After months of working with Cursor, I thought my AI-assisted development process had hit its ceiling.
I’d gotten used to the quirks, the wins, and the occasional clean-up job. I figured the next big leap would be years away. Then a conversation with my friend and fellow AI dev enthusiast, The Jimmy Jones, changed everything.
He told me about Claude Code.
I knew it existed, of course, but I had never tried it. Jimmy’s pitch was strong and Claude sounded like it was from another world. So I gave it a shot.
Meeting Claude Code
Claude Code is built for conversation-driven coding. You open it up in the terminal and watch it think in real time. You can interrupt it mid-thought, steer it in a new direction, and it gracefully compacts the conversation when it needs to. It’s less like prompting an AI and more like having a Slack thread with a brilliant friend who just happens to be a super fast world-class developer.
From the very first session, I noticed something different: it understood my codebase. Not just the file I was in, but the structure of the project, the flow of the workflow, and how changes in one part would ripple across the rest. It navigated edge cases without me spelling them out. It wrote code like someone who had already been on the team for months.
The results
The difference was immediate.
My code quality jumped. The creeping “cancerous growth” patterns I’d been fighting with Cursor-only workflows? Gone. In the past two weeks, we’ve completed more features than I thought we’d have ready in a month. Preview 2 is not only on time—it’s ahead of schedule and more advanced than I imagined three weeks ago.
Why it’s different
Before Claude, my specs were huge—thousands of lines with code samples baked in. With Claude, I’ve cut that down to around 30 lines. The conversation is enough context for it to get moving. This is no longer “side-by-side” pair programming—it’s “over-the-shoulder” work. Sometimes I’m driving. Sometimes Claude is. And sometimes, it surprises me with a better idea than I had.
Quick Tangent: AI as a mentor
One of the common fears in the industry is that seniors with AI assistants won’t “need” junior developers anymore—so those juniors miss out on mentorship. And sure, nothing replaces learning from a seasoned human. In my own career, teaching juniors has made me a better developer and a better person.
But here’s the twist: if an AI like Claude can explain its reasoning while assisting, I can see a real future for AI mentorship. Not a replacement for humans, but an accelerator for learning how to build real, production-grade applications.
Where Cursor still shines
Claude might be my go-to driver, but Cursor remains the fastest, smartest editor I’ve ever used.
Example: I change the structure of a type, and one of the properties is an enum with new values. If I have that file open and move to another part of the code where the type is used, Cursor is already anticipating the changes. It adjusts property names, casing, tense—everything—before I finish typing. All I have to do is hit Tab. It’s shockingly good at pattern-matching edits across a project.
The hybrid workflow
Now my setup looks like this:
- VSCode with Claude Code for deep, conversational building and problem-solving.
- Cursor for lightning-fast refactors and repetitive changes.
- Switching back and forth depending on who’s “driving” the work.
It feels like having two teammates with wildly different—but perfectly complementary—skills.
Takeaway
Claude Code has elevated AI from “smart code generator” to true development partner. Cursor still holds the crown for rapid-fire editing magic.
Individually, they’re impressive. Together, they’ve given me the fastest, cleanest workflow I’ve ever had.