[ChicagoDave]

I'm the OP.

I started using ChatGPT and Claude, then Claude Code the second each tech stack became available. I iteratively cajoled as much productivity as I could from it. Until October 2025 I was adamantly against it as a real tool for complex software projects.

Then Opus 4 -> 4.5 arrived and as we all know, changed the world.

But during those earlier times with minuscule context windows and many hallucinations, I still extracted evidence of what could be accomplished. I stored over a thousand work summaries from several projects and then in January 2026 I worked with Claude Code to build DevArch on the principles it could discern from those work summaries. Obviously I corralled Claude into developing a set of guardrails that I felt encapsulated what I describe as productive architecture and software engineering from a continuous improvement stance.

DevArch is now at 4.0 and installs on any Mac, Linux, or WSL OS. There's a 14-day free trial so you can download it and see for yourself.

If you're serious about being productive and generating high quality code, then I believe DevArch is a great asset to your toolkit.