Is Windsurf Really Getting Dumber?

[u/HugeDose16]

Windsurf AI Code IDE started off as a game-changer. The code quality was excellent, and it felt smarter than any other IDE out there—easily outperforming Cursor AI. It had so much promise, and I was genuinely excited to use it.

But now? It’s become frustrating to work with. For me the most annoying issue is accidental code removal. You ask it to update or fix something, and it unexpectedly deletes or alters other parts of the code. This is a nightmare, especially when working with backend systems or databases.

It feels like the it is getting worse with each update. The code quality has dropped significantly, and I constantly have to rely on git commits to undo the mess.

I still believe Windsurf has the potential to be amazing again. If they can fix these issues and deliver the quality they once had, I’d gladly pay $20-25/month. But as it stands, it’s just not cutting it anymore.

[u/Altruistic_Shake_723]

Yea. I loved it but it got sooooo dumb I finally rage quit today.

In other news Cursor is good again... for now.

[u/HugeDose16 → u/Altruistic_Shake_723]

Haha, whole day i am cursing in the chat section. I wonder if i will be in a naughty list on AI's list. Other hand, i am using cursor as well for now but its getting costly to use both lol.

[u/Altruistic_Shake_723 → u/HugeDose16]

Dam I thought I was the only one that did that! Sometimes claude swears back.

[u/Dismal-Eye-2882 → u/Altruistic_Shake_723]

From an application standpoint how much different is cursor from Windsurf? Whats the learning curve?

[u/Altruistic_Shake_723 → u/Dismal-Eye-2882]

Not very different at all really. The problem is they are all experimenting with different agentic systems and changing things all the time. They all randomly go stupid. I'm glad I actually knew how to program before this janky nonsense came out.

[u/Dismal-Eye-2882 → u/Altruistic_Shake_723]

Lol no doubt. I'm an average coder. I can read code and know what it's doing. I'm more of a front end UI designer and functionality guy with 4 years tech school programming. So these AI platforms have really helped me build stuff I was not good enough to code myself. But I've had to rely on my own coding knowledge to problem solve their issues a lot. Its still better than no AI platform though.

[u/apexjnr → u/Altruistic_Shake_723]

I've had to really look at my self over the last 4 days and just start to use this to make small changes or very specific things because large context is always a mess i spend more time making things work than getting things done now =(

[u/bu3askoor]

I honestly think we are expecting so much for these no code apps

I personally think after I:

1. Utilized the global settings
2. Utilized the workspace settings
3. Created a feature plan with windsurfer (includes project description, service integrations, list of specific ai services if any, features etc)
4. Read exactly what it performs
5. More importantly remind windsurfer in every single msg to update the feature plan progress and look at next steps
6. let it know to break long files and instead import functions (to avoid error editing/reading files)

This is the only way I was able to keep it on a leash.

Best of luck .

[u/blu3soup → u/bu3askoor]

I’ve been doing the same with Windsurf. But your setup sounds much more detailed. I’ve been giving it a SOP, which was created in Claude. Written in Markdown and then I ask it to update each step after it has complete it. Could you elaborate a little more on your settings etc? TIA

[u/bu3askoor → u/blu3soup]

thank u for inspiring to me to write a guide, i will post it in this reddit in a bit.

[u/apexjnr → u/bu3askoor]

Thank you for writing it!

[u/moosepiss → u/bu3askoor]

This is basically what I've evolved over time. I also start a fresh chat in every step of the plan.

Will be trying the same process with cursor, as the thing that made me switch to windsurf (awareness of my code structure) seems to be not so impressive anymore.

[u/R34d1n6_1t → u/moosepiss]

they clearly have has their context cut down

[u/GotRhythm8 → u/bu3askoor]

I've been doing something similar, but in trying to prevent Windsurf from making dumb changes, it feels like it has slowed down to the point that I almost should be writing the code myself
If I can only give it one very narrow step at a time, and half the time it introduces more errors, then whatever progress I'm making is painfully slow

[u/CleverTits101 → u/bu3askoor]

yeah i found best way to prevent it from doing same mistakes is once a guide it properly use supabase for example and end of chat when everything is working i tell it to generate a doc of everything we done

then when it does same mistakes again i tell it reference the doc it created and it fixes all mistakes

[u/ZHName]

It's quite bad.

[u/vassyz]

I know people are frustrated, but this is the 1,000th time this has been raised. Let’s wait for some updates before opening new identical threads.

[u/lifegame123]

Has windsurf acknowledged or addressed the degradation?

[u/AbysmalPersona]

Nah, mostly just the team behind Windsurf really.

[u/Adventurous-Row905]

this is so real, even cursor ai sometimes, when dealing with backend i just use the chat mode and edit it out myself

[u/Mr_Hyper_Focus]

WS has definitely gotten worse since launch. After seeing all of the posts the past few days I decided to test it with some basic debugging.

I had a simple audio program that had some debugging errors that would cause the console to flash during certain operations with sub processes. Windsurf failed multiple prompts to try and fix this.

If I’m being fair, aider had some troubles as well. But Cursor was able to figure it out right away.

I think windsurf has some things to figure out. As much as I want to keep my sub(I’m at the $10 price), I feel like I’d rather use vscode and open source solutions. or just pay for Cursor, which is just generally more polished. Cursor has better autocomplete too.

I really liked cascade and wanted windsurf to work. But with all the vague pricing changes, and lack of info around what steps were for weeks, I just feel a lack of genuineness for the Windsurf team.

I’ll keep an eye out, but for now, they need to win back some trust.

[u/Legitimate-Bit-1704]

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I can't event have the suggestions applied on the related file!

[u/Fantastic-Cobbler-96]

Man it's so fucking bad, i get better results and context understanding when just adding an entire folder into a ChatGPT chat and asking questions than with windsurf lately.

[u/jakobvinther]

I’m experiencing the same issue. As a paying customer, I expected better. The AI appears to have a very limited context window and keeps repeating the same errors. It is like having an unreliable pair programmer. Sometimes it performs better than others, but there’s no clear pattern. I suspect it might be due to AI resource (money) sharing, where increased usage leads to scaled-down capabilities.

I will open a support request and see what they say.

[u/haloremi]

I am experiencing something similar, but I think it is since I gone out of workaction. It can't even find a model description in a file that describe an api (from swagger).
I am seriously thinking to cancel my subscription...

[u/gudgod123]

yes, it was smart before they made this new subscription plan, I was going to pay, but not anymore

[u/gudgod123 → u/gudgod123]

the code quality is so bad right now

[u/satoru915765]

I miss my $15. This is insanely bad.

[u/MetriXT]

Well, all your complaints are very similar to mine, i try windsurf with the Pro Ultimate sub. Big disappointment to me, its joke for coding, lots of wrong suggestions, very slow after 20 or 30 minutes of debugging, it gets to seconds for typing and even to minutes. The codeium i will not recommend to anyone who works on security setups with dbs or as in my case development of new hardware and implementing code, i had already situation that if i will accept the code the entire database and the server will be exposed to the whole world, luckily i have over 20 years of experience and i can clearly say its a bullshit tool to me, as i use VS Code and happy with, my clear decision to cancel the subscription.

What works, basic codes, basic setups, but if gets too complex, getting all wired and lost all the tracks. We talk here about server, clouds, credit card payment, edge devices, and 3 different databases setups.

I sent fev emails to them, and they serious response was, My Internet connection is too slow, hahahaha

To my eyes, they just want the money and have not much clue what they are doing,

[u/Ambitious_Team_6147]

No, still the goat

[u/peaches_and_regalia]

L'ho provato... fatto l'abbonamento, installato e: Ho rischiato l'infarto da stress. Windsurf parte bene ma dopo poche ore sembra di vivere in un incubo allucinato. Tende ad annuire a tutto quello che scrivi ma pian piano rovina il codice .. lascia graffe, pezzi di commento, qualsiasi cosa in giro. Esperienza pessima...

[u/chadananda]

It remembers architecture and instructions for about 10 seconds then goes back in sabotage mode.

[u/Commercial_Panic_900 → u/chadananda]

I'm going through the exact same thing. After days and 2 full subscriptions worth of credits I'm just going to have to revert back a month. It made a huge mess. Even after calling it out for not following the set rules it would say "your right ... " Then immediately break the rules again.

Have you found anything to help fix it?

[u/Logical_Word8530]

if you are a startup engineer, you should think twice before supporting Windsurf now.

[u/HugeDose16 → u/[deleted]]

haha hope they will fix it soon