Stop Copy-Pasting Your Entire Codebase to AI — Try This!

#ai #webdev #beginners #programming

Ever spent 20 minutes explaining your frontend structure to ChatGPT/Claude/Cursor, only to have it misunderstand what you're trying to build? Yeah, me too. Here's a tool that fixes this annoying problem.

The Problem We All Face

Picture this: You want to modify your component. Your typical AI conversation goes like this:

You: "Can you help me style my navbar?"
AI: "Sure! Can you share your navbar code?"
You: *pastes 50 lines of JSX*
AI: "What about the CSS?"
You: *pastes another 100 lines*
AI: "Where is this component used?"
You: *explains folder structure*
AI: "Can you describe what it currently looks like?"
You: *tries to describe UI in words*
AI: *generates code*
You: "That's not what I wanted at all..."

20 minutes later, even after sharing everything, the AI still doesn't understand your vision and delivers something completely different from what you had in mind.

Enter Stagewise: Visual Context for AI

Stagewise is a browser toolbar that lets your AI agents actually see your frontend. No more explaining folder structures or describing UI elements with words.

How it works:

🎯 Point & Click: Select any element on your webpage
💬 Add Context: Write what you want to change
🤖 AI Magic: Your code editor receives both visual and text context
✅ Done: Changes happen automatically

Quick Setup (< 5 minutes)

Currently supports Windsurf and Cursor (more editors coming soon).

Step 1: Install Extension

From VS Code Marketplace, install the Stagewise extension.

Step 2: Setup Toolbar

Option A - Auto Setup (Recommended):

Press Ctrl+Shift+P (Command Palette)
Type setupToolbar
Hit Enter
Cursor automatically injects the necessary code

Option B - Manual Setup:
Check their docs for framework-specific examples (React, Next.js, Vue, Nuxt).

Step 3: Run Your App

npm run dev

You'll see a floating toolbar in the bottom-right corner.

Demo: Redesigning a Navbar in 30 Seconds

Instead of the usual back-and-forth with AI, here's what actually happened:

Selected the navbar element on my webpage
Typed: "Change this navbar design"
Sent to Cursor via Stagewise
Cursor received complete element data: classes, styles , DOM structure, and exact text content - no more blind guessing!
Changes applied automatically