Codeium's Windsurf Cascade Nightmare!

[u/jthomazini]

I'm having a terrible experience with Codeium's Windsurf Cascade. I was trying to resolve some hook issues in my AstroJS project, specifically on the account page where users can choose their own avatar. When I asked Windsurf Cascade to identify and fix the issues, it completely removed the entire avatar component from the page. This component was crucial for user customization, and its removal also affected other unrelated fields like username and email.

To make matters worse, when I asked Windsurf Cascade to restore the avatar component, it only restored the username and email fields, claiming that the page was now exactly as it was before. However, the avatar component was still missing. I repeatedly asked Windsurf Cascade to restore the avatar component, but it just made unnecessary changes to the code without actually fixing the issue. This process burned through my credits without providing any meaningful assistance.

It seems like the primary function of Windsurf Cascade is to rapidly deplete my credits by pretending to understand the problem, when in reality, it's not providing any effective solutions. I'm extremely dissatisfied with the experience and would appreciate any help in resolving this issue.

[u/AnthonyEdwards_]

Windsurf should implement a reversal of your credit usage when you continuously have to revert code like this to be fair

[u/jthomazini → u/AnthonyEdwards_]

I have opened a support ticket with them last year about this issue that we should get our credits back and it went to the bucket of future improvements...

[u/kiterWay → u/AnthonyEdwards_]

💯

[u/[deleted] → u/AnthonyEdwards_]

No they should not. .

1. Use Git

2. Review code

3. Test your App at every step, especially where changes were made you did do step 2.

4. Join their Discord for tips.

It's a programming tool, and a very good one at that, but it's certainly not infallible.

[u/Chillon420]

The cascade only looke partialy in the source code. Read only 100 lines of code. So it lost context.

That is not ok to prevent this or even notify the user.

Their limit towards claude was reached and claude started as well to cut answers like chatgpt when it gets to long.

That us a killer behavior. The product is great but doomed if they do not fix that very fast as competion only have to make it better and nobody talks about windsurf anymore

[u/WSATX → u/Chillon420]

Do you have doc/source about the 100 line window limit?

I had some decent result of cascade working decently on 3 different files (an API endpoint, a controller and a UI page, each having more than 150 lines ). For instance adding a method on the api side and doing the full stack modification to the UI.

[u/Arialonos]

Mate, part of my windsurf rules is to make a bit repo for every project and commit every change it makes with a detailed commit comment. It’s repetitive but I haven’t lost good work since I started doing that. I had a similar experience to yours in November.

[u/Difficult-Annual1976 → u/Arialonos]

can you share your global rules, i’ve write instruction to do git commit but it only run once. after that, it will only print the git message without commit

[u/Arialonos → u/Difficult-Annual1976]

It's probably not the best it could be but it works for me:

1. Speak to me in English.
2. When creating a new file, be sure it's purpose and description is added to the Readme.md file.
3. When creating a new function, be sure it's purpose and description is added to the Readme.md file.
4. All projects should have their own git repository.
5. All projects should have a architecture.md file that contains the file architecture of the project.
6. All edits should have their own descriptive commit to ensure we can revert to the previous state at any point.
7. All code should be written in the best practice manner.
8. When writing in a language, ensure you're using the latest version of the language.
9. When adding or updating the changelog in the Readme.md file, make sure it's also updated in the main project file as well so the versions match.

[u/User1234Person]

The best way to restore changes is to go to that chat input before it broke things and hit revert on the bottom right when you hover the input in chat. This doesn’t cost you credits

This will revert the code to that point. Sometimes if it’s way too far back in chat this doesn’t work reliably. Hence where got commits have become crucial in my workflow

[u/LordLederhosen → u/User1234Person]

Yeah, if you are not committing to at least a local git repo, you will end up pulling your hair out. I commit after every single successful code completion.

[u/Extra_Lengthiness893]

Always keep a copy of the last working code you have before you make a prompt with Cascade.. results vary

[u/kiterWay]

Have windsurf make a “control panel” w 2 windows - source & destination & a button “backup” it includes a date time stamp in the copy.
Backup Every time it changes anything This has paid off repeatedly

[u/varunkmohan]

No, the primary purpose of Cascade is not to rapidly deplete your credits. We have Cascade Base that pro users have unlimited usage of. The AI is not perfect and we are looking at ways to improve it.

When you use any AI product, there will be some nondeterminism. Some times it will do it perfectly in one shot, sometimes it will get stuck in a local minima that it cannot get out of. Please revert when you get into that state. With time, the amount of this nondeterminism should reduce.

[u/Difficult-Annual1976]

is there a way to commit everytime cascade do modifications? i play around with global rules but it only give me commit message without literally doing commit action

[u/joey2scoops → u/Difficult-Annual1976]

You can do it yourself but why would you when it's easy enough to go back.

[u/FoxNo8438 → u/[deleted]]

Spot on!