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I hardly ever open an IDE anymore. I use Claude Code and Cursor. What I do: - use statically typed languages: TypeScript, Go, Rust, Python w/ types - Setup l

I hardly ever open an IDE anymore. I use Claude Code and Cursor. What I do: - use statically typed languages: TypeScript, Go, Rust, Python w/ types - Setup linters. For TS I have a bunch of custom lint rules (authored by AI) for common feedback that I've given. (https://github.com/shepherdjerred/monorepo/tree/main/packages/eslint-config/src/rules https://github.com/shepherdjerred/monorepo/tree/main/package...) - For Cursor, lots of feedback on my desired style. https://github.com/shepherdjerred/scout-for-lol/tree/main/.cursor/rules https://github.com/shepherdjerred/scout-for-lol/tree/main/.c... - Heavy usage of plan mode. Tell AI something like "make at least 20 searches to online documentation", support every claim with a reference, etc. Tell AI "make a task for every little thing you'll implement" - Have the AI write tests, particularly the more expensive ones like integration and end-to-end, so you have an easy way to verify functionality. - Setup Claude Code GHA to automatically review PRs. Give the review feedback to the agent that implemented it, either via copy-pasting or tell the agent "fetch review comments and fix them". Some examples of what I've made: - Many features for https://scout-for-lol.com/ https://scout-for-lol.com/, a League of Legends bot for Discord - A program to generate TypeScript types for Helm charts (https://github.com/shepherdjerred/homelab/tree/main/src/helm-types https://github.com/shepherdjerred/homelab/tree/main/src/helm...) - A program to summarize all of the dependency updates for my Homelab (https://github.com/shepherdjerred/homelab/tree/main/src/deps-email https://github.com/shepherdjerred/homelab/tree/main/src/deps...) - A program to manage multiple instances of CLI agents like Claude Code (https://github.com/shepherdjerred/monorepo/tree/main/packages/multiplexer https://github.com/shepherdjerred/monorepo/tree/main/package...) - A Discord AI bot in the style of my friends (https://github.com/shepherdjerred/monorepo/tree/main/packages/birmel https://github.com/shepherdjerred/monorepo/tree/main/package...)

moffkalast 10mo ago
> make at least 20 searches to online documentation Lol sometimes I have to spend two turns convincing Claude to use its goddamn search and look up the damn doc instead of trying to shoot from the hip for the fifth time. ChatGPT at least has forced search mode.
- shepherdjerred 10mo ago
  I've found that telling it to specifically do N searches works consistently. I do really wish Claude Code had a "deep research" mode similar to 'normal' Claude.
BhavdeepSethi 10mo ago
Cursor is an IDE.
- shepherdjerred 10mo ago
  Oh to clarify I used to use Cursor but the last month or two I've used Claude Code almost exclusively. Mostly because it seems to be more generous with credits.
throw2312321 10mo ago
Thanks for sharing. So the dumb question - do you feel like Claude Code & Cursor have made you significantly more productive? You have an impressive list of personal projects, and I can see how a power user of AI tools can be very effective with green field projects. Does the productivity boost translate as well to your day job?
- shepherdjerred 10mo ago
  For personal projects, I have found it to be transformative. I've always struggled with perfection and doing the "boring parts". AI has allowed me to add lots of little nice-to-have features and focus less on the code. I'm lucky enough that my workplace also uses Cursor + Claude Code, so my experience directly transfers. I most often use Cursor for day-to-day work. Claude has been great as a research assistant when analyzing how data flows between multiple repos. As an example I'm writing a design doc for a new feature and Claude has been helping me with the investigation. My workflow is more or less to say: "here are my repos, here is the DB schema, here are previous design docs, now how does system X work, what would happen if I did Y, etc." AI is still fallible so you _do_ of course have to do lots of checking and validation which can be boring, but much easier if you add a prompt like "support every claim you make with a concrete reference". When it comes to implementation, I generally give it smaller, more concrete pieces to work with. e.g. for a personal project I would say something like "here is everything I want to do, make a plan, do part 1, then do part 2, example: https://github.com/shepherdjerred/scout-for-lol/tree/227e78483c712b0478c01178afb2428339eba37d/ai_dev_log/competition/tasks https://github.com/shepherdjerred/scout-for-lol/tree/227e784...) At work, I tend to give it PR-sized units of work. e.g. something very well-scoped and defined. My workflow is: prompt, make a PR on GitHub, add comments on GitHub, tell Cursor "I left comments on your PR, address them", repeat. Essentially I treat AI as a coworker submitting code to me. I don't really know that I can quantify the productive gain.. I can say that I am _much_ more motivated in the last few months because AI removes so much friction. I think it's backed up by my commit history since June/July which is when I started using Cursor heavily: https://github.com/shepherdjerred https://github.com/shepherdjerred

moffkalast 10mo ago

> make at least 20 searches to online documentation Lol sometimes I have to spend two turns convincing Claude to use its goddamn search and look up the damn doc instead of trying to shoot from the hip for the fifth time. ChatGPT at least has forced search mode.

shepherdjerred 10mo ago
I've found that telling it to specifically do N searches works consistently. I do really wish Claude Code had a "deep research" mode similar to 'normal' Claude.

BhavdeepSethi 10mo ago

Cursor is an IDE.

shepherdjerred 10mo ago
Oh to clarify I used to use Cursor but the last month or two I've used Claude Code almost exclusively. Mostly because it seems to be more generous with credits.

throw2312321 10mo ago

Thanks for sharing. So the dumb question - do you feel like Claude Code & Cursor have made you significantly more productive? You have an impressive list of personal projects, and I can see how a power user of AI tools can be very effective with green field projects. Does the productivity boost translate as well to your day job?

shepherdjerred 10mo ago
For personal projects, I have found it to be transformative. I've always struggled with perfection and doing the "boring parts". AI has allowed me to add lots of little nice-to-have features and focus less on the code. I'm lucky enough that my workplace also uses Cursor + Claude Code, so my experience directly transfers. I most often use Cursor for day-to-day work. Claude has been great as a research assistant when analyzing how data flows between multiple repos. As an example I'm writing a design doc for a new feature and Claude has been helping me with the investigation. My workflow is more or less to say: "here are my repos, here is the DB schema, here are previous design docs, now how does system X work, what would happen if I did Y, etc." AI is still fallible so you _do_ of course have to do lots of checking and validation which can be boring, but much easier if you add a prompt like "support every claim you make with a concrete reference". When it comes to implementation, I generally give it smaller, more concrete pieces to work with. e.g. for a personal project I would say something like "here is everything I want to do, make a plan, do part 1, then do part 2, example: https://github.com/shepherdjerred/scout-for-lol/tree/227e78483c712b0478c01178afb2428339eba37d/ai_dev_log/competition/tasks https://github.com/shepherdjerred/scout-for-lol/tree/227e784...) At work, I tend to give it PR-sized units of work. e.g. something very well-scoped and defined. My workflow is: prompt, make a PR on GitHub, add comments on GitHub, tell Cursor "I left comments on your PR, address them", repeat. Essentially I treat AI as a coworker submitting code to me. I don't really know that I can quantify the productive gain.. I can say that I am _much_ more motivated in the last few months because AI removes so much friction. I think it's backed up by my commit history since June/July which is when I started using Cursor heavily: https://github.com/shepherdjerred https://github.com/shepherdjerred