Modern IDEs optimize for mouse-driven workflows and language-specific features. Emacs optimizes for text manipulation and extensibility. AI development requires working across multiple languages, formats, and tools simultaneously. Emacs handles this naturally.

Python for training scripts. YAML for Kubernetes configs. SQL for feature queries. Markdown for documentation. JSON for API responses. Terraform for infrastructure. Shell scripts for automation. Emacs treats all of them as text to be manipulated efficiently.

Why Emacs in 2025

Text-first paradigm: