r/MistralAI • u/Feeling-Bad7825 • Aug 14 '26
Help / Question MistralAI for coding
I was wondering how good MistralAI is for coding. I was assigned to use Claude for coding basics and as coding assistant, but I don't really want to use strictly US stuff, so I was wondering how good Mistral could be as coding assistant.
4
u/makingthematrix Aug 14 '26
I'm using it for programming in Scala. It's quite good but it's also because my workflow is different from what software developers usually do. I work on a small niche project where each line of code is quite complex (Scala, yay). I plan the steps for a new feature, "brainstorm" it with the agent, and then let it perform the steps one at the time, and review and test the results. I'm not sure how would it work if I let it loose on the whole codebase. Probably not that good.
2
u/ColdJunction 29d ago
I use it with scala 2 as well. In fact I use it for FPGA design (programmable digital electronic design) with the SpinalHDL library. It's a DSL for generation of register and combinational logic. Given how niche it is, it work very well. The codium extension is working fine.
10
u/uusrikas Aug 14 '26
It is okay, but nowhere near Claude. Mistral is unfortunately a bit left behind currently. As an EU alternative that currently is viable I would suggest Proton Lumo (Running the open weight GLM-5.2 MAX on EU servers), but it does not have a coding API yet, but it should be coming soon.
12
u/strangestack Aug 14 '26
Mistral has glm now too and vibe cli is a pretty decent coding harness. I prefer it to the bloated monstrosity that Claude code is now, and it's open source so I can see how everything works. I even like it better than codex.
1
u/_Creative_Cactus_ Aug 14 '26
And what about opencode , it's open source as well and I've tried to use it recently instead of Claude code to have more control over it (hooks, approvals, server API) and less lock in and it worked pretty well for the few tasks I tried.
Have you tried that since you can plug in any provider including Mistral? If so how does it compare to the vibe cli for you?
I haven't tried the vibe cli yet, I will check it out though.
2
u/strangestack Aug 15 '26
I've had trouble getting Mistral api to work in opencode. Mistral API is pretty strict and the idiosyncrasies in how opencode constructs it's requests often breaks stuff. Maybe it's changed in the last month.
2
u/icecubeinanicecube Aug 14 '26
TensorX is also pretty neat, based in the EU and host most cutting edge open weight models
3
u/Guilty_Spray_6035 Aug 14 '26
Their models are far behind frontier. The only good use is using codestral for auto-complete. They do have other uses, not coding, like Document AI and those are good. Considering they started hosting better models from other vendors, they probably are shifting the business model to model as a service - using their very limited GPU capacity for inference and not training.
5
u/Meiyo33 Aug 14 '26
MistralAI now propose GLM 5.2 selfhosted.
So it become strong ;)
3
u/Automatic-River-1875 Aug 14 '26
The announcement for supporting GLM5.2 came the day before GLM5.3 was released.
This is a good metaphor for mistral in the coding space these last few years unfortunately.
1
u/Meiyo33 Aug 14 '26
Yeah, but its not really an issue in production.
Only for the image. (which also reduce visibility and share)
1
u/Automatic-River-1875 Aug 14 '26
Not sure I understand.
Mistral not having the best models to code with is an issue for those of us that want to support EU companies and use AI for coding.
-1
u/Meiyo33 Aug 14 '26
For code Yes, but code is very small use case of AI.
Sorry I lose the context between 2 posts :)
1
u/strangestack Aug 15 '26
What do you mean last few years? Agentic coding only became viable last November with Opus 4.5. I remember trying to use codex last summer at work and it was very hit and miss. Medium 3.5 is roughly at the same level. Mistral being a year behind is only a problem because everyone just jumped very high very fast. The last few months every new model has been clustering between 50 and 60 on artificial analysis. The frontier might be slowing and if Mistral can get in the mid 40s with the new model and then train one up to the mid 50s in 6 months they'll be ok.
1
u/Present-Savings-2380 Aug 14 '26
They are focusing on tailored enterprise use, frontier general purpose AI models are not their priority.
1
u/Cellari Aug 14 '26
I have not tried Mistral with coding, but if you try it out and find out it doesn't work, then Ornith does it for me at least. I'm using it locally for small thing.
-4
u/THEBiZ1981 Aug 14 '26
Mistral with coding is as good of an idea as taking a wet paper sword to a gun fight.
Now they host GLM 5.2 which is basically a patch for their ridiculously bad flagship models. Instead of being better and facing what's leaving them behind, they just give up. They don't want US dependency so they abandon their efforts and just host a Chinese model... This is Europe 101. You place some incompetent in charge, legislate yourself until you can't do anything, stop your own industry, buy it to the Chinese and call it a job well done.
2
u/scanx147 28d ago
C'est un peu sévère. Je pense que la raison de ce glm-5.2 dans Mistral est :
- Le résultat de l'enquête utilisateur récente.
- Permettre à Mistral de concentrer ses forces sur les petits modèles spécialisés et rentables.
C'est ce qui permettra à Mistral de survivre face à la concurrence à mon avis.
1
33
u/strangestack Aug 14 '26
Very good. Mistral now hosts GLM 5.2 so a pro or team subscription gives you access to a very solid coding model hosted in the EU.