Claude.ai

Claude.AI

I’ve been using Claude.AI heavily for over six months, primarily through its web interface. One of the most useful features has been the ability to connect directly to GitHub repositories. This lets me hand over full projects, get help with incremental changes, or ask for specific edits across multiple files — not just code suggestions, but actual reasoning about how and why something should change.

Accessing Claude.AI

➡️ Try it here: https://claude.ai

Compared to ChatGPT, Claude feels like it operates at a slightly higher “temperature.” That is: its answers often have more creative range. Sometimes it speculates or stretches more than I want, but for idea generation, system design, and rewriting prose or config logic, that looseness has real value.

Claude.AI CLI

The Claude.AI CLI is a separate tool, but it fits naturally into development workflows. It’s ideal for **incremental software development**, especially when I’m mid-refactor or debugging something small. It doesn’t require flipping context between browser tabs — just open a terminal, point it at a file or paste in a snippet, and work iteratively.

At the bottom of the CLI window, Claude shows messages like this:

⏵⏵ auto-accept edits on (shift+tab to cycle)                                Context left until auto-compact: 5%

That “context left” percentage is key. With ChatGPT, I used to get frustrated as sessions got dumber — not realizing this kind of context compaction was happening in the background. Claude surfaces that information. When it hits 0%, things may get weird, but at least I know why.

Billing Change

Originally, CLI usage required a separate Claude API key and was billed independently. But about two weeks after I signed up for the Max Plan (starting at CA$140/month), Anthropic introduced unified login support. That means CLI usage now comes out of my main Claude.ai quota — no more separate billing, which is a big improvement.

Summary

• Web app is great for reviewing GitHub repos, ideation, and larger system design.
• CLI is better for iterative dev and working directly in the terminal.
• Claude is looser and more speculative than ChatGPT, which sometimes helps and sometimes doesn’t — but overall, the higher "temperature" is an asset.
• Transparent context tracking and direct edit integration make the CLI feel like a real tool, not just a toy.