[jwr]

I use Claude Code. I read the discussion here, and given the criticism, proceeded to try some of the other solutions that people recommended.

After spending a couple of hours trying to get aider and plandex to run (and then with Google Gemini 2.5 pro), my conclusion is that these tools have a long way to go until they are usable. The breakage is all over the place. Sure, there is promise, but today I simply can't get them to work reasonably. And my time is expensive.

Claude Code just works. I run it (even in a slightly unsupported way, in a Docker container on my mac) and it works. It does stuff.

PS: what is it with all "modern" tools asking you to "curl somewhere.com/somescript.sh | bash". Seriously? Ship it in a docker container if you can't manage your dependencies.