Here's my experience and reflections after using Claude Code for one month. 🤖✨
First Experience 🌟
Initially, I was searching for a CLI-based AI coding tool to help with a significant refactoring project involving thousands of files. While I use Cursor as my IDE, it didn't quite handle large-scale refactoring efficiently.
I first tried Gemini CLI but had a disappointing experience: it felt slow 🐢 and didn't fully grasp my instructions (though perhaps it was partly my issue).
Next, I turned to Claude Code because it has a strong reputation among developers. Initially, I hesitated since I was already paying for several AI subscriptions (ChatGPT Pro, Cursor Pro). I decided to test Claude Code for one month to evaluate its effectiveness.
And wow—it was genuinely surprising! 🤩 Claude 4 Sonnet impressed me immediately. Now I understand why many developers regard Claude as the top AI coding model. Having previously tried various models through Cursor, such as Gemini Pro 2.5 and Claude 4, Claude Code significantly outperformed them.
The standout features of Claude Code for me are:
Deep Codebase Understanding 🔍
Claude Code truly understands your entire codebase. While Github Copilot and Cursor AI claim similar capabilities, they mainly work effectively with the files currently in use or attached. Claude Code, however, actively searches and navigates the entire codebase efficiently.
Automated Task Loop ♻️
Claude Code seamlessly automates tasks by repeatedly running tests, identifying issues, and applying fixes until completion, all without manual intervention if you enable auto-updates. In contrast, Github Copilot and Cursor AI require significant manual interaction, such as running tests, copying errors, and triggering fixes. Additionally, I've encountered persistent issues with terminal script execution in Cursor and VSCode, which Claude Code avoids entirely.
After 2 Weeks 📅✨
I started relying more heavily on Claude Code. The newly introduced subagents made tasks more efficient, but they quickly consumed my tokens, frequently hitting usage limits. ⚠️
Initially, I attempted to loop through all files using one extensive prompt. However, this created context limit issues because modifying each file added history, quickly becoming inefficient and token-consuming.
Using subagents seemed promising, as I could separate sessions: one high-level prompt to loop through files and individual subagents to handle each file. While this solved the context issue, it wasn't entirely smooth:
❌ At this moment, subagents cannot call other subagents, limiting their depth to one.
❌ Subagent activities weren’t displayed on the screen, creating confusion about their progress.
Eventually, I found the most effective approach: use Claude Code to create JavaScript or PowerShell scripts 📜 to iterate through files, then initiate separate Claude sessions for each file-specific task.
Lessons Learned 📝
For extensive workflows involving many detailed steps, fully relying on AI for everything isn’t effective. Instead, break down jobs into smaller, distinct tasks.
Scriptable Tasks 🛠️: Tasks with clear, logical patterns (e.g., adding logs, imports, exports, find-and-replace actions) should be automated via scripts generated by AI rather than relying on AI prompts due to the variability in AI outputs.
Promptable Tasks 🧠: Tasks without clear patterns or descriptions (e.g., writing unit tests, code reviews, identifying problematic code patterns) are best suited for Claude Code prompts.
After 1 Month 🔥💸
Now, Claude Code is indispensable—I can't imagine working without it.
The primary challenge remains consistently hitting the usage limit. Initially, I balanced costs by combining a Pro Plan account with a Console (API key) account, as detailed in my earlier article.
However, this mixed approach carries risks. For example, once I forgot to switch back from the API key account after hitting the limit, accidentally using it like a Pro account, which quickly cost me an unexpected 💰 $20 USD due to a few times auto top-up.
As token usage and API payments steadily increased, I realized surpassing the $100 USD Max Plan threshold made it financially sensible to upgrade.
So, today I finally subscribed to the $100 USD Max Plan. 🥳 I justify this by considering it akin to outsourcing my workload, which makes the investment feel reasonable—self-comforting as it may be! 😅
Top comments (1)
Great article. I have the Pro account, do you suggest me to switch between the Pro account and using Anthropic's APIs? 'Cause I have only used the APIs so far. 🤔