I care a lot about the tools I use. Especially when they aren't free.
Here's what I'm paying for in 2026 to improve my performance and productivity as a staff software engineer.
Please note: None of the links in this article are affiliate links.
Cursor: the best tool for writing production-grade code
There's a holy war happening between Cursor and Claude Code. I'm not saying that Cursor will always come out on top, but for the moment it's clearly the superior product and workflow.
My most-used features in Cursor are Plans, Checkpoints, and Review. Cursor also has really strong MCP support, so most of my chats include the agent querying Notion for internal company docs or adjusting PRs with Graphite.
I use Cursor for 100% of my programming work. My normal workflow is:
- Start a new git worktree for my changes.
- Open an Agent to ask questions. I need to clarify my understanding of a problem area before I'm ready to make a plan.
- In the same conversation, make a Plan to implement a change. I usually specify testing expectations here.
- Let Cursor run by itself (5–45 minutes).
- Validate its output, prompt for changes.
- Once it's ready, submit a PR.
I have Cursor work on multiple threads at once, often in completely separate areas. Right now I have three open threads where Cursor is working in the background while I spend more time thinking about bigger problems.
And if you're interested in using both Cursor and Claude Code, Thomas Ricouard wrote about using Cursor + Claude together.
Kagi: a better search engine than Google
Kagi has been on my list for four years now. It's my favorite tool on this list and the hill I will die on: paying for search is the best upgrade to your internet experience you'll ever find.
Like Medium, Kagi took the paywall approach. The goals of ad-supported search (and ad-supported content generally) directly conflict with why I use search engines. Vlad Prelovac (CEO, Kagi) wrote a great post about it.
Kagi results beat Google in 95% of my searches. 90% of the time the right link is the first link on the page. And you can personalize results and share them!
No ads. Objectively better search results.
Readwise: never forget anything
Readwise takes all the notes and highlights from everything I read (books, posts, and Medium stories) and reminds me what I learned. It's at the heart of my personal knowledge management system.
They also released the best newsletter and RSS aggregator on the market: Readwise Reader. 100% of my newsletters and feeds go straight into Reader, and this is where I do most of my short-form reading off of Medium.
Medium: knowledge-sharing with other engineers
My favorite place to learn from other people in my field is this reading platform (Medium). Here, you can read thousands of high-quality posts about programming, AI, data science, and more. Most of the posts on your feed have been read and recommended by an actual human being (this is "curation" and it's awesome).
I've been a fan of Medium for years. And yes, I work here. But I chose to work here because I really love the platform! And I want to build a better internet.
I keep a list of my all-time favorite writing on Medium. If you find something wonderful, please share it with me!
Obsidian Copilot + Claude:
I take lots of notes. Usually in Obsidian. And once I plug in Claude via Obsidian Copilot, I can chat with my entire second brain.
Readwise highlights go straight into Obsidian. Then I can draft new docs and ideas while chatting with a context-aware Claude.
I took some notes on Designing Data-Intensive Applications. How do my notes on that book and Good Strategy, Bad Strategy influence the direction of the engineering strategy I've outlined in this doc about our legacy monolith?
Learn more about Obsidian Copilot →
…but I'm looking ahead at TK
TK is quickly becoming my go-to notes app, and I spent more time here in the last few weeks than I did in Obsidian. That's where I'm drafting this post right now. It's so nice to get into a writing flow and be able to answer questions without leaving the app.
Last week I was writing an eng strategy for migrating a very large and very old feature into our current stack and I wanted more details about the Strangler Fig pattern. Instead of leaving my writing, looking up that one post, restating it in the context of my current paragraph, and then returning to my flow, I just wrote "TK explain Strangler Fig for this component" and moved on to the rest of my thoughts. I came back later as I was cleaning up the strategy and of course TK had come up with the correct suggestion and source. 🤌
Bonus: Excalidraw whiteboards for context-sharing
I tried to cancel my Excalidraw subscription last year. I thought I might use something a bit more professional-looking, like Miro. But every time I share something that looks "perfect" with straight lines and clean fonts, people I share it with take it as canonical documentation rather than Jacob's Current Understanding.
Excalidraw is simple. And it's just barely messy enough that it's beautiful and obviously communicates "this is what's in my head", which is usually the message I'm trying to get across.
It's inexpensive, it's easy, and it's clean. And I can't stop paying for it.
I cancelled one subscription…
Claude (gasp) as a standalone app isn't doing it for me. I never need to use it since most of my other subscriptions already have AI tools that are better-focused. (Notion AI is great and Kagi has Kagi Assistant if you ever need to just chat with a base model.)
…and I'm trying out something new
Wispr Flow has been so much fun to use. It's way better than native dictation. But I imagine the gap will close in the coming years if Apple can get their act together. I got hooked on dictation the day I tried it out and I've never looked back. (Wispr Flow + Cursor = ♥️)
I care a lot about spending money on things that improve my life. These tools bring tremendous value to me as a software engineer. Consider adding these to your toolbox!
This post follows up on my 2025 post.