Let's discuss how Large Language Models (LLMs) handle codebase structure and parsing, and what makes Windsurf particularly cracked in this area.
While most AI code tools treat code as unstructured text, Windsurf leverages Abstract Syntax Trees (ASTs) to comprehend code at the syntactic level.
Here's why this results in faster, more accurate suggestions: 🧵👇
Unlike other tools that rely on embedding indexes—a one-size-fits-all retrieval method that doesn't scale well for large repos—Windsurf's agent employs strategies akin to human developers to locate necessary context:
- Grep and file search
- File relation traversal (e.g., AST parsing)
- Web search and online documentation
- Parallel LLM-based searches
This approach ensures efficient and scalable context retrieval.
What is an AST?
During compilation, code is parsed into an Abstract Syntax Tree—a hierarchical representation of the code's syntax.
This structure allows extraction of scopes, variable bindings, and function definitions—elements that text-based models might overlook.
The reason why Cascade feels like magic is because it combines the collaborative nature of copilots with the independently powerful capacity of agents.
Both Copilots and Agents are valuable, but not as much as Flows.
Let's break this down 🧵
Before the year 2022, humans and keyboards worked in unison, and code development was done completely manually. Every single line of code was a direct result of human input.
In 2022, LLM’s took the world by storm and Copilots were introduced. If you started typing out a line, it would suggest a completion. Or if you asked a question, you would receive an answer.
But they worked on scoped tasks because of single LLM calls.