Why is Claude Code better than Cursor?
What I have found Claude Code is extremely good at is that it makes one change at a time, gives you a chance to read the code its changing, and lets you give feedback in real time and steer it properly. I find the mental load with this method to be MUCH lower than Cursor or any of the other tools which give you two very different options: "Ask" mode which dumps a ton of suggestions on your and then requires semi-manual implementation, or "Agent" mode which dumps a ton of actual changes on you and requires your inspection and feedback and roll-backs, etc.
This may not work for everyone, but as a solo dev who wants to keep a real mental model of my work (and not let it get polluted with AI slop), the Claude Code approach just works really well for me. It's like having a coding partner who can iterate and change direction as you talk, not a junior dev who dumps a pile of code on your plate without discussion.
If you're using an AI for the "architecture" / spec phase, play a few of the models off each other.
I will start with a conversation in Cursor (with appropriate context) and ask Gemini 2.5 Pro to ask clarifying questions and then propose a solution, and once I've got something, switch the model to O3 (or your other preferred thinking model of choice - GPT-5 now?). Add the line "please review the previous conversation and critique the design, ask clarifying questions, and proposal alternatives if you think this is the wrong direction."
Do that a few times back and forth and with your own brain input, you should have a pretty robust conversation log and outline of a good solution.
Export that whole conversation into an .md doc, and use THAT in context with Claude Code to actually dive in and start writing code.
You'll still need to review everything and there will still be errors and bad decisions, but overall this has worked surprisingly well and efficiently for me so far.