For me it's because having an agent actively working and modifying files feels better off on another cloned repo - and a terminal window is a lightweight observ

For me it's because having an agent actively working and modifying files feels better off on another cloned repo - and a terminal window is a lightweight observation 'window' into that activity. Git cli/tig/sublime merge is what I then use to review changes. When the IDE is up and looking at the same work files, I'd find myself forgetting changes were being actively made, and I'd start making changes that should have been on another independent area of work. Having multiple full IDE windows feels like a waste of space or switching the IDE both have a small but non-zero level of added context switch friction/annoyance at least for me. I actually don't know if this will stay my working pattern w/ AI or not, but it's been stable this way for a little bit anyway.