We built an AI coding assistant that doesn’t live in another tab
Most AI coding tools still interrupt your flow.
You hit an error → open a new tab → paste code → explain your project → wait for a response → copy everything back.
That loop doesn’t feel dramatic, but it quietly breaks concentration over and over.
We built Quill to remove that friction entirely.
AI that stays inside your editor
Quill lives directly inside Cloudpen’s editor as a movable panel that stays alongside your code while you work.
It doesn’t try to pull you away from your environment. It adapts to it.
You can drag it anywhere, keep it open while you code, or pull it up only when you need it.
No tab switching. No context loss. No re-explaining your project every time.
But the real difference isn’t where Quill lives.
It’s what it knows.
Context is the real product
Because Quill runs inside your project, it already understands what you’re working on.
That changes everything:
- Highlight code → explain or fix it
- Right-click a file → get a full explanation of what it does
- Ask for a review → get improvements based on your actual codebase
- Debug errors → without copy-pasting into another tool
- Generate functions/components → directly inside your workflow
It’s not “AI you consult.”
It’s AI that is already inside the problem space.
Why a movable panel?
We spent a lot of time on this decision.
We tried:
- A persistent sidebar
- A command palette
- Inline ghost-text suggestions
We kept returning to the same idea: developers don’t work the same way.
Some people want an assistant always visible.
Others only want it when they’re stuck.
A fixed sidebar forces a workflow on you.
A floating, movable panel doesn’t.
It stays present without being opinionated about how you should code.
Developers don’t want one AI model
Another thing we learned: model preference is personal.
Some developers prefer GPT-4o. Others use Claude, Gemini, Grok, or OpenRouter models.
So we built BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) into Cloudpen Pro.
You can plug in:
- OpenAI
- Anthropic
- Gemini
- Groq
- xAI
- OpenRouter
Quill will use your key directly.
No shared limits. No hidden caps. No forced model choices.
Your usage is only constrained by your provider.
For everyone else
If you don’t bring your own key, Quill still works out of the box using Cloudpen’s shared pool.
You get Limited requests/day, which is enough for a full coding session for most developers.
We arrived at that number after testing real usage patterns during beta—it covers typical daily workflows without forcing constant upgrades.
Quill wasn’t supposed to be the main feature
Cloudpen started as a browser-based IDE:
- Real terminal
- Live deployments
- GitHub integration
- Full development environment in the browser
Quill was originally just an add-on.
But over time, it became one of the most used parts of the platform.
Because once it’s sitting right beside your code, it’s hard to go back to context switching.
Closing thought
The best AI coding assistant isn’t the one in another tab.
It’s the one already sitting next to your code when you need it.
If you’ve used AI tools while coding, I’m curious:
Do you prefer AI inside your editor, or do you still rely on separate tools like ChatGPT/Claude tabs—and why?
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