Coding on iPad – What Developers Use in 2025

This page summarizes current workflows and native apps for productive coding on an iPad, plus quick‑start playbooks and reusable AI prompts. Save it locally and open it in any modern browser—everything is self‑contained.

1. “Full” desktop IDEs, streamed to the iPad

Workflow	How it works on iPad	Good for	TL;DR setup
VS Code in the browser (GitHub Codespaces / Gitpod / CodeSandbox / `code‑server`)	The IDE runs on a cloud VM (or your own Linux box) and presents the VS Code Web UI in Safari or Chrome. You still get extensions, terminals, and AI tools.	Anything you’d normally do in VS Code, including large repos, dev‑containers, Copilot, etc.	Pick a host (Codespaces, Gitpod, self‑hosted `code‑server`). Expose HTTPS (Codespaces does it for you; `code‑server` supports `--link`). Open the URL in Safari and “Add to Home Screen” so it feels like an app.
Blink Shell + Blink Code	Blink is an SSH/mosh terminal with a native `code` command that tunnels VS Code Web (or a Codespace) into a full‑screen iPad view with proper keyboard shortcuts.	Devs who already keep a beefy server or want an offline‑ish feel with mosh.	Install Blink from the App Store. On your server run `code tunnel` (or install `code‑server`). In Blink type `code user@host` and voilà.

2. Native iPad coding apps (runs everything on‑device)

App	Languages / features	Practically used for	Notes
Textastic 10	80+ syntaxes, split‑screen, external keyboard, SSH/FTP, Working Copy integration.	Quick edits, web / scripting projects, static sites.	$9.99 one‑time. Fast and stable.
Juno	Python & Jupyter notebooks with real terminal; can connect to remote kernels.	Data‑science sketches, algorithm prototyping, teaching.	Includes Pandas/Matplotlib; keyboard accessory row for symbols.
Swift Playgrounds 5	Full Swift & SwiftUI compiler, can publish to the App Store.	Learning Swift, building small iOS apps entirely on iPad.	Free; Apple‑maintained.
Koder / a‑Shell / Play.js	General code editors, POSIX shell, Node runtime.	HTML/CSS/JS, small CLI tools.	Lighter weight; no LLM bells & whistles.
Continuous (C#, .NET)	Live compile/run; Xamarin UI preview.	Game‑dev prototypes, C# practice.	Unique niche; actively maintained.

3. Which option feels closest to Cursor today?

Need	Best choice today
AI‑assisted completions & chat, VS Code keybindings	VS Code Web via Codespaces or Blink Code. You keep the VS Code extension ecosystem that Cursor builds on.
Offline airplane coding	Textastic (general code) or Juno (Python/Jupyter).
Rapid Swift prototyping	Swift Playgrounds.

4. Fast‑start playbook

Spin up a Codespace (or self‑host code‑server on a cheap Lightsail/Droplet):
```
brew install code-server   # on your Mac/home server
code-server --link         # get a public https:// link
```
Bookmark the URL in Safari → “Add to Home Screen”, then install extensions (Copilot, GitLens, linters).
Bring the keyboard‑centric experience:
Safari → Settings → Advanced → enable “Press Tab to highlight each item” for proper tab focus. Use a Magic Keyboard or Brydge Pro for ⌘ shortcuts.
Mock Cursor’s “Ask AI” prompt:
Select code → ⌘I (Copilot Chat: “Explain” or “Refactor”). For commit messages: open Copilot Chat panel → “Generate commit message”.

5. Prompts you can stash for quick AI help

Explain this block in plain English.
Rewrite this SQL query using CTEs and add comments.
Generate Jest tests that hit 80 % coverage for the selected React component.
Given my tsconfig.json below, why is the build failing on optional chaining?

If you need something more specialized…

JetBrains Fleet (Early Access) also works in Safari; has an LLM chat panel built‑in (Aqua).
Replit for iPad (browser or App Store) ≈ instant cloud container, great for quick scripts or prototypes.
Coder OSS lets you host multiple IDEs (VS Code, JetBrains) from a single Kubernetes pod—handy if you already run homelab infra.

Generated April 23 2025.