r/ClaudeAI • u/ben_ham • 3d ago
Claude Workflow Does anyone just use Claude Code (desktop) for ... everything? Why chat?
Why use chat at this point? For projects I'm using chat to discuss the idea then Claude Code to implement it. It's a lot of back and forth and gets very messy very quickly. With the new updates (worktrees/sub-sessions etc/BTW comand), it makes even more sense to stay locked in to CC... right?
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u/MaskedMimicry 3d ago
I use claude everyday to fix stuff. I dont even go to the internet unless I need to.
I booted up an old game today to burn some time. All the mods expired. Sent claude to the folder to fix outdated mods and the game runs smoothly.
Its insane. This would have costed me I dont know how long to browse nexus mod, update mods one by one, cycle through error messages.
It just fixes it with a prompt, crash logs and a folder directory.
Everyday I just find random stuff Claude solves for me.
And this is the worst it will ever be going forward. People dont know whats going to hit them.
The chatbot era is such a thing of the past, its like using your smartphone just for calls.
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u/TheBroWhoLifts 3d ago
This is a good example of the K-shaped usage. In my line of work (high school teacher and now AI integration consultant for schools and businesses on the side), those of us who use these tools to their fullest are way, way ahead of 99.9% of the general public. And it's for a couple of basic reasons (there are others, but these are the main two):
It helps to have at least a modicum of a tech background. Can you actually use a computer for more than just opening games and an internet browser? Do you know that there is an underlying OS and that it can be directly commanded? Those are actual hurdles for many (most?) people.
The big one: can you communicate complex ideas in writing? This is the #1 hurdle I find working on training people how to do complex tasks with AI and how to build custom tools (even as simple as using Google Apps Script... I'm working with one client on helping them build a system to track grant funding, and it's a bit of a slog getting them to drive... I'm not building things for my clients, I'm teaching them how to use AI to build things they otherwise would need someone else with expertise to do for them).
I don't hear any real open conversation around this technology about the literacy barrier. It's real. You want to use AI to do all these cool things? Great! Can you describe the systems/tasks/projects you have in mind in a clear, organized, and thorough way? Can you identify and question your own assumptions (or know to ask an AI to do that)? I think many of us in these subs take these skills for granted... But whoooweeee the general public is not there.
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u/Valdaraak 3d ago
The big one: can you communicate complex ideas in writing?
Considering the writing quality of the general public, oh boy. It seems like people's ability to write coherent and correct sentences, much less explain something in detail, drops more and more each day.
Like, I'm to the point where sometimes I feel like I need a translator to understand what someone has typed. Someone whose first language is English. I've seen "sorry for my poor English, not my first language" on posts that are more well-written than native speakers.
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u/MaskedMimicry 3d ago
I agree here. I use AI at work and personally for well over a year now. I spend hours every week tackling complex problems with AI. So I admit, the way I prompt and steer AI (current agentic versions) is going to be more solid than the average Joe.
Its definitely going to towards the point of, an you adapt and do this or be without a job soon. And at this pace in 5 years white collar will becompletely decimated.
System AI architects or engineers will be safe as companies all want in on agentic swarms doing the labor instead of pesky human workers that demand breaks, and vacations and sick leave and reasonable workloads. Until even the AI architects are not needed anymore. Then its pretty much over.
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u/jaxxon 2d ago
So.. I'm not sure where I'm landing in the K-shape. I use claude daily for all KINDs of stuff.
The usual consumer things like figuring out what snow blower to buy or to help me sort out my health regiment and then going on websites to do some things (e.g. I'm getting some blood tests so I had claude recommend the best source for certain lab tests and then to go ahead and add the most optimal tests to my shopping cart, etc.).
But I also do what I consider to be a bit more "advanced" stuff. But I'm not solving cold fusion or anything like that.
Most recently, I'll strike up a chat in claude desktop about a project I'm working on (say, a webpage design) and I'll have claude in Chrome sidebar running. After some point in my chat, I'll have some pretty clean ideas and even some markup / json / html&css, etc to work with. I had been manually editing a site's pages that way but lately with good ol' copy/paste but now, I'll say something like, "okay, cool. I have my site editor open in chrome. please implement this idea." and it will just go to town. Done. I get that's probably a decent use of cowork.
I've also used Claude Code directly for some things. I had it write a small game replicating one I originally wrote back in the '80s. Thought it would be fun to see how close it came by looking at my documentation and me describing the game, etc.
Claude Code has worked as effectively or like the same way, from what I can tell, for my needs. (pretty obvious I'm not a CLI-first kind of guy).
I guess my question is... by using chat (cowork), I'm getting pretty much exactly what I want from Claude. What am I missing by not using claude code for all the things? I'm not a dev/engineer, but I used to code and I occasionally like building a bit more complex stuff, but so far, I haven't found a real distinct difference in chat vs code in what I'm trying to do.
What am I missing? (and where does this put me on the K shape???)
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u/fmmmlee 2d ago
I only used cowork once (I thought it was a way to have multiple people using the same Claude session for group work...lol) but the main thing I like about Claude Code are the visibility I get if I have a lot of agents going at once. I can see how many tool calls they're doing, token counts, transcripts, etc.
especially useful because often I'll see some command it ran going for five minutes and go "Claude is text searching 10 gb of files manually with some slow-ass command isn't it" and I can stop the session and tell it to make a more well-thought-out approach towards the task
but for all I know cowork offers that, idk
oh and I also like the total isolation from chat, it's better having information siloed to the specific repo folder on my PC that the session needs to know about
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u/MrMelancholy 1d ago
As a teacher, how are you making the shift to consulting? I feel like I'm just scratching the surface of AI but would love to learn and deliver content to less experienced teachers.
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u/TheBroWhoLifts 19h ago edited 19h ago
It took a few years. I was an early adopter, did a TON of play and experimentation in with both student-facing and non-student-facing applications. Eventually I was in the right place at the right time when certain people saw my work and invited me to present at a conference.
It snowballed from there, and between conferences I was also building my skills and use cases, experimenting, solving real problems and inventing new use cases, further improving my repertoire and presenting on it.
Then I hit a real inflection point when I designed something that attracted the attention of an organization looking to poach me from my job. However, I need my pension, have a few years to go, so instead I convinced my district to allow me leave time to start training up our own staff, and in my free time I'm building my consultancy with the book of real life use cases and real solutions to hard problems.
It's fun but it's a lot of work. I enjoy it though. I'm using a custom learning system and skill tracker I built and host off my own homelab with my students, and it's been fucking AWESOME. It's genuinely useful. I built an MCP server that allows me to talk to my collected student data naturally. Conferences this week are going to be pretty interesting when I show parents...
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u/DiarrheaButAlsoFancy 3d ago
Same here. Wanted some of my own Witcher 3 Remastered mods for 5.01 and instead of finding them somewhere I just had Opus 5.5 make me my own. Same with the Final Fantasy Resonance’s lack of ultra-wide support. Opus 5.5 said 3440x1440p no problems, boss 😂
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u/Only-Perspective2890 2d ago
I just directed it into a folder that had all my receipts and asked it to sort them into different suppliers. Such a simple request that turned a 1 hour job into 1 minute.
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u/NoncommissionedRush 2d ago
Agree with everything except that this is the worst it will ever be. Quite to the contrary this is actually the best it will ever be because of enshittification that will eventually turn all of this into a very expensive and a terrible experience. So I say enjoy the cheap tokens and build what you can while it lasts
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u/TheSheepOfWalStreet 2d ago
Dead Rising 2 has had major issues with controller support on PC forever, Claude discovered it's because anything not explicitly called "Xbox 360 controller" or something similar was just ignored and it fixed it in no time at all.
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u/cousinned 3d ago
The paid version of Nexus let's you download mod collections without having to click on the download button for hundreds of individual mods. Would you say that this subscription isn't needed because Claude can handle the downloading and installing?
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u/MaskedMimicry 3d ago
Its not about nexusmods paid service that lets you auto download.
Its about me, a random person on a saturday with some free time wanted to dust off a game I havent played in 18 months or so.
And instead of spending my free time, or money for a single use nexusmod subscription. Claude fixed my issue, so I could just play the game I wanted to waste a few hours on.
I dont know if it can fix a 1000 modded Skyrim game. I dont care if it cant. But what it did do, was fix my 10 random mods so I could just play the game where I left off, instead of seeing error logs, closing the game and finding something else to do.
Its about the random stuff it can fix on a computer for a random non PC specialist like me is what the main point is.
Its not even scratching the surface of what it potentially can do.
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u/ohyonghao 3d ago
I host a minecraft server for my son and I to play on. Took maybe five minutes to have CC take our world and create a docker image for it so I can bring it up and down more easily.
Last I had looked into it the process looked a bit involved, but there was at least one written out how to for it. Now it’s much more enjoyable and lowers that burden of needing to fix something first which often ended in just not playing or wasting all the time we would have played to get it running.
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u/Relevant-Ad6374 3d ago
Yes and I do mean everything. I don't even read my to do list or open my emails anymore, it reads them for me and I read the summaries or instructions in Claude code. I just live here now
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u/Plane_Garbage 3d ago
I know everyone says AI is a bubble and dunks on anthropic, openai etc valuations... But I literally only open Claude/Codex and basically Reddit.
I never use office suite anymore, Adobe I don't touch. Hardly "search" and "browse". Even simple tasks I delegate to Claude/Codex - filling in registration forms, flights, hotels etc.
I can see why Meta went so hard on Muse. Basically (imo) any ad-supported platform is dead - because no one will be "browsing" to get fed the sponsored listings.
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u/x_typo Experienced Developer 3d ago
I know right?! I’m a senior software developer and for the first time in my life, I actually removed VS Code app from my dock (macOS).
Some may think this is silly but the thing is, I used to use it daily. Now? I’m doing everything in Claude Code.
IDE days are numbered…
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u/TheRealSpork 2d ago
We ask developers we're interviewing what percentage of code they write by hand still. We want it to be zero %. Not that we don't want you to understand the code, but I need you to be grading the paper, not doing the homework.
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u/spencercross 2d ago
Serious question: how do you learn to grace the paper if you've never learned how to do it yourself? It seems to me like this approach works for now because we're in the phase where the devs who utilize these tools were writing code by hand up until very recently. But what happens in the future when the people reviewing the code are people who have never actually drafted code themselves? To be clear, I'm not trying to be antagonistic. I'm not a developer and don't use AI tools to write code so I have no idea what the answer is. I'm just genuinely curious.
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u/TheRealSpork 2d ago
Oh, I agree it's a problem. I think 10 years from now there's going to be a shortage of senior programmers.
AWS had a great presentation a few months ago where they basically said you need to keep hiring Juniors so they can learn, or you're going to be screwed in the future.
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u/x_typo Experienced Developer 2d ago edited 2d ago
Yeah... the other day, I realized that I haven’t written a single line of code this year. Not a single one...
Also, I had an interview with a recruiter a few days ago, and he asked me how well I knew Python... I was thinking to myself, “That’s irrelevant now with Claude Code...”
Update: I also want to add for others that its not that we shouldn't learn about the codes. It's good to understand it. Like other said, due to AI, right now we should be able to understand the intent of the codes. Not reading the lines of codes.
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u/skipITjob 2d ago
I prefer using Claude code in vs code...
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u/kolson256 2d ago
I used to, but Anthropic seems to be intentionally leaving advanced features only available in their desktop version. I finally moved to claude code from vs code when I noticed how much better I could see workflow progress and the thinking happening in the workflows from within Anthropic's desktop app. Now their mods feature has made it certain I will never go back to vs code.
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u/WholesomeFluffa 1d ago
Can you tell me more about those mods? I tried Claude Desktop the other day and I have to agree it's better for all the insights. Just as an example: what is my current token consumption in that session? Just seeing the context, what is being used, and so on. I have to say, when it comes to all that information, the Claude Desktop app is so much nicer.
At the same time I also really like to still see the changes that are being made to the code, like having the diff view and still sort of having a touch of the codebase. Even if I don't write the code myself, I still get to see any differences that I'm committing. At the same time I also like Claude Desktop. It seems like a more natural way to work with the bot. Maybe the mods can get it a bit closer to VS Code.
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u/reddityatalkingabout 3d ago
How can I best learn to do this?
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u/bobbadouche 2d ago
Try using Claude with the chrome extension. It allows it to interact with a webpage for you
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u/toritxtornado 3d ago edited 2d ago
exactly, claude code is my OS. i built a UI for an LLM OS (not my backend, a tool called ostk.ai is the actual backend OS) so i could have a pretty UI and some other cool things a while ago but now i'm too used to just using a terminal. it was fun to learn as i built though.
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u/ben_ham 3d ago
Claude Code CLI or Desktop?
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u/Speedbird_ 3d ago
Desktop. It’s got very good.
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u/tophmcmasterson 2d ago
I love in Claude code being able to easily jump between projects and seeing notifications where things are finished or waiting on me. It’s simple but very effective.
I had been doing the extension in vs code for a while but there’s just so little that gets handwritten anymore. Not really sure at this point what benefit the CLI would have.
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u/torquesteer 3d ago
Gemini is better at web searches when it comes to chatting. I never use Claude chat either.
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u/grumpy-554 3d ago
Not everyone only writes code.
I'm using Claude Code for coding of course, but I use Claude Desktop for a lot of business development, strategy documents, analysis, and so on. It does it way better than Claude Code would ever do, despite being the same model.
On top of that, Claude Design co-work to work with other tools, and I think I'm probably spending 80% of my time in the chat.
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u/Creed1718 3d ago
Is it actually better? I do the same as you but in code and it just works I havent really tried chat in a while though.
The way I see it, code can talk the same BUT also can code and organize stuff ideas websites etc if needed during the talk.
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u/ben_ham 3d ago
I think the confusing thing here is that there are two ways to refer to Claude Code: (1. The CC CLI/Terminal (2. Claude Desktop CC, just with a more pleasing UI. When using the desktop version, It becomes unclear as to how (or even why) to separate the two. Should I be using them both on one specific task to Plan (chat) > Execute (cc) > Back to Planning > Execute > Hold up thats not right, back to Plan> Execute >etc. Lost of copying pasting (and madness?) and madness.
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u/grumpy-554 3d ago
Ahh, that’s what you meant. In that case, I would say mostly CC inside VS code. Can’t be bothered with separate terminal even. Also I have it often working on multiple projects in the same time and had case when I put wrong instructions in wrong terminal. Since then I rather have it attached to the project.
Sometimes I’m using code in chat app to ensure long tasks are working and move things forward when I’m not at my main PC.
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u/maxquordleplee3n 2d ago
CC inside vscode for me too, useful to be able to paste screenshots there as well.
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u/CommitteeOpen8049 3d ago
i use claude chat for planning, have the claude code session in the chat browser, have the claude chat prompt claude code over the browser, set a watcher on the tab for code to finish, and summarize code’s output
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u/grumpy-554 3d ago
Same here. Project in Claude has way more information than I keep in the source code. All strategy, planning, architecture decisions.
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u/doxxxicle 2d ago
I use Claude Desktop exclusively. I use the Chat mode/tab purely for research or questions that are not specifically related to a project/repo on disk. For everything else, I use the Code mode/tab.
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u/nihonpoi 2d ago
I use Code for all this bc my project uses GA4, Stripe etc to make sure decisions are data-driven. I have scripts and even a local DuckDB for historical data.
Even if coding isn’t your job, code can always make your job easier.
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u/EnvironmentalLeg8506 3d ago
I went the other way and keep them split on purpose. The chat side can read the repo but can't write to it, so thinking out loud never turns into a half-done edit. Whatever we land on goes into a handoff file in the repo, and the coding side picks it up from there instead of from whatever I remembered to paste.
Are you moving the context over by hand right now, or does the coding side read something you saved?
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u/ben_ham 2d ago
copying and pasting a bit too much atm
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u/EnvironmentalLeg8506 2d ago
That's the part the handoff file fixes. At the end of a planning chat, have it write down what was decided, which files are affected and what's still open, save that into the repo, and open the coding session with "read the handoff file first". The paste shrinks to one line, and when something comes out wrong you can check whether the plan said it or the coding side improvised.
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u/GhaisD 3d ago
Chat for thinking that doesn't need the repo, Claude Code for anything that touches a file. The mess is the handoff: a wall of pasted messages instead of a brief. End the chat with one:
Turn this discussion into a brief for Claude Code: the goal, what we
decided and why, constraints, and 3-5 checks that prove it's done.
List what's still open as questions. No code, no file names, it
will find those itself.
Paste that one message into Claude Code in plan mode and the back and forth drops to a round or two. And if you keep bouncing back to planning mid-task, that's the sign the planning belongs in CC's plan mode, where it can see the code.
It's also cheaper: a long planning chat re-reads its whole history every turn, so once the decision is made, leaving it and starting CC fresh saves usage too.
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u/Geauxtoguy 2d ago
I've fixed this on my end by instead having Claude Code run on a VM and opening separate tmux windows per "team". My Claude Desktop has an SSH key in a private directory that can be used to log into those tmux sessions and directly interact with my different CC sessions. I also have scheduled tasks set up to monitor those windows and alerts sent to my email for any actions or Rulings that need my eyes or if my Claude Desktop hasnt responded in a couple of cycles.
It's a lot of synchronization that I'm hoping to replace with either agent teams or the new Managed Agents function (testing those out next week) but neither fully cover what I need or already made. I just wish I could figure out how to not burn through my usage each week (only a single Max x20 subscription for now, but I'm thinking I might have to get a second)
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u/GhaisD 2d ago
The usage burn is probably the watcher, not the work. Scheduled tasks that poll tmux windows re-read their context every cycle whether anything happened or not. Flip it to push: a Stop or Notification hook inside each CC session that emails you when it needs a ruling, so nothing runs when nothing happens. If you still want a watcher, run it on Haiku.
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u/RetailInvestor22 2d ago
How much am I limiting myself by just using Cowork, and never Claude Code?
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u/Easterncoaster 3d ago
Yeah I use it for most things. The biggest thing holding me back from using it for everything is that it’s tied to my desktop, and I like to work async all over the place- sometimes on my mobile, sometimes on my laptop, and sometimes desktop.
I can’t seem to figure out the cloud setting for code so I use chat for the simpler stuff.
But I use code for managing my e-commerce business, running the site and multi channel marketplaces, doing the billing and accounting, programming plugins for the website, solving all sorts of issues. It’s amazing.
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u/Flodiggidy 3d ago
Always on Machine and then tell CC to set up a remote environment so you can start local sessions from the app. Or use dispatch
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u/steinah6 3d ago
Leave your computer on and SSH?
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u/bourbonandpistons 2d ago
Run claude code in tmux and you can close the SSH and close your computer
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u/el_caballero 3d ago
To run Claude Code as a Remote Control server so you can use it from your phone or claude.ai:
- Open Terminal and `cd` into your project folder:
cd ~/path/to/your/project
- Start the server:
claude remote-control
Leave that terminal window open. The session shows up in the Claude mobile app and at claude.ai/code, and you can pick it up from there.
Press Ctrl+C in the terminal to stop it.
Already in a session? Type `/remote-control` instead. If it doesn't take, send a normal message first and then run the command.
To update: stop the server, run `claude update`, and start it again. Use `claude --continue` to resume your last conversation in that folder.
Gotchas:
- Run only one server per account. A second one can throw a 409 conflict.
- The connection drops if your machine sleeps or Claude restarts after an auto-update, so restart the server when your phone loses the session.
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u/Easterncoaster 3d ago
Does my desktop have to be running all the time for this to work? Sorry for the dumb question.
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u/phimpxy2 2d ago
yes it does, whichever unit you initiated the remote-control from has to stay powered on.
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u/Asly97 Experienced Developer 3d ago
the desktop tie is the same wall i keep seeing people hit. curious how it plays out when you're on your phone in chat for the simpler stuff though. does chat know anything about what code did on the store that day, or do you end up retyping it? and if you decide something on mobile, like a price change or a plugin fix, how does that make it back to the code session later?
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u/AgentConnect 2d ago
I made a docker container on my homeland that is basically a multitabbed terminal with cc, codex, and all the tools that I can think of that they might call. /RC is a godsend so I can do it all from my phone if needed
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u/fulger099 1d ago
In my workday, the real split is continuity, not capability. A stronger desktop session still loses to the merely adequate chat that is already open when I switch contexts.
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u/NerdDynamite 1d ago
If you haven’t set remote control up yet, you can just ask Claude to. That’s what I did and it did the setup for me. You could also explain your desired setup and ask for the best solution for it.
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u/imeightypercentpizza 3d ago
I don’t even use chat on mobile anymore. I use dispatch and specifically tell it to open a code session in x project with a prompt, then open that session from my phone
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u/KingYSK 2d ago
I split it differently: chat is where I think, Claude Code is where I execute. When I was speccing a new product recently I spent days in chat arguing with the idea, tearing down my own assumptions, comparing approaches. Only when the spec stopped changing did I move to Claude Code and build from it. Every time I skip the chat phase and go straight to building, I end up rebuilding. The chat isn't the warmup, for me it's the actual design work.
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u/nucci_mane 3d ago
I’ve been doing everything out of CC for a year+… I’ve struggled to understand what benefits I get out of any other tools that I can’t get in CC.
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u/TierPatch 3d ago
the messy part is usually the handoff, not chat itself. if you plan in chat, end by asking for the plan as a markdown file, drop it in the repo, and point code at it. that way the plan lives with the project instead of getting lost in a chat thread. i'd still use chat for things that have no codebase behind them, like thinking out loud, quick questions or anything on your phone, because code pulls in project context you don't need for that.
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u/dearlordnonono 3d ago
Yep, I do, I don't see the point in the other modes when code does everything the others can do plus the code part.
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u/Martha1505 3d ago
This is me as well, I even built a harness with a gui for slide and excel style work but find instead of using the harness itself I just use Claude code and have it make use of the various functions and stuff in there from the terminal
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u/OwnAd2284 3d ago
My projects - which include contact documents to support writing/editing - are still in chat. But I haven’t seen roll out of new version of projects on mine yet (we are on Team not Enterprise).
Thinking maybe I have to move it all to Code which I have just started using in recent weeks. But - and maybe someone can help me here - how easy is it for me to where Projects (and skills too) from Code to the rest of my company?
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u/Michael_Jeffords 3d ago
on Team the closest thing Code has to a project is just the folder, a
CLAUDE.mdat the root with your instructions and your docs sitting next to it, so sharing it with the company mostly means sharing that folder or putting it in a git repo. skills work the same way since each one is its own folder with aSKILL.md, drop them in.claude/skillsinside that repo and anyone who opens it in Code picks them up, and i think Team admins might also be able to turn skills on org wide so they show up in chat too, which could mean you dont have to move the chat projects at all1
u/OwnAd2284 3d ago
Okay. Thanks. Sounds like of like Cowork is - which I have used. But which I know is being killed one account at a time.
Need to learn how git works. Not a coder…
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u/ChocoMcChunky 3d ago
I use CC in the terminal in visual studio, works out very well for me and I am not a developer
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u/rarelyHere1888 3d ago
I’ve actually started the migration to just doing everything with CC via the extension in Cursor. This will mean I change the root folder I am working in within Cursor and revising my sub folder Claude MDs to understand this workflow which will be reworking my setup but I think the wins will outweigh the work.
I’m trying to solve the question “where did I do that work” which is something I deal with when using the Claude desktop app for chat and general questions for work and research and building things in CC for work. It’s all the same models and a lot of my chats are analyzing meeting transcripts, getting action items documented in our work software via MCP, or reviewing work documents and running diffs or analysis. All this can be done via CC but I just need the folders where the work lives and the outputs get posted.
Plus now I see the potential wins with doing all of this in CC being the ability to route tasks to the right agent or group of subagents. I’ve been working on a request to model router agent/workflow in my local setup that will help me better manage my token burn.
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u/mglipford 3d ago
I use Claude Code exclusively, but I use /remote-control so I can interact with the same session in the web ui, mobile app, or desktop app in a chat style interface (not that use the desktop app that much personally).
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u/Valdaraak 3d ago
The only time I use chat is for very quick, single-shot questions. Anything requiring actual work or back and forth goes to the Code tab.
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u/Scared-Amphibian4733 3d ago
I build my own desktop. It supports code agents from various substrates. Claude code has my largest plan, but, I use code bots for everything. Very Powerful.
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u/VirinaB 3d ago
I only ever use chat on the go, like if I'm driving or cooking and I'm desperate to talk an idea out because my ADHD will take it away from me otherwise. The one sucky part about code is that it's glued to my desktop. I can't work on my laptop even if I continue a project on git or a shared drive.
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u/nordmarj 3d ago
I use chat for general questions that are not supposed to generate any deliverable. This includes long conversations about non technical topics
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u/semicolonwitch 3d ago
I used to use claude code a lot but recently moved to claude desktop app and i love how seamless it is across devices and the fact that i can remote trigger and control all my devices
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u/archimedeancrystal 3d ago
I just started using Claude several months ago (on the Pro plan) and so far have only used Chat and Cowork (now combined) for projects and chats. I kept hearing that Code is really great for more than just coding so I asked Opus 5.5 to create an overview and tutorial for me.
I just started the tutorial exercises after installing CC in iTerm2 since that's the terminal app I've already been using. Now I'm seeing that Code is also available directly in the Claude macOS desktop app, but I have no idea yet why to choose one over the other.
I do plan to start some lightweight vibe coding soon to create a few bespoke personal apps. I've also had a Github account for years, but only to download apps others created. Even for that simple purpose, Github has always felt overly complex and unfriendly to use.
When I actually start vibe coding, I'll be looking for a friendlier UI for Git or simpler to use alternatives. But I do understand the importance of version control, even for personal projects.
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u/NoAdsDude 3d ago
I use chat for stuff that I would have asked ChatGPT about. "What kind of bug is this" - "How can I organize these shelves" etc. where I send a picture from my phone. Or if I just want a quick answer about something and I don't want to google it and dig through tons of results.
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u/Livid_Shallot5701 3d ago
Yes I also chat with it. It does lie less than for example grok and slimes less than copilot and knows more than gemini
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u/EngelGate 2d ago
I use almost always Claude code desktop now on my laptop, and I continue my work through mobile with remote-control. My only frustration right now is that remote-control drops randomly and often enough on my mobile.
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u/FinibusBonorum 2d ago
I switched from windows to Linux to be able to give Claude code full and complete access. Bliss.
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u/ReneDickart 2d ago
Genuinely the only time I use chat is when I have a one-off question about something entirely unrelated to my work. Chat is where I go to ask about a weird thing my dog is doing. That’s it.
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u/Kalcinator 2d ago
I completely abandoned the chat interface and I use Claude on phone with the thought of "why can't I wake up my computer and launch a new conversation from there 🤭 (if you have a solution please tell me)
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u/AccurateSun 2d ago
One benefit of the desktop app is simply not having to setup a new folder and point the terminal to it. It’s so convenient to just press a single shortcut then start typing, and it’s synced right there on mobile too. It’s operations are also better sandboxed than CC cli is
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u/Mountain-Alarm-477 2d ago
I am constantly mad and don’t understand why Cowork and projects and chat and Claude code and my diff devices never fucking have access to what I want. I spend most of my day in Claude Code in the terminal, but do a decent amount of analysis/automation stuff in the app. It’s confusing as fuck.
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u/skipITjob 2d ago
I created a local git repo and fixed so many things with Claude code...
Sonos speakers, home assistant stuff, server issues, it helped with image upscaling in comfy UI.
I just open up VS Code and tell it what I want to do, and saves all the chat in a file along the way.
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u/heeler_dev 2d ago
My goto is Claude code in a cloud session, with a repo (or a couple) as context. So for anything coding related I’m one prompt away from a commit, even if it’s just a thought, or a plan for later.
For non-dev stuff I might venture off to chat
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u/WiseWildGhost 2d ago
I do tend to use Claude code desktop for everything but I do switch between the models… I use haiku for general questions rather than googling and use the most expensive for only real coding projects and fable for creative fiction writing … different models for different tasks.
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u/jimmy1460 2d ago
Ur looking for Claude code cli and an SSH terminal, or just hosting on a remote always on machine
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u/carson63000 Experienced Developer 2d ago
I use Chat to discuss things that are completely unrelated to my code base and aren’t going to lead to any actual work being done. For instance my last conversation was about an AWS announcement blog post which I didn’t quite understand, and wanted some background explained.
But, not gonna lie, I can’t actually think of any good reason why I couldn’t have just done that in Claude Code and gotten an equally good result.
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u/Exch4nge 2d ago
Is anyone using cowork linked to local system files? I keep things like a handoff file that's read first for any new chat, and project files organized as well. I find it useful to be able to use Claude mobile app and have my chats reference my organized files on my desktop. Is Claude Code basically doing the same thing, or is it doing it better? Is it worth switching over to Claude code exclusively?
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u/stealthy_singh 2d ago
So I have 5 Claude instances on my devices. An always on Linux VM running cowork and the code cli. My desktop running Cowork, phone and iPad running their respective apps. The Linux and laptop instances have access to the same MCP servers. And while I can use chat or code sessions on the mobile or iPad they are essentially remote access only. You'll see why later.
I've now got it set up that all project files are saved to my Nas. The standing rule is there is no internal memory usage, obviously there is but all relevant items are put into the project folders. That means whichever instance I use it has access to all relevant files and data. But what really changed it for me and made sure I can do anything I want anywhere I want was setting up remote servers for each project I have. Such as my home assistant, my energy management system (I didn't like predbat so I made my own), business and home finance, network design and modification etc. Each gets access to all the relevant project folders and MCP servers.
The big thing is from my phone, iPad or laptop I can start local sessions like normal (which I rarely do now unless I need to deal with stuff on my laptop) but I can start sessions on those servers that work on my Linux instance and these then now use remote control by default.
I'm not sure but I've seen a lot of updates that might allow you to do that automatically now but when I built it I don't think you could out of the box. Before I was having to try and keep the memory of all my devices in sync but now it's much easier.
One of my folders is a misc where I put all of the chatbot type stuff. As to how I organise sessions, I plan and execute in the same session unless it's something complex then I it's split over multiple sessions but all in code.
I'm fairly tech literate but no coding experience. I basically designed it using Claude itself and asking questions and making suggestions. I should really look up some stuff! Lol. If the above doesn't make 100% sense of asked Claude to summarise below.
I run Claude Code on a small always-on Ubuntu VM in my Proxmox home lab. The VM has one systemd service per project (home network, energy system, finances, travel and so on), and each one runs claude remote-control inside that project's folder. The folders live on a Synology NAS share, so my Windows laptop sees exactly the same files. Each service keeps an outbound HTTPS connection to Anthropic and appears as an available project in the Claude app. From my phone, iPad or laptop I just pick a project and start a session, and the server spins up a headless Claude Code session on the VM for that chat. The model runs in Anthropic's cloud, but every command, file edit and tool call runs locally on the VM in that project's folder, so it can reach my home network and devices from anywhere without me opening any inbound ports or running a VPN on the device I'm typing on. Each session also starts its own tool connections (MCP servers) for UniFi, Home Assistant and Tailscale, and the services restart automatically if they crash or the VM reboots, so the projects are always available from whichever device I happen to be on.
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u/Benjaminsen 1d ago
Claude Code is just a capability extension of the basic chat. There is ZERO reason to not just talk and chat in the more competent context.
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u/SoFarKngFast 4h ago
Open terminal
For 1 to X(
cd ~/project-name
tmux new -t project-name
claude rc --name server-name-project-name
Close window
)
Close terminal
Does anyone feel like they're losing their mind because you can do so much now and so fast? So many projects are getting completed that I've had as to-dos for years.
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u/Reasonable_Estate_54 3d ago
I do most of my development on a headless server. So remote control makes it easy for me to use the chat interface from my browser or my iPhone. It's also easier to handle attachments than to copy stuff back to my server first. Then I use the web interface for documents and PowerPoint where I can see the preview and make changes on the fly.
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u/Weird-Dealer8488 3d ago
Em boa parte, sim. O vai e volta fica bagunçado porque as decisões acabam espalhadas em dois lugares: a ideia nasce no chat, que não enxerga seu código, e o Claude Code implementa sem ter vivido a discussão.
Dá para discutir a ideia dentro do próprio Claude Code. No modo de plano (Shift+Tab), ele lê o projeto, propõe a abordagem e só executa depois que você aprova. Peça para ele salvar as decisões num CLAUDE.md ou num arquivo de especificação no repositório, e qualquer sessão futura já parte delas.
Os recursos novos resolvem problemas diferentes:
/btwresponde uma pergunta rápida sem interromper o que o Claude está fazendo e sem entrar no histórico da conversa. Evita poluir o contexto.- Worktrees (
claude --worktree nome) são para trabalho paralelo: cada sessão fica em seu próprio branch e pasta, sem conflito entre elas. Ajudam na implementação, não na discussão.
O chat ainda serve quando a conversa não depende do código: comparar alternativas de produto, pensar em mercado, escrever texto ou pesquisar na web. Se a pergunta é “como isso se encaixa no meu projeto?”, o lugar é o Claude Code.
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u/hypervortex21 3d ago
I was completely baffled today, I play satisfactory and wouldn't what it would say if I just fed it a save file and it just understood absolutely everything, pp jted out item feed issues, the distance of train shipments causing a station to hit 0 for several seconds. I was blown away. Didn't even give a single prompt guiding or helping it just understood and found issues
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u/ClaudeAI-mod-bot Wilson, lead ClaudeAI modbot 3d ago edited 2d ago
TL;DR of the discussion generated automatically after 100 comments.
The consensus is a resounding "yes." Most power users in this thread have moved almost all their work into Claude Code, treating it as their primary OS. The chatbot era is seen as a thing of the past, with many developers even ditching their traditional IDEs like VS Code.
Chat is now for quick, single-shot questions, like asking for a taco recipe or what your dog is doing. It's for when you don't need access to a project's files and want to avoid burning unnecessary usage.
To solve the messy back-and-forth OP mentioned, users suggest two main workflows:
/remote-control(orclaude remote-control --spawnin the terminal). This lets you access your desktop CC session from your phone or the web UI, giving you a chat-like interface to your main project.A major theme is the "K-shaped" adoption curve. To use Claude Code like this, you need decent tech literacy and, more importantly, the ability to communicate complex ideas clearly in writing. Many feel this literacy barrier is a huge, unspoken hurdle for the general public.
Basically, Chat is for talking, Code is for doing. Welcome to the new OS.