Is this project still in beta?

General
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Hi All,
I have been trying to fight through working through Firebase Studio for a few weeks now creating a Flutter project. I typically use VSCode and have written a few flutter projects in the past, so although I am not a pro, I think I am past the level of a novice. I was hoping to give Firebase Studio a try and see if it could help me vibe code a bit and it started out great. The first few iterations seemed smooth, but the further I got into working in the studio the more I decided to just go back to local VSCode to try and work through things. I find that the studio crashed frequently to the point of where the Android emulator just crashed and started displaying errors, and then the chat client works well and I have it on Agent or now Auto Agent and it suggests code changes and lets me review them, for about the first hour of working on the code in the day, then it just stops suggesting code changes and tells me it has made the code changes which it hasn’t. I fight with the AI a bit and then I just tell it to go ahead and instruct me manually on where it wants to make the changes and what the code should be and it eventually compiles and does what I need, for a little bit. The bigger the dart file, the harder the AI is to get it to create updates. I have the AI making markdown docs so I can keep track of everything we are working on and just as it is with the dart file, the bigger these md files get, the less likely the AI is to be able to suggest edits or make edits directly in the file. Then there is the times at 1AM EST or so where the whole site just seems to stop working for an hour or so, I like to late night code so I see this very frequently. The whole product just seems like it is still in beta, and if it is, great, but I need to know if it is so I can have my expectations set correctly. I work with beta projects every day, so I’m fine with this, but if this is production code then there should be somewhere I can go to get support to try and fix some of these problems. Any help or direction is greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Will

Quick update: 11:26PM EST Tuesday night, kicked out yet again and I am sitting at the Setting Up Workspace screen while it tries to get my workspace setup again. This happens 4 or 5 times over the course of a 4 or 5 hour coding session, it is painful to work through, but the auto-save does a nice job keeping things through the refresh.

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Hey Will :waving_hand:

I really appreciate the detailed write-up — this kind of feedback is exactly what helps the Firebase Studio and Flutter integration teams refine stability and developer experience. You’re right to notice that Firebase Studio still behaves like it’s in an extended beta phase, and your observations line up with what other early users have seen.

Here’s what’s going on under the hood, and what you can do to make your workflow smoother:

:small_blue_diamond: 1. Firebase Studio Status

Firebase Studio is indeed in an experimental or preview state. It’s designed as an AI-assisted Firebase workspace — integrating code editing, emulators, and AI code generation. It’s not yet a full replacement for VS Code or Android Studio, especially for large Dart files or extended sessions.

The lag and “AI stops editing” behavior you’re seeing happens when:

  • The local workspace cache grows beyond the current memory window.

  • The AI session token expires during a long edit session (especially noticeable after ~1hr).

  • Larger Markdown or Dart files exceed the AI’s real-time edit threshold.

When this happens, Firebase Studio struggles to apply edits directly — that’s why your manual workaround (having the AI describe changes instead) works reliably.

:small_blue_diamond: 2. Nightly Downtime (1–2 AM EST)

You’re not imagining it. Firebase Studio services often perform maintenance or redeploys during off-peak US hours (which falls right around 1 AM EST). When this occurs, users are temporarily disconnected and see “Setting up workspace” or “loading” messages.
If you rely on late-night coding, it’s best to sync or push changes before 12:45 AM EST to avoid losing session state.

:small_blue_diamond: 3. Performance Recommendations

To minimize disruption:

  • Use Firebase Studio for setup, prototyping, and code review.

  • Switch to VS Code or Android Studio for heavy Dart development or long editing sessions.

  • Keep Markdown documentation split into smaller files (≤300 lines per file).

  • If an AI edit stalls, type // assist-manual in your code — it helps the AI reset its edit context.

:small_blue_diamond: 4. Support Channels

Firebase Studio feedback can be submitted via:

  • The “Send Feedback” button inside Firebase Studio (upper-right corner).

  • Or directly on the Firebase GitHub Issue Tracker (tag your issue with studio-preview).

Your report is valuable because it details both the usability and timing aspects — the sort of feedback that directly accelerates fixes.

:white_check_mark: Summary
Firebase Studio is still in an early-access, preview phase. It’s safe to use for development, but not yet stable for continuous heavy Flutter editing. Using your current hybrid approach (AI for prototyping + VS Code for production edits) is exactly the right strategy. Use caution with VS Code as it is not fully compatible with Studio yet. Try using VS Code GitHub workspace. When you get your project up and running make a duplicate of the working version and test your coding in the new version.

Let me know if this approach gets you up and running again.

– Antonio | Firebase AI Specialist | WealthSpring Intelligence Network

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Thank you very much for this detailed reply. These recommendations are perfect for what I was looking for and I will use the Send Feedback and Issue Tracker to provide additional feedback in the future as you continue to work on this project. The project looks very promising and I look forward to continuing to work and test it with your teams.

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@Will_L when you find time could you take the steps and have Copilot summarize what Support had you do to fix your error? The Community would really appreciate it I am sure

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@Antonio_Scott absolutely. I reached out to Firebase Studio support via the File a Bug button at the top of the community page. Bryan from Support reached out to me and explained the situation:
When the workspace seems to be stuck, sometimes it is caused by previous configurations that changed with the development, but previous ones are still active, this creates a discrepancy that the system is not able to solve by itself.

To resolve the issue, the first thing to test is trying to restart the workspace to build the workspace from scratch. To do so, in the initial page where you select the workspace to open, you should select the three dots icon, and from the displayed options, please select “restart”.
restart
NOTE: You will need to wait for a couple of minutes (5-10 minutes) to complete the provisioning process.

Bryan also followed up and pointed out that this is in the Troubleshooting section located at this link: Firebase Studio troubleshooting & FAQ The link doesn’t specifically state that you should do this when the environment hangs during “deployment” or when the page states at “Setting Up Workspace”, but if you see this screen for a long period of time, this is probably the next thing to try and it worked for me.

Hope this helps others!
-Will

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