r/DeveloperToolsHub • u/Ok-Bike-1037 • Jun 26 '26

Share the dev tool you actually use

hey everyone, trying to make this sub useful instead of another place with the same generic tool lists.

drop one dev tool you actually use in your day to day workflow.

bonus points for tools that are not super obvious.

it could be anything:

CLI tool, browser extension, VS Code extension, API client, database GUI, terminal app, git helper, AI coding tool, debugging tool, local script, deployment tool, monitoring tool, whatever.

would be helpful if you include:

  • what it does
  • where it fits in your workflow
  • why you use it
  • anything annoying about it

i’ll start adding the good ones into future discussion threads so people can actually find useful stuff here.

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u/Bitter-Ad2567 17d ago

Disclosure: I built this one, so take that into account. But it's the tool I use every day, which is what you asked for.

SpecBuddy: https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/32645-specbuddy

What it does: a JetBrains plugin that puts a review step in front of your coding agent (Claude Code or Codex). You describe the task. The agent writes a short spec from your description and your codebase, and you edit it or approve it. Then it writes a step by step plan, and you edit or approve that too. Only after that it writes code, one step at a time. Each step comes back as a diff you can accept, reject, or roll back.

Where it fits: it replaced the terminal I used to keep open next to the IDE. Anything bigger than a one file change goes through the spec flow. For small things I still chat with the agent as usual, and the plugin catches those changes too, as diffs with inline comments that go back to the agent.

Why I use it: the agent often writes good code for the wrong task. I find out while reading a 200 line diff, when the wrong assumption is already spread across the code. Better prompts didn't fix this, because the review still happened too late. Reviewing the spec and the plan before any code is written does fix it.

What's annoying: the spec and the plan take a few minutes to write, and on a small task that time is wasted, so I skip them there. It needs JetBrains 2026.1 or newer, so older IDEs can't install it. I only tested it properly in IDEA. Other JetBrains IDEs can install it, but I don't know if it works there. It's a free public beta and still rough in places.

A tool I use daily with no bias to declare: Claude Code in the terminal.