The Future of AI Pair Programming: Beyond Autocomplete

Note: This post explores potential futures and vision, not committed roadmap features. Timelines and specific implementations may vary.

We are in the early innings of AI-assisted development. Tools like GitHub Copilot showed us the value of “smart autocomplete.” Chuchu represents the next phase: Agentic Coding. But what comes next?

Phase 1: Autocomplete (Past)

• Tool: Copilot, Tabnine
• Interaction: “Tab to complete”
• Scope: Next line of code.

Phase 2: Agentic Coding (Present - Chuchu)

• Tool: Chuchu, Cursor
• Interaction: “Chat to implement”
• Scope: Entire files, multi-file refactors, bug fixes.
• Key Tech: RAG, Tool Use, Multi-step reasoning.

Phase 3: Autonomous Engineering (Future)

• Interaction: “Goal to deliver”
• Scope: Entire features, end-to-end.

Imagine this workflow:

1. You write a GitHub Issue: “Add ‘Login with Google’ feature.”
2. Chuchu (running as a background worker) sees the issue.
3. It creates a plan, modifies the DB schema, updates the backend, creates the frontend components, and writes the tests.
4. It opens a Pull Request.
5. You review the PR, leave comments (“Move this button to the left”), and Chuchu updates it.
6. You merge.

Chuchu’s Roadmap

We are building towards Phase 3, inspired by recent advances in multi-agent systems¹².

• Memory: Long-term memory of your coding style and architectural decisions.
• Proactivity: Agents that run in the background, running tests and fixing lint errors before you even see them.
• Collaboration: Agents that can comment on PRs and discuss architecture with other agents.

The goal is not to replace the developer, but to elevate them. You become the Architect, and AI becomes your Engineering Team.

References