How Google’s dev tools manager makes AI coding work

As Google’s task manager for developer tools, Ryan Salva has a front-row spot to the ways AI tools are changing coding. Formerly of Github and Microsoft, he’s present liable for tools similar Gemini CLI and Gemini Code Assist, nudging developers into the caller satellite of agentic programming.

His squad released new third-party research connected Tuesday showing however developers really usage AI tools – and however overmuch advancement is near to make. I sat down with Salva to speech astir the study and his idiosyncratic acquisition with AI coding tools.

This interrogation was edited for magnitude and clarity.

Every year, Google does a survey of developer trends – but this year’s study truly focuses connected AI tools, and specifically however agentic developers are consenting to get successful their attack to programming. Was determination thing successful the probe that amazed you?

One of the truly absorbing findings was the median day erstwhile developers started utilizing AI tools. They recovered it was April 2024, which corresponds reasonably neatly to Claude 3 coming retired and Gemini 2.5 coming out. This is truly the dawn of the reasoning oregon reasoning models, and astir that aforesaid time, we got overmuch amended astatine tool-calling.

For coding tasks, you truly request to beryllium capable to leverage outer accusation successful bid to occupation solve, truthful it whitethorn request to grep, it whitethorn request to compile the code. If the codification compiles it whitethorn privation to tally that portion test, and that integration test. I deliberation that tool-calling truly is the important portion that gave models the quality to self-correct arsenic they determination along.

How are you utilizing AI coding tools personally?

Most of my coding these days is for hobby projects, and I walk astir of my clip utilizing bid line-based tools. So that includes Gemini CLI. Then there’s a small spot of Claude Code, small spot of Codex successful there. And you don’t ever truly usage a terminal-based instrumentality by itself, truthful I’m truly heterogeneous astir the IDEs that I use. I usage Zed. I usage VS code. I usage Cursor. I usage Windsurf, each of them, due to the fact that I’m funny successful conscionable seeing however the satellite works and however the manufacture is evolving.

On the nonrecreational side, merchandise managers thin to unrecorded successful documents, truthful the archetypal happening is utilizing AI to assistance maine constitute the specification and requirements docs.

I’m funny however that works. You’re utilizing Gemini CLI to physique Gemini CLI, but I would ideate it doesn’t conscionable tally itself.

A improvement task volition usually commencement arsenic an issue, possibly it’s a GitHub contented that someone’s dropped with a bug. Often, if I’m truly being honest, it’s a reasonably under-specified issue. So I’ll usage Gemini CLI successful bid to make a much robust request doc successful Markdown. That volition usually make astir apt astir 100 lines of reasonably technical, but besides outcome-driven specification. Then I volition usage Gemini CLI to constitute the codification based connected that specification and the wide preferences successful the squad documents.

Across the engineering team, we person a mates of antithetic layers of rules and Markdown docs that get consumed by the model, conscionable laying retired our mode of working: Here’s however we bash testing, here’s however we negociate dependencies, and truthful on. So erstwhile it produces the code, it’s besides moving from those documents.

And arsenic Gemini CLI is going done and doing the troubleshooting, I’ll person it update my requirements doc saying, “I fixed this step. Now I’m connected to the adjacent step,” and truthful on. Each 1 of those creates its ain perpetrate and propulsion petition successful the repository, truthful I tin ever rewind oregon undo.

I would accidental astir apt 70% to 80% of my enactment is maine moving successful the terminal with earthy language, trying to usage Gemini CLI to trade the requirements, and past allowing Gemini CLI to constitute astir of the codification for me, which I volition past spell reappraisal and work with immoderate IDE I hap to beryllium using. But mostly I’m utilizing the IDE arsenic a spot to work the code, alternatively than to constitute the code.

Do you deliberation there’s a aboriginal for earthy machine code? Or volition we conscionable determination everything into terminal windows?

For 3 decades, the IDE was wherever we went to bash everything successful bundle development. You had the IDE, you had the browser, and you had the terminal window. 

I deliberation that’s inactive mostly the case, but I fishy that implicit clip we’ll extremity up spending a batch much clip moving with the requirements, and the magnitude of clip spent successful the IDE volition gradually shrink. And I deliberation that alteration whitethorn really hap implicit a beauteous agelong clip horizon. 

There’s a batch of angst astir what that means for bundle improvement arsenic a progression. If 10 years from now, we’re nary longer looking astatine code, what does that mean for developers? Will determination inactive beryllium a occupation for them?

I deliberation that your occupation arsenic a developer is going to look a batch much similar an architect. It is going to beryllium astir taking big, analyzable problems and breaking them down into smaller, solvable tasks. You’ll request to beryllium reasoning astir similar the bigger representation astir what you’re trying to produce, alternatively than the intermediate connection successful bid to explicit that successful instrumentality code.