Supermaven - Finally, an AI Autocomplete That Isn't Garbage

Jacob Jackson created Tabnine in college, watched it get slower with every update, then worked as a researcher at OpenAI and realized AI autocomplete could be way faster. So he built Supermaven because waiting 3 seconds for GitHub Copilot suggestions was driving him insane.

Context Window Actually Works

GitHub Copilot sees maybe 8k tokens of your code. Supermaven sees 1 million tokens. That's the difference between it suggesting useState<any> (useless) and useState<User | null> because it actually remembers your User type from 50 files ago.

I was refactoring this massive React app last month - like 200 components, maybe more? Lost count. Anyway, Copilot kept suggesting generic bullshit like const [data, setData] = useState<any>(). Supermaven knew I always use const [user, setUser] = useState<User | null>(null) because it actually remembers the pattern from other components. That's exactly why this context window matters - it actually learns your habits instead of being a fancy autocomplete with amnesia.

Speed That Doesn't Make You Want to Throw Your Laptop

250ms vs 3 seconds. Doesn't sound like much until you're debugging at 3AM and Copilot makes you wait while your train of thought derails completely. I've timed it - Copilot takes 2-4 seconds on complex completions, sometimes longer if you're on shitty WiFi. Supermaven usually hits in under 500ms even when my hotel internet is garbage.

Their Babble model is optimized for speed over showing off. When you type const handleSubmit = async ( it immediately suggests (formData: FormData) => { instead of making you wait 3 seconds while it contemplates the meaning of async functions. No spinner, no delay, just works.

Real Companies Use This (Not Just Marketing Claims)

DigitalOcean, Midjourney, and Framer engineers switched from Copilot. When you're working on 500k+ line codebases, that context window makes autocomplete actually useful instead of just annoying.

Cursor bought them in November 2024 for undisclosed money because their inference was so much faster. Free tier is actually unlimited - no monthly limits, no "10 completions then fuck you" like some tools.

VS Code Installation (Should Take 30 Seconds, Usually Takes 5 Minutes)

Search "Supermaven" in the VS Code extension marketplace, click install. It works immediately without signing up for accounts or configuring API keys.

When it breaks: Extension installs but doesn't show suggestions. Check the output panel (View → Output → Supermaven). Usually it's network issues or VS Code needs a restart. I've had it fail to start because my company VPN blocked their servers - had to whitelist *.supermaven.com.

VS Code version issues: Works fine on VS Code 1.85+. Broke on some 1.84 versions with ECONNREFUSED errors. Update VS Code first if you're on ancient versions.

JetBrains Installation (2 Minutes + Restart Hell):

File → Settings → Plugins → Search "Supermaven" → Install → Restart IDE. Works with IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, all the JetBrains family.

When it pisses you off: Plugin loads but completions are slow/broken. Usually because JetBrains' built-in autocomplete is fighting with Supermaven. Disable IntelliCode and ML-powered completion in Editor → Code Completion → Machine Learning. Had to do this on every JetBrains IDE - they don't sync plugin conflicts.

Neovim (For the Masochists):

supermaven-nvim plugin. Requires Lua config and a package manager like Packer or Lazy.nvim.

Real Neovim config that works:

{
  "supermaven-inc/supermaven-nvim",
  config = function()
    require("supermaven-nvim").setup({})
  end,
}

Neovim failure modes: LSP conflicts are common. If your completions disappear, :SupermavenRestart usually fixes it. Node.js version needs to be 16+. Crashed on Node 14 with cryptic binary module errors.

Free vs Pro (What You Actually Get)

Free tier: Unlimited completions, smaller context window, 7-day retention. Your code patterns get forgotten if you don't code for a week. Good enough for side projects.

Pro tier ($10/month): Full 1M token context, style adaptation, biggest model, $5/month chat credits. Worth it if you're working on large codebases where context matters.

Team tier: Same as Pro but with centralized billing for companies.

Language Support (The Real Story)

Excellent: JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, Go, Rust. These feel native.
Good: Java, C#, PHP, Ruby. Works well, occasional weirdness.
Meh: C++, Swift, Kotlin. Basic completions, nothing fancy.
Don't bother: Assembly, COBOL, your company's internal DSL from 1997.

Data Privacy (For Paranoid Companies)

Your code sits on their servers for 7 days, then gets deleted. Not zero retention but way better than most. They claim they don't train on your data - I believe them because Jacob Jackson seems like an actual engineer, not some corporate sociopath trying to steal your IP.

Cloud-only: No offline mode. Conference WiFi = no completions. If you need air-gapped development, use Tabnine's local mode.

When This Breaks (And It Will)

Network timeouts: Happens more than I'd like. Hotel WiFi especially sucks. Error shows up in output panel as ECONNREFUSED 127.0.0.1:45239 or Error: connect ETIMEDOUT messages.

Memory leaks: On huge codebases (200k+ lines), it sometimes eats 2GB+ RAM until your IDE crawls. Restart fixes it but annoying when you're in flow. Seen this on VS Code 1.85.0 and IntelliJ 2024.1.

IDE conflicts: VS Code's built-in TypeScript suggestions fight with Supermaven. Turn off Editor → Suggestions → Quick Suggestions or you'll get duplicate completions that look identical but aren't.

Server outages: Rare but happens. Check their status page or @supermaven when completions stop working entirely.

The nuclear option: Cmd+Shift+P → Supermaven: Restart fixes 90% of problems. IDE restart fixes the other 10%.