Google Antigravity Review: The Agent-First IDE Experiment
Google Antigravity is a bold vision for agentic development that reimagines the developer as an architect rather than a typist. Our in-depth review explores the Agent Manager system, browser automation, and critical security vulnerabilities you need to know.
Google Antigravity Review: The Agent-First IDE Experiment
Quick Verdict
⭐⭐⭐☆☆ 3.2/5
Google Antigravity is a bold vision for agentic development that reimagines the developer as an architect rather than a typist, but critical security vulnerabilities and stability issues make it unsuitable for production environments in its current state.
What Is Google Antigravity?
Google Antigravity is an agent-first integrated development environment (IDE) launched in November 2025 as part of Google's pivot from "Search" to "Action." Built as a standalone fork of Visual Studio Code, it incorporates the Agent Manager system—a central nervous system that orchestrates autonomous agents across the editor, terminal, and an integrated Chrome browser.
The platform emerged from a $2.4 billion non-exclusive licensing deal for the Windsurf codebase, with reported direct involvement from co-founder Sergey Brin during development. Its core philosophy is "Vibe Coding"—shifting developers from syntax production to high-level architectural oversight while agents handle implementation, testing, and verification.
Antigravity achieves a 76.2% score on SWE-bench Verified, demonstrating strong capability for resolving real-world GitHub issues. However, it remains in "Public Preview" status with documented instability and security concerns.
What We Like
| Pro | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| ✅ Agent Manager with parallel execution | Spawn multiple independent agents simultaneously for concurrent development tasks |
| ✅ Native browser automation | Built-in Chrome integration allows agents to capture screenshots, analyze DOM errors, and verify UI rendering in real-time |
| ✅ Modular Skills framework | Progressive Disclosure architecture loads specialized expertise only when needed, preventing context rot and improving performance |
| ✅ Multi-model optionality | Switch between Gemini 3 Pro, Claude 4.5, and GPT-OSS 120B to hedge against individual model failures or quota limits |
| ✅ Artifact-based transparency | Planning Mode generates editable Implementation Plans, enabling formal design reviews before code execution |
What We Don't
| Con | Impact |
|---|---|
| ❌ Critical security vulnerabilities | The "Lethal Trifecta"—RCE via indirect prompt injection, Unicode tag smuggling, and data exfiltration—creates unacceptable risk for production codebases |
| ❌ WSL Access Violation crashes | Windows Subsystem for Linux environments trigger Error -1073741819, causing immediate application crashes on large projects |
| ❌ Unpredictable quota lockouts | Pro subscribers report sudden shifts from 5-hour refreshes to 7-day lockouts, with no transparency about rate limit changes |
| ❌ No Microsoft extension support | Restricted to Open VSX marketplace; enterprise .NET teams lose access to C# Dev Kit and other proprietary Microsoft tools |
| ❌ Zombie states and code deletion | Agents documented entering infinite loops, making excuses, or deleting hundreds of lines of code during minor refactors |
Best For
✅ Perfect for:
- Solo developers prototyping greenfield web projects where non-deterministic behavior is acceptable
- Frontend developers who benefit from visual verification and DOM analysis via browser automation
- Experimenters exploring "Vibe Coding" in isolated environments with robust backup strategies
- Developers comfortable managing manual backups and Git workflows to mitigate agent errors
Not For
❌ Avoid when:
- Working on regulated or sensitive codebases requiring SOC 2 compliance or security vetting
- Enterprise teams requiring multi-repository support or Microsoft-licensed extensions
- Production environments where stability, predictability, and data security are non-negotiable
- Projects using WSL on Windows without workarounds for file watcher crashes
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Google Antigravity free?
Antigravity offers a free public preview tier with rate limits on Gemini 3 Pro usage. However, quota transparency is poor—users report unpredictable shifts from 5-hour refreshes to 7-day lockouts. Google AI Pro and AI Ultra for Business subscriptions are available, but quota allocation remains unclear and subject to sudden changes.
Is Google Antigravity safe for company code?
In its current state, no. Security researchers have documented critical vulnerabilities including Remote Command Execution via indirect prompt injection, Unicode tag hijacking (ASCII Smuggling), and data exfiltration through the read_url_content tool. Until these issues are independently verified as remediated and SOC 2 compliance is achieved, Antigravity should be treated as an experimental tool rather than an enterprise-ready solution.
How does Google Antigravity compare to Cursor?
While both are agent-first VS Code forks, they serve different audiences. Cursor offers a polished "autocomplete on steroids" experience with higher stability and full VS Code marketplace access. Antigravity provides more ambitious parallel agent orchestration and native browser automation, but suffers from instability, security gaps, and marketplace restrictions. Cursor is generally better for production work; Antigravity is better for rapid prototyping in controlled environments.
What are the main limitations of Google Antigravity?
Beyond the security concerns, Antigravity has significant limitations: no Live Share support for human collaboration, WSL instability causing crashes (Error -1073741819), restricted marketplace preventing Microsoft extension use, and documented "zombie states" where agents ignore commands or execute without approval. The platform is also a standalone IDE replacement rather than a plugin, requiring full migration from existing environments.
Can Google Antigravity run on Linux?
Yes, Antigravity supports Windows 10+, macOS Monterey+ (Intel and Silicon), and Linux systems. However, Linux Wayland users report immediate segfaults on startup. The IDE also struggles with large projects across all platforms due to file watcher issues and context management challenges during the "January 2026 regression."