Photo by the editor
# Entry
For the last few years, the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution in coding has made it feel like there’s a very swift junior programmer sitting next to you. Tools like GitHub’s second pilot Or Cursor they were amazing at finishing sentences, but you were still the one holding the wheel through every turn. You had to copy and paste snippets, tweak imports, and manually run tests to verify that the AI actually knew what it was talking about.
We’re officially moving on from this. Google antigravity marks the beginning of “agent firstIt’s not just Copilot; it’s a platform where you stop being a typist and start being an architect. Google chose the name “Antigravity” for a very specific reason. There is a huge amount of “gravity” in time-honored programming – the ponderous and tedious burden of setting up environments, debugging templates, and jumping between terminal, browser, and editor. Antigravity was built to provide launch. It’s designed to get you out of the sticky low-level syntax weeds and take you to a higher, task-oriented level.
Instead of writing code line by line, you provide a vision. Autonomous integrated development environment (IDE) agents handle construction, testing, and verification.
Google Antigravity landing page | Photo by the author
The story of Antigravity is actually the story of Google returning to its roots. On November 18, 2025, Google presented Antigravity with the launch of its application Gemini 3 model family. One of the most surprising parts of Antigravity’s launch was the return of Google co-founder Sergei Brin. After years spent away from everyday activities, Brin reportedly transitioned to “Founder mode“, working slow into the night with engineers to improve the capabilities of the IDE Agent. His goal was to move Google from “Search“To”Action” and antigravity is the main tool of this mission.
Antigravity didn’t appear out of nowhere. Much of its DNA comes from a startup called Windsurfing. Google realized that the Windsurf team had cracked the code for how AI agents interact with the IDE, so it acquired the team in a massive $2.4 billion deal to lead the development of what we now know as antigravity.
Why didn’t Google just add these features to the existing tool? Because time-honored IDEs – like Visual Studio Code (VS Code) – They were built so that people could write them. They assume that the main actor is a human. Antigravity is built from scratch, assuming that the main worker is an AI agent. This is a workspace intended for “vibration coding”, where the only thing that matters is the speed of your ideas, not the speed of writing.
# First steps with antigravity
Before you start organizing agents, you need to install the software on your computer. Since Antigravity is built on a fork of VS Code, the installation process seems familiar; however, there are a few system-specific considerations to keep in mind to ensure that AI agents have sufficient resources to function efficiently.
// System requirements
Antigravity is not a straightforward text editor; supports local models and browser-based agents. Here’s what you need:
- macOS: You need Monterey (version 12) or later. While Intel-based Macs are supported, the experience is optimized for Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) as local AI inference relies heavily on a unified memory architecture
- Windows: You need a 64-bit version of Windows 10 or 11. It is highly recommended that you install the IDE on your main system drive (usually the C: drive) to avoid permissions issues when the AI agent tries to execute terminal commands
- Linux: Supports most current distributions such as Ubuntu (20.04+), Debian (10+) and Fedora (36+). Just make sure you have glibc 2.28 or later
// Download process
To get the legal, latest version, skip third party mirrors and go directly to the official source: antigravity.google/download
There you will see specific installers for each operating system (OS). Download the one that suits your computer, run the installer and run the application. You will be asked to configure themes and describe how you intend to operate the Antigravity agent (please stick to the recommended review-based programming approach). You will then be asked to “Sign in with Google” Operate the Gmail account you want to associate with AI and cloud project quotas.
Sign in to Google to sync your projects in the cloud | Photo by the author
# Interface navigation
The layout is designed to prevent Alt-Tab switching between different windows. Here are the five areas where you will spend the most time:
Editor’s panel: Central stage. This is the VS Code environment where agent-generated code appears. You can still jump in and type manually whenever you want.
The main editorial panel in Antigravity | Photo by the author
Scheduled mode vs. quick mode: In the agent panel you will see a switch.
- Plan mode is intended for huge tasks; generates a “Blueprint Artifact” that you can review before you start coding
- Quick mode is for quick edits like “center this div” or “rename this variable”
Switch between Plan and Quick | modes Photo by the author
Agent Manager: This is your mission control. It lists all energetic tasks, shows the agent’s “reasoning” steps, and provides status indicators (completed, successful, or failed).
Manage energetic AI agent tasks | Photo by the author
Artifact panel: Think of it as a “paper trail.” Stores specific logs, code diffs, and plans created by the agent
Viewing generated artifacts and logs | Photo by the author
Browser preview: Built-in version of Chrome browser. When the agent creates a web application, it automatically runs it here for testing
Testing a web application in the embedded browser | Photo by the author
# Creating your first project: an endless running game
To demonstrate the power of agent-based development, Antigravity will build a classic endless runner game from scratch using HTML, CSS AND JavaScript. The goal is to build an online “endless runner” game in which the player controls a car that goes uphill. The goal is to avoid oncoming traffic (cars going downhill). The game offers difficulty levels (straightforward, medium, difficult) and speeds that escalate as the player progresses.
// Step 1
Launch Antigravity and create a modern, empty folder. Open this folder in the IDE.
// Step 2
Open Agent Manager and click Modern task. Paste the following prompt into the box:
Build an endless runner game where a car goes up an endless track, other cars come towards it, and it has to avoid them to avoid getting hit, because once it hits it, it’s game over. The game level can be changed from straightforward, medium or difficult, and the higher you go in the game, the faster cars will attack you!
Entering a project prompt into the agent manager | Photo by the author
// Step 3
After pressing Enter, the agent initiates the workflow: it analyzes the received suggestions and moves to the project planning stage. Once this is done, encoding starts immediately. During this process, you may be asked to accept some reviews. Finally, in the verification stage, the agent will actually attempt to run the script. If it encounters an error (such as a missing library), it will automatically install the necessary library and try again.
Here’s what implementation plan generated by the agent looks like this:
AI-generated implementation plan | Photo by the author
Instruction file containing all the steps taken to create the unlimited runner game:
View step by step instructions | Photo by the author
Here’s what the final game looks like:
Ultimate game interface | Photo by the author
You move left and right to avoid oncoming cars.
Playing the unlimited runner game | Photo by the author
If you hit these cars, the game will be over.
Game on screen | Photo by the author
# Summary
Google Antigravity is a glimpse into a future where “writing code” is just a miniature part of being a programmer. By delegating deployment, testing, and debugging to Gemini-based agents, you can focus on high-level architecture and user experience.
To take full advantage of Antigravity, you need to change the way you communicate with your tools:
- Be specific but goal-oriented: Don’t tell the agent how to write a loop; tell me what the result should be
- Review the plan: In “Plan Mode”, always read the implementation plan before clicking “Commit”. It saves time in the long run
- Isolate tasks: Give the agent one clear mission at a time. If you want to create a login page and migrate the database, run these tasks as two separate operations in Agent Manager
Shittu Olumid is a software engineer and technical writer with a passion for using cutting-edge technology to create compelling narratives, with an eye for detail and a knack for simplifying complicated concepts. You can also find Shittu on Twitter.