Claude Code and GitHub Copilot both generate code. They're not competing for the same use case.
What Copilot does
Copilot works inside your editor. It completes lines, suggests the next block, and answers questions about code you're looking at. It's reactive — you write, it suggests, you accept or reject.
The feedback loop is fast. The context is whatever's visible in your editor. The interaction is: write a comment, get the implementation; write a function signature, get the body.
What Claude Code does
Claude Code runs in your terminal. You give it a task, it runs autonomously — reads files, runs commands, makes decisions, writes code, runs tests. You come back to results, not suggestions.
The feedback loop is slow but the scope is larger. A Claude Code task can span multiple files, run tests, fix failures it caused, and update documentation. Copilot can't do that.
The actual difference
Copilot is a fast completion engine. Claude Code is a task executor.
"Suggest how to finish this function" → Copilot.
"Implement the full pagination feature, write tests, and make the CI pass" → Claude Code.
Where they overlap
Both answer questions about code. Both can generate boilerplate. For simple tasks, both work. The choice is sometimes preference.
What I use each for
Copilot: active editing sessions, quick completions, questions while I'm in the code.
Claude Code: delegated tasks I'm not actively writing, anything that needs to run commands, end-to-end feature implementation, debugging across multiple files.
I use both. They're not alternatives — they're different points in the workflow. Copilot for the editing layer, Claude Code for the task layer.
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