Confessions of an Ex-Coder
I used to be a coder ๐จโ๐ป. Every day I would pop up my IDEs (yes, plural) and happily bust some code. Life was good โจ. But, then LLMs arrived and the world has changed ๐. I am no longer a coder. I am a Clauder ๐ค!
I’ll tell you where I am coming from, where I’m at right now and where I plan to go ๐.
โAI will change the nature of creativity, so we must develop new ways to interact with these machines.โ ~ Yves Behar

๐ป The Beginning ๐ป
First, it wasn’t much more than a fancy code completion โจ๏ธ. If I asked the AI to do something a little bit more complicated it would fail hilariously ๐ . I would shake my head and fix it ๐ง. Then, it got better and better…
Initially, I’ve used mostly GitHub Copilot in JetBrains IDE ๐ ๏ธ. But, I didn’t like the code completion mode of operation. I wanted an autonomous AI engineer ๐ค. I started using Devin from Cognition. That was a much better experience โญ. Devin could understand the context of the project and take on relatively large tasks across the entire codebase ๐. It also operated in its own environment, cloning the repo ๐ฟ and I could work on something else locally with no conflicts. But, something was still missing. Enter Claude Code ๐ฏ.
๐ค How I Learned to Relax and Love the Claude ๐ค
Claude Code lives in your terminal ๐ป. It changes your code directly, and it can of course chat with you ๐ฌ, plan ๐, test ๐งช, commit and push. I typically let Claude handle all the code, but I take care of commits and pushes as human quality control โ .
If I want to change something manually, I just do it โ๏ธ. No need to keep pulling from a remote branch somewhere.
The most important benefit for me is that Claude code can access any command-line tool I have installed ๐ง. It can help me with infra tasks on Kubernetes โธ๏ธ, AWS โ๏ธ and access any system I can.
These days I don’t write code myself, I don’t troubleshoot myself, I don’t even design myself. I provide a spark to Claude โก and I keep it on track ๐ฏ. I gently nudge it when it goes off the rails ๐ค๏ธ.
๐ฎ Get in the game ๐ฎ
If you’re not using an AI coding agent yet, you’re already behind โ ๏ธ. You better catch up quick ๐. You don’t have to use Claude code, but you have to use something. Pick your poison โ ๏ธ: Claude code, OpenAI codex, Gemini CLI, Devin or something else.
If you’re in AI coding assistant camp, Cursor, Windsurf or Google’s Antigravity may be your jam ๐ธ.
OK. Let’s take a quick look at Claude code and what it can do for you ๐.
๐ง Claude Code World ๐ง
This is going to be just a quick overview of Claude code features โก. In future blogs I’ll dive in deeper into each feature and cover it in depth ๐.
Claude code has several key features that make it stand out โญ:
- Memory system: CLAUDE.md files that provide persistent context across sessions.
- Slash commands: Powerful slash commands to control its behavior, and you can write custom slash commands.
- Subagents: Create specialized subagents for different tasks with their own context window.
- Skills: Reusable skills that can be invoked automatically by Claude or subagents.
- MCP Support: Extend it with any MCP tool to access APIs, databases and other external systems.
- GitHub Integration: Deep integration with GitHub for PR reviews, issue management and even CI/CD.
- Hooks: Activate agentic workflows automatically triggered by events
- Plugins: Bundle hooks, slash commands and skills into plugins you can share with other people
- Claude Agent SDK: Build agentic AI systems beyond coding assistance
๐ค Next Steps for Me ๐ค
I plan to double down on Claude code ๐ช. I want to integrate via CLI tools or MCP servers with ALL the systems I use ๐. I want to run multiple sessions in parallel ๐๏ธ, get notified whenever Claude needs my input ๐ฌ and provide the final thumbs up ๐. I want to take advantage of all the advanced features like hooks ๐ช and plugins ๐งฉ to automate as much as possible ๐ค.
๐ Take Home Points ๐
- ๐ค Coding has been automated (even if it’s not 100% yet, the models improve fast)
- ๐ AI coding agents are the new normal
- ๐ป Claude code is a powerful AI coding agent that runs in your terminal
- โจ Embrace the change and start using an AI coding agent today!
Until next time, happy coding (or Clauding) ๐จโ๐ป!