Can probably give access to tools like ast-grep to Claude. Will help it see all references. I still agree some dynamic references might still be left. Only way is to prompt well enough. Since I tested this on a Ruby on Rails codebase, I dealt with this.
For context, I was using Claude Code on a Ruby + Typescript large open source codebase. 50M+ tokens. They had specs and e2e tests so yeah I did have feedback when I was done with a feature - I could run specs and Claude Code could form a loop. I would usually advise it to fix specs one by one. --fail-fast to find errors fast.
Prior to Claude Code, I have been using Cursor for an year or so.
Sonnet is particularly good at NextJS and Typescript stuff. I also ran this on a medium sized Python codebase and some ML related work too (ranging from langchain to Pytorch lol)
I don't do a lot of prompting, just enough to describe my problem clearly. I try my best to identify the relevant context or direct the model to find it fast.
I spend a fair amount of time tinkering in Home Assistant. My experience with that platform and LLM's can be summed up as "this is amazing".
I also do a fair amount of data shuffling with Golang. My LLM experience there is "mixed".
Then I deal with quite a few "fringe" code bases and problem spaces. There LLM's fall flat past the stuff that is boiler plate.
"I work in construction and use a hammer" could mean framer, roofer or smashing out concrete with a sledge. I suspect that "I am a developer, I write code" plays out in much the same way, and those details dictate experience.
Just based on the volume of ruby and typescript, and the overlap of the output of these platforms your experience is going to be pretty good. I would be curious if you went and did something less mainstream, and in a less common language (say Zig) if you would have the same feelings and feedback that you do now. Based on my own experience I suspect you would not.
Speaking of that observation about "fringe": this will probably, increasingly, be a factor, let's call it LLMO (optimization), where "LLM friendly" content will be pushed. So I expect secondary or fringe programming languages to become even more pushed aside, since LLMs will not be as useful.
Which is, obviously, sad. Especially since the big winner is Javascript, a language that's still subpar as far as programming languages go.
I use Claude Code 50% of times with Cursor now due to the diff and tab. The extension is just a bit buggy sometimes otherwise I would use it much more. I hit some node related bugs today while searching stuff with it (forgot to report to Anthropic lol). Other bugs include a scroll stuttering.
