers into its ecosystem, perhaps recognizing that model choice matters for adoption.

The backstory adds context: Google acquihired Windsurf's CEO and top engineers after OpenAI's $3 billion acquisition fell through, paying $2.4 billion for the talent and technology. Antigravity partly represents Windsurf's vision accelerated by Google's resources.

For teams evaluating AI coding tools, Antigravity offers a free public preview on Mac, Windows, and Linux with "generous rate limits" for Gemini 3 Pro. The agent orchestration and artifact transparency represent genuine differentiation from existing tools. Whether coordinating multiple agents proves more productive than single-assistant workflows remains to be seen in real-world usage.

Key takeaways:

• Multi-agent architecture enables parallel task execution across editor, terminal, and browser
• Artifact system provides transparency and verification of AI actions before merging
• Built on VS Code foundation with import of existing settings from VS Code or Cursor
• Multi-model support including Gemini 3, Claude 4.5, and open-source GPT options
• Free public preview with generous rate limits

Tradeoffs:

• Multi-agent orchestration increases capability but risks "too many cooks in the kitchen" complexity
• Agent-first approach offers more automation but requires more oversight and verification

Link: Your guide to building apps with Google Antigravity

The content above was curated from the AI Supremacy newsletter. While I have analyzed and synthesized these sources, readers should verify critical details from original sources before making significant decisions.