I've been using Claude Code for a couple of days

Rising tide lifts all the boats and all that.

Claude Code didn't feel that different to me, and maybe they have something that is better and when they do release it they can say hey look, we pushed hard and have something that's better than even Claude Code.

I'd add to that that the best results are with clear spec sheets, which you can create using Claude (web) or another model like ChatGPT or Grok. Telling them what you want and what tech you're using helps them create a technical description with clear segments and objectives, and in my experience works wonders in getting Claude Code on the right track, where it has full access to the entire context of your code base.

I must have been a little too ambitious with my first test with Claude Code.

I asked it to refactor a medium-sized Python project to remove duplicated code by using a dependency injection mechanism. That refactor is not really straightforward as it involves multiple files and it should be possible to use different files with different dependencies.

Anyway, I explain the problem in a few lines and ask for a plan of what to do.

At first I was extremely impressed, it automatically used commands to read the files and gave me a plan of what to do. It seemed it perfectly understood the issue and even proposed some other changes which seemed like a great idea.

So I just asked him to proceed and make the changes and it started to create folders and new files, edit files, and even run some tests.

I was dumbfounded, it seemed incredible. I did not expect it to work with the first try as I had already some experience with AI making mistakes but it seemed like magic.

Then once it was done, the tests (which covered 100% of the code) were not working anymore.

No problem, I isolate a few tests failing and ask Claude Code to fix it and it does.

Now for a few times I found some failing tests and ask him to fix it, slowly trying to fix the mess until there is a test which had a small problem: it succeeded (with pytest) but froze at the end of the test.

I ask again Claude Code to fix it and it tries to add code to solve the issue, but nothing works now. Each time it adds some bullshit code and each time it fails, adding more and more code to try to fix and understand the issue.

Finally after $7,5 spent and 2000+ lines of code changed it's not working, and I don't know why as I did not make the changes.

As you know it's easier to write code than to read code so at end I decided to scrape everything and do all the changes myself little by little, checking that the tests keep succeeding as I go along. I did follow some of the recommended changes it proposed tough.

Next time I'll start with something easier.

> I do find value in asking simple but tedious task like a small refactor or generate commands,

This is already a productivity boost. I'm more and more impressed about what I can get out of these tools (as you said, simple but tedious things). ChatGPT4o (provided by company) does pretty complex things for me, and I use it more and more.

Actually, I noticed that when I can't use it (e.g. internal tools/languages), I'm pretty frustrated.

I initially had the same experience. My codebase is super opinionated with a specific way to handle things. Initially it kept on wanting to do things it's way. I then changed my approach and documented the way the codebase is structured, how things should be done, all the conventions used and on every prompt I make sure to tell him to use these documents as reference. I also have a central document that keeps track of dependencies of modules and the global data model. Since I made these documents as reference developing new features has been a breathe. I created the architecture, documented it, and now it uses it.

The way I prompt it is first I write the documentation of the module I want, following the format I detailed inbthe master documents, and ask him to follow the documentation and specs.

I use cursor as well, but more as an assistant when I work on the architecture pieces.

But I would never let an AI the driver seat for building the architecture and making tech decisions.