You can assign a task to background coding agent and receive a pull request minutes later. This has the potential to be extremely valuable for development teams. Small bugs & papercuts can be quickly solved without requiring your developers to context switch, and you can prototype larger changes before beginning on the work yourself.
While all leading background coding agents can deliver great results, we've compared them based on the differences that matter most to you.
| Agent | Where you interact | How it understands your code | Environment setup |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cursor's Background Agent (Anysphere) |
Inside Cursor (Ctrl + E panel), web dashboard, or Slack mention | You can configure .cursor/rules files. | Snapshot-based VM. Highly customizable. View instructions. |
| Copilot Coding Agent (GitHub) |
Assign an Issue to Copilot inside GitHub | No additional context gathering. | YAML file for setup. View instructions. |
| Devin (Cognition Labs) |
Web app with VS-Code-like IDE or Slack / Linear commands | Builds DeepWiki based on your codebase that includes an architectural overview, schema, etc. | Snapshot-based VM. Highly customizable. View instructions. |
| Codex (OpenAI) |
Web app similar to ChatGPT with "Code/Ask" buttons | You can configure an AGENTS.md file. | Simple VM with the ability to set preinstalled package versions and setup scripts. View instructions. |
| Jules (Google) |
Web app in Google Labs | No additional context gathering. | Simple VM with small customization possible. View instructions. |
• Start small by assigning "paper cuts" and quality-of-life improvements while you learn the agent's capabilities.
• Resist the temptation to assign large tasks to the coding agent when starting out.
• Use background agents to quickly prototype ideas. Remember, you don't have to accept their suggestions.
• Provide detailed context about your codebase, naming conventions, and patterns to the coding agent. DevClarity can help you with this.
• Coding agents don't suffer from context-switching costs. They're always ready in your codebase, waiting for tasks.
Background coding agents represent a significant opportunity to automate routine development tasks and accelerate your team's productivity. By starting with simple tasks and gradually expanding their capabilities, you can build a powerful autonomous development workflow.
Reach out to DevClarity to systematically implement background coding agents in 30 days.
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