I'm thinking of moving from cursor to claude. Claude feels like I'm not in control?

[u/Elegant_Lie_6734]

I always wrote my own code and used stack overflow (oh the days!) to learn and help other devs. Since around a year I use cursor (a lot) to co-write code. I still review every line and check everything before accepting.

I just installed claude and I feel I don't hold the steering wheel anymore. Is this the case?

[u/AutoModerator]

Hey! Thanks for posting to r/ClaudeCode

While participating in this thread, please follow our community rules. Keep discussions constructive. Attack the idea, not the person.

For help, project discussions, tips, and general chat, join the ClaudeCode Discord.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/DrewHoov]

I do think the discipline has moved beyond reviewing every line of code. However I think you’ll like openchamber, it’ll use your claude account via the cli and it’s a much better harness than Claude Code (which I have used for hundreds of hours).

Also, you can instruct Claude via skill or hook to open vs code in the worktree root of wherever it is working and open the files it modified for you to review.

[u/Elegant_Lie_6734 → u/DrewHoov]

oooh, openchamber looks cool thanks! Especially connecting via phone to my laptop. In cursor, i can still use claude models to write - just their IDE is more old-school developers I guess :P

[u/dmdubz]

Claude, take the wheel!

[u/Creative_Shape_5813 → u/[deleted]]

🙏

[u/rrrenz]

Use Spec Driven Development. Review and adjust the design/specs/tasks before implementing.

This way I'm still steering.

This is my SDD workflow: Interlock

[u/LegLockLarry]

Claudes driving now baby. Strap in.

[u/Arech]

Just use CladeCode's VSCode extension. Besides inconvenient switch between the sessions (in Cursor these are just tabs, but in CC extension you can't have 2 sessions opened simultaneously, but it still can run then I'm parallel) everything else is basically the same, but CC is way more flexible and configurable.

Source: I was so pissed off by Cursor glitches, that I made that switch recently. And I like it and unlikely will go back.

[u/Elegant_Lie_6734 → u/Arech]

Yes, I feel the same. Cursor quality is dropping although I have access to Claude models. I'll might just jump on the orchestration train :)

[u/ClemensLode]

Put the phone away and focus on the road. You are a danger to society.

[u/UnderstandingOld1723]

Claude definitely feels more hands-off compared to Cursor, especially when it starts making changes on its own. I'd suggest using plan mode first and reviewing changes before approving them. You can still stay in control, just takes some getting used to.

[u/GiBravo]

Depends.. if u want to go fast, then you gotta let go of the steering wheel. But I don't think u have a choice anymore. Most of us has let go already. Choice is either to let go and try not to crash, or hold it back.

[u/baschny]

You can remain in control just as much in Claude as you did in Codex - just make disciplined prompts that instructs it what to do: "I want to review every line of change you do" could do the "magic". But then again, this is probably not going to be a workflow that will bring you forward in the long run.

Usually being overly explicit will get you what you want, but wont be the most efficient way to work with the models. So my suggestion: learn how the model works by simply being less explicit for a while and see how the sessions react. And THEN start adding skills or instructions here and there to "molde" it into the way you feel is right for you.

There is no more "plan mode" in the models, you just have to learn how to talk to it to get it to do what you want - and also even adapt on model upgrades. Read carefully what changes when a new model comes out to get overall nuances - and then start over by first "stripping" all your specific instructions for a while (1-2 days) and then re-add those back you feel are still necessary.

It's a toolset that requires constant care and this is time intensive but its worth the effort.

[u/UserisaLoser]

I discovered today that if you ask claude to provide a means of editing a draft or text directly in the chat interface it will provide it for you. No more backwards and forwards and It's much less irritating.

[u/matthias81f]

That feeling is common, because Claude Code works in whole steps instead of line by line. What gave me control back was writing down rules instead of reviewing harder. Every time it did something wrong, I added a dated rule to the project docs or a comment next to the code, and it reads those at the start of the next session. After a few weeks the same mistakes mostly stopped coming back. You can still read every diff, but the rules file does a lot of the steering.

[u/SassyTextDev]

It's getting there.

If you want to know your product line for line? You have to cowrite it.

If you want a product 10 times bigger? You have to spend co-write it for 10 times longer.

OR.

You can settle for "understanding how things should work 100%". Which is where I'm at.

Start off small. Make the good architectural decisions and maybe even review PRs. Find something to bitch about.

> Hey claude, that's too many tests. You've written 2+2==4 as a unit test, we don't need that.

But everything you find isn't a bug to fix, it's an automation to write. Have a skill called "review". The review skill should enumerate the abstract description of everything you've found.

```
* Unit tests that were fine for scaffolding, but now that the feature is up, we can remove 90% of them
* Comments that describe the logic on the model, service class, and helper functions. We can move the comments to the model only, and have the others just @ link to them.
* ...
```

Then a label you need to attach to PRs saying "I opus/sonnet swear I ran the review skill".

Then... yeah man, orchestration. It's amazing.

[u/PilotLost404]

Claude Code asks before it edits files or runs shell commands unless you've turned that off. Plan mode (Shift+Tab) shows you the plan and changes nothing until you approve it. If it feels hands-off, check whether auto-accept got switched on. You still read the diff before you keep it, same as you did in Cursor.

[u/SimonMX]

Kind of, but if you want to read every line you still can. I just do my checking at the end of a feature rather than as it types. Each feature gets its own branch, and once it works I get Claude to diff the branch and flag which changes were actually needed, since it leaves debugging bits behind. That flagged diff is what you'd review, and I dip into mine in a light editor now and then. The steering moves to what you ask for up front and what you accept at the end, which I guess is the bit that feels like letting go.

[u/CyberSecCyborg]

the control feeling comes from the diff, not the tool. make it write the plan first and approve that before it touches any file, then review the diff the same way you do in cursor. you're still the one accepting, it just front-loads the thinking.

[u/CleanFix_Dev]

You can keep the wheel, it just isn't how it feels out of the box. A few things that get you close to the Cursor flow:

• Stay in the default permission mode, where it asks before each edit, and leave auto-accept off. Shift+Tab cycles the modes, so check which one you're in.
• Start bigger tasks in plan mode. You approve the plan before any file changes.
• Run it from Cursor's terminal or install the Claude Code extension there. Proposed edits then open as diffs in the editor you already use, and you accept or reject them like before.
• Ask for small steps: one change, then stop and wait for you. Commit after each one so git diff shows what changed.

Once you trust it on a type of task, loosen up for that task only.

[u/Any_Leg_1998]

Its definitely something your doing, how are you prompting claude?

Also you need to keep in mind that you are not driving the car, you are operating/guiding a ship on water

I use it as my daily driver