Warp vs Windsurf | agentconfig.ing

Warp vs WindsurfComparisonUpdated 2026-03-16

SUMMARY

Warp (Terminal) uses markdown configuration while Windsurf (IDE) uses markdown. They differ on 3 of 11 compared features. Both tools provide AI-assisted development but take different approaches to project configuration.

FEATURE COMPARISON

Feature	Warp	Windsurf	Notes
Config format	markdown	markdown
Hierarchy support	✓	✓	Whether config files can be placed at multiple directory levels
Global config	✗	✓	User-wide configuration outside any project
Project config	✓	✓
Subdirectory scoping	✓	✓	Config files in subdirectories that apply only to that subtree
File inclusion / imports	✗	✗	Ability to include or reference other files from config
Ignore file	✗	.codeiumignore
IDE integration	Terminal	✓
Schema / structure	Free-form (Markdown)	Free-form (Markdown)	Whether config uses structured schema or free-form content
Git committed	✓	✓	Whether primary config files are intended to be version-controlled
Encoding	UTF-8	UTF-8

SIDE-BY-SIDE CODE SAMPLES

Warp

AGENTS.md

markdown

# Project Rules

## Stack
- Go 1.23 with Chi router
- PostgreSQL 16 with pgx driver
- Redis for caching and rate limiting

## Commands
- make dev — Start with hot reload (air)
- make test — Run go test ./...
- make lint — Run golangci-lint
- make migrate — Run goose migrations

## Conventions
- Use context.Context as first param in all functions
- Structured logging with slog
- Errors wrap with fmt.Errorf("funcName: %w", err)
- Table-driven tests with t.Run subtests

Windsurf

.windsurf/rules/*.md

markdown

---
trigger: glob
globs: "**/*.test.ts"
---

# Testing Conventions

- Use Vitest as the test runner
- Colocate test files next to source files
- Use describe blocks organized by function/component name
- Prefer userEvent over fireEvent in component tests
- Mock external services; never hit real APIs in unit tests

KEY DIFFERENCES

1. Global config

Warp: Not supported. Windsurf: Supported.

2. Ignore file

Warp: Not supported. Windsurf: .codeiumignore.

3. IDE integration

Warp: Terminal. Windsurf: Supported.

WHICH SHOULD I USE?

Recommendation

Choose based on your IDE/CLI preference. If you use Warp, configure AGENTS.md. If you use Windsurf, configure .windsurfrules. Many projects include config files for multiple tools so each team member can use their preferred editor.

PORTABILITY TIP

sync-instructions.sh

bash

# Maintain a single source of truth:
cp AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md CLAUDE.md
cp AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md .cursorrules
cp AI-INSTRUCTIONS.md AGENTS.md