The argument in one line.
Claude Code's CLI in VS Code delivers superior results to Cursor, the desktop app, and the extension because its interactive plan mode asks clarifying questions and makes recommendations that transform vague ideas into detailed implementation blueprints.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- A developer actively using Claude Code who's defaulted to Cursor or the extension and wants to understand why CLI in VS Code performs better.
- Someone building coding projects who values interactive planning sessions and wants to see a full-stack app built end-to-end using one specific tool.
- A developer considering which Claude Code interface to invest time in and needs a systematic comparison of all 11 current options.
SKIP IF…
- You're using Claude Code for non-coding tasks like writing, research, or content creation — this is exclusively about code generation workflows.
- You're already deeply invested in Cursor for its non-Claude features (Composer, other models, keybindings) and aren't evaluating a fresh setup.
The full version, fast.
Among the eleven ways to run Claude Code, the CLI inside Visual Studio Code is the strongest setup because it gets new features first and ships the most capable plan mode available. The plan mode does not just outline work � it interviews you with multiple-choice questions about features, storage, design, and architecture, surfacing decisions you would not have considered and producing a custom build spec before any code is written. Cursor adds breakage and a redundant subscription, the VS Code extension lacks the interview-style planning, and the desktop app has no plan mode at all. Pair the CLI for building with the desktop app for managing cloud agents on the go, and skip the rest.
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00:00 – 00:28
01 · Cold open — the claim
Talking head. 11 ways to use Claude Code exist; one is best. States the video promise.
00:29 – 01:05
02 · Why you are using it wrong
Slide listing all 11 methods. CLI in Cursor and extension in Cursor called most popular — and wrong. Third-party tools also dismissed.
01:06 – 04:36
03 · 3-way comparison breakdown
Slide: 3-column table comparing CC Extension in VS Code, Claude Desktop App, CC CLI in VS Code. Desktop App has no plan mode; Extension lacks interactive planning; CLI wins.
04:37 – 05:50
04 · Setting up VS Code and Claude Code
Screen: VS Code opened. New folder created (AI note taking). Install command shown in terminal.
05:51 – 09:52
05 · Plan mode walkthrough
Shift+Tab x2 enters plan mode. Prompt submitted. Claude asks multiple-choice questions about AI features, storage, and design preference. Full 6-phase implementation plan produced. Claude also does live web searches during planning.
09:53 – 10:50
06 · Building the app
Claude executes all 6 phases autonomously. File tree populates. Auto-accept mode used throughout.
10:51 – 12:10
07 · Finished app demo
App runs in browser. Notion-like slash commands, bullet lists, to-do items, AI search panel, voice recording. All built one-shot from the plan mode prompt.
12:11 – 12:59
08 · Outro and CTA
Returns to comparison slide. Recommends keeping desktop app as complement for on-the-go agent management. Subscribe + Vibe Coding Academy pitch.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- Claude Code CLI inside VS Code is the recommended setup because it has every feature first, plan mode works best there, and VS Code has zero compatibility issues.
- The Claude Code extension in Cursor breaks more often than the VS Code version because Cursor is a fork that adds instability on top of the base editor.
- The desktop app has a beautiful UI for managing multiple cloud agents but has zero plan mode — which Alex calls an insane omission given plan mode is Claude Code's strongest feature.
- Plan mode in the CLI interviews you, asks clarifying questions, and teases out details you would have forgotten to specify — no other AI coding tool matches it.
- The VS Code extension has a better UI than the CLI but its plan mode does not ask questions, which is a significant capability downgrade.
- New Claude Code features reach the CLI before the extension, the desktop app, or any third-party wrapper.
- Running Claude Code in a terminal instead of inside an IDE uses significantly less memory, enabling five or more parallel terminal sessions without slowing the computer.
- Paying for Cursor while using Claude Code is redundant — there is nothing Cursor currently adds that Claude Code does not already do.
- Building an AI note-taking app in one shot during a live demo is the proof-of-concept that plan mode + CLI execution can one-shot complex applications.
- Shift tab twice activates plan mode — the most important keyboard shortcut in the entire Claude Code workflow.
- The plan mode's ability to catch missing requirements before a single line is written is what separates it from code-first approaches that discover problems post-build.
- VS Code's free tier covers everything needed to run Claude Code at full power — no paid subscription to any IDE is required.
Steal the elimination format.
Claude Code creator playbook
Pick a tool category you are opinionated about, name every option out loud, eliminate them publicly, then demo the winner on screen.
- The elimination IS the video — audiences come for the verdict, not the tutorial.
- Anchor on one differentiator and never drop it. Alex hammers plan mode from minute 1 to minute 12.
- The live build is the receipt. Do not just claim the winner — show it working.
- The GUI trade-off admission (CLI has worst UI) builds trust. Hiding the downside kills credibility.
- Joe could run this exact format: JoeFlow vs Wispr vs Glaido, with dictation accuracy as the one axis everything else is judged against.
- The Opus 4.5 hot take at 70% through the video is clip gold. Find your own version and plant it at the same point.
Terms worth knowing.
- CLI
- Command-Line Interface — a text-based interface for running programs by typing commands into a terminal rather than using a graphical UI.
- VS Code extension
- A plugin installed inside Visual Studio Code that adds new functionality, such as running Claude Code directly within the editor's integrated environment.
- Cursor
- An AI-powered code editor forked from VS Code that integrates language models to assist with coding, competing with native Claude Code workflows.
- plan mode
- An interactive Claude Code feature that lets the AI propose a step-by-step implementation plan for review and approval before writing any code.
- interactive mode
- A Claude Code session style where the AI pauses at decision points to check in with the developer rather than running fully autonomously.
- desktop app
- A standalone native application installed on your computer, as opposed to a CLI tool or browser-based interface, offering a GUI wrapper around the same underlying model.
- agentic coding
- An AI-driven workflow where the model autonomously plans, writes, tests, and iterates on code with minimal human intervention between steps.
- CLAUDE.md
- A markdown configuration file placed in a project root that gives Claude Code persistent instructions about the codebase, conventions, and behavior for that project.
- context window
- The maximum amount of text (code, instructions, conversation history) an AI model can process at once, measured in tokens.
Things they pointed at.
Lines you could clip.
01:20
“There is no longer any reason to be using Claude code inside a cursor. There is nothing cursor can do that is better than Claude code.”
03:12
“Plan mode is Claude Code's biggest strength, and it just does not have it, which I think is absolutely insane.”
09:08
“Ever since Opus 4.5 came out, Claude code hasn't made any errors for me at all, period.”
08:16
“AI at this point in time is so much smarter than basically any human being on planet Earth.”
Word for word.
Read-along
Don't just watch it. Burn it in.
See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.
00:00There are 11 different ways you can be using Claude code, but one way is significantly better than all the rest. You can be using Claude code in the CLI, in the extension, in cursor, in Visual Studio Code, in the desktop app, in the mobile app, and many more.
00:16In this video, I'll break them all down and tell you which way you need to be using Claude code to get the most out of it, and I'll show you how to set it up and use it so you get the best results out of Claude code as possible. Let's get into it. So here is every conceivable way you can be using Claude code right now.
00:33In a second, I'll show you the best way to be using it, but I wanna go over all the ways you can be using it right now. You can be using the CLI, so you just open up your terminal. You could be using the CLI and cursor, the extension and cursor.
00:45I actually think these two ways are the most popular ways people are using Claude code, and it's actually the wrong way to be using it for many different reasons, and I'm about to explain to you why. Yeah. The mobile app, the desktop app, and then you can be using Claude Opus in the 100 different coding tools that are out there, like AmpCode, Lovable, Anti Gravity, and Cursor.
01:03And those are all wrong, wrong, wrong as well. These are the three best ways to be using Claude code, and one of these three are significantly better than the other two as well, and we'll go over the setup of that in a second. But why not cursor?
01:15Most people who use Claude code are using it inside a cursor today while they open up the extension or the CLI, but that is a critical mistake. There is no longer any reason to be using Claude code inside a cursor.
01:28There is nothing cursor can do that is better than Claude code. In fact, through my extensive testing in a lot of ways, you're actually downgrading Claude code by using it inside of Cursor.
01:39I have tested out the Claude code extension in Cursor extensively, and this is probably the most popular way people use Claude code. And it actually breaks significantly more than the extension in Versus Code.
01:50It's slower and just works worse. There is no reason to be using Claude code in Cursor at all. And if you're paying for Cursor when you're using Claude code, that's kind of a waste of money as well.
02:00And that's just at this point in time. Cursor might come out with new features tomorrow. Like, this is the fastest moving industry in humanity.
02:06Cursor can come out with new features tomorrow that makes Claude code completely extinct. But as of the time of this video, Claude code is pretty pointless to use inside a cursor.
02:16Versus code is the purest way to be using Claude code because all cursor is is a fork of Versus code with a whole bunch of stuff tacked on top, which makes it slower and breaks things like the extension. My ClaudeCode extension cursor has broken a ton. So here are the reasons you would use any of these three methods.
02:34The ClaudeCode extension in Versus Code has a great user interface. It is clean. It is easy to look at.
02:41It has all the basic features, but it has one killer thing taking away everything, and that is its planning functionality is significantly worse than the plan mode in the CLI.
02:51It doesn't interview you, and it doesn't ask you questions, and that is a really big issue. And then you have the desktop app. The desktop app is fantastic.
03:01The user interface of the Claw desktop app is absolutely amazing. You can manage multiple agents. You can spin up agents in the cloud, spin up agents locally.
03:09It's like managing an entire army of AI agents. One big deal breaker, though. There's no plan mode whatsoever.
03:16There's zero plan mode. Plan mode is Claude Code's biggest strength, and it just does not have it, which I think is absolutely insane. Which brings us to Claude Code CLI in Versus code, which has the worst user interface of all of these, which has no cloud management.
03:33But here's the thing, and here's why the CLI inside of Versus code is the absolute best. And I'll walk through this and demonstrate it all in just a second and how to set it up and how to use it and how to get the most out of it.
03:45But it has every piece of functionality and every feature Claude code has to offer, and it has by far the best plan mode on planet Earth, better than any other tool out there.
03:57Cursor, AmpCode, Lovable, bolt.new. Whatever you're using, the plan mode in the Claude code CLI is by far the best.
04:06It asks you questions. It interviews you. It teases details out of you.
04:10It brainstorms for you. It clarifies.
04:12It teaches you things. It is absolutely amazing, and there's no plan mode that matches up to it. And because of that, Claude code in the CLI inside of Visual Studio Code is the absolute best way to be using Claude code and then get the absolute most power out of it even if you've never coded before.
04:31But how do you get the most out of it? How do you take advantage of all features, and how do you set it up? Watch this.
04:37So I am in Visual Studio Code. We are going to set up Clawd Code inside Visual Studio Code, inside the CLI. I'll show you to do this end to end and set up a project and build your own app.
04:46Visual Studio Code is completely free to download. No subscriptions whatsoever.
04:51I'll put a link down below. Again again, this is the most pure version of an IDE. There's there's nothing tacked on top of this at all.
04:58There's nothing that could break Claude code like you could have inside Cursor. So let's get Claude code installed and show you why it's the best. We're gonna hit command o, which will open up a folder or a new project for us.
05:09You can hit new folder here, create a new folder. I'm gonna call this AI note taking and open this up. We're gonna create an AI note taking app.
05:16You So never have to use Notion or Obsidian again. And then what we're going to do is we're gonna hit control tilde if you're on Mac. That opens up our terminal.
05:24I right click panel position right. I like to use ClaudeCode over here on the right hand side so you get more height in it. If you don't have Claude code installed already, all you will need is this command right here, and I will put this down in the description below as well.
05:39You paste that into your terminal. You hit enter, and Claude code is all installed and all set up. From there, you just type in Claude, hit enter, and you're good to go.
05:47You are inside of Claude. Now why is Claude code in the CLI inside of Visual Studio Code the absolute best?
05:55It appears to me it gets all the features and functionality first. So before the extension, before the desktop app, before anything else, all the features and functionality gets released to the CLI first. And that includes what I consider to be the greatest planning mode in an AI coding tool ever.
06:13Now why is this planning mode so good? Let me show you. So what we're going to do is we're going to hit shift tab here and then shift tab again.
06:20That is going to turn plan mode on. Now we're gonna start typing out what we want this app to be. So I'm gonna put in this prompt to build our note taking app.
06:28I will put this down below as well if you want to copy and paste it and put it in yourself so you can build this out alongside with me, you'll have an awesome working AI note taking app that you can use yourself afterwards. I'm gonna hit enter on this in plan mode, and it is going to start planning out our app. But what you're about to see in a second is what makes Claude code in the CLI inside Visual Studio Code better than any other way you can be using Claude code.
06:52What you can see here is it started planning, so we're starting fresh. Before I design the architecture, I have some questions to clarify about your vision. I have tested Claude code every possible way you can use it, desktop app, mobile app, inside of the extension.
07:06None of the other ways of using Claude code does what you're about to see here. So not only is it gonna tease details out of me by asking me questions, but it's gonna do it by giving me multiple choice questions that it thought of already so I can just easily select answers and have it continue to build out the app. This is such a powerful way to build out an app.
07:26So let's look at the questions it's gonna ask me. What AI features do you want? Select all that can apply.
07:30I want an AI writing assistant. I want smart search, and I would love voice transcription. Let and then I could even add on my own custom instructions if I want here to the fifth option.
07:41But let's hit next, and then it's gonna give me even more questions it's gonna ask me. It's gonna ask me things I didn't even think of when building out this app. What rich text features do you need?
07:51Notion like blocks recommended. So it even it even has taste and gives you recommendations based on what it thinks. So notion like block, let's do that.
07:58How should notes be stored? So let's do it in the cloud. So it's recommending to do it with the cloud with auth.
08:04I actually want it to be local browser storage for now just for the test, so let's do that. Design. What's your design preference?
08:10Minimal and clean, dark mode focused, colorful and playful. I think for this, I'd like to go with, like, a dark mode. And then it gives me a review of all my answers.
08:18It asked me things I didn't even think about, and it gave me options I didn't even consider. AI at this point in time is so much smarter than basically any human being on planet Earth. So for it to proactively think about different ways to approach this app is going to make the apps you build out so much better, and I'm gonna submit my answers there.
08:38Claude coding the extension does not ask you multiple choice questions. Claude in the desktop app does not have a plan mode that does any of this whatsoever, and then Claude coding cursor regularly breaks for me.
08:50When I try to open the extension, it opens it up in the CLI. When I open it up in the CLI, sometimes it breaks. And on top of all of that, I'm paying $20 a month for Cursor.
08:58None of that is necessary. And it's now going in here, and it's actually doing web searches about comparing different note taking tools out there to research other note taking tools. This type of web search is something I find that Claude code in the CLI does a lot more than any form of Claude code as well.
09:14It just seems so much smarter than the other versions of Claude code. So I'm gonna hit yes on this, and I have it continue. I'm gonna be honest with you.
09:21Ever since Opus four five came out, Claude code hasn't made any errors for me at all, period. Hasn't made any errors for me at all. Before Opus four five, I felt like I was getting rings of errors over and over and over again.
09:33I was spending most of my time debugging. That is no longer the case of Opus four five. So now I feel super comfortable just saying yes in auto accept for everything inside the CLI here because it's gotten so much smarter.
09:45And here we go. The full plan is built out. You can see in detail every single phase of the implementation, all six phases, as well as all the key features and all the files it's gonna create.
09:59This plan mode since Opus four zero five released is mind blowing, and it is by far the best in the CLI inside Visual Studio Code. So I'm gonna hit yes on that.
10:10Again, the desktop app doesn't even have a plan mode, so you're not gonna get any of this at all. And then the extension inside Visual Studio Code, they're not asking you questions, so it's not as custom to you. Then the extension, the CLI inside cursor, the extension breaks regularly inside a cursor, and the CLI, you're paying for cursor on top of that, which there's no reason to at this point at this moment in time because quad code is by far the best in every aspect possible.
10:35Alright. Looks like it is all done. It worked for what looked like about half an hour straight, to be honest with you.
10:42What we built, all the core features, Notion like block editor, auto save, AI writing assistant, file tree sidebar, voice recording, local file storage. Wow. It builds it all in one shot.
10:53Just like it just asked me a couple questions, and the app was built out. Let's test it out. Let's see what we got here.
10:59And boom. Look at that. That is beautiful.
11:01So you have your note editing in the middle. I can hit slash. Wow.
11:04Look at that. It has all, like, the kind of Notion blocks you can use. Bullet list.
11:09This is a bullet. Let's go back there. Let's see the slash here.
11:13Let's do a to do list. This is a to do item. I mean, it is basically just like Notion.
11:20That is pretty amazing. You have your new notes. You can create folders.
11:24You can do an AI search and ask your questions through AI. I can even do a voice recording if I wanna record.
11:30Wow. Look at this. This is all built in with one shot.
11:33This is amazing. What's in the settings here? So we put in our API key.
11:37Okay. And that gets the AI functionality working. That was all one shot, and all of that was built because of this really advanced plan mode you are only going to get in the CLI that works the best with Visual Studio Code.
11:51If you did this with me, you now have an awesome note taking app that you can use yourself. You can rip out Notion or whatever other note taking app you're taking, save $20 a month, and you have your own note taking app done. Out of all these other ways you could be using Claude code, I still think you should be using the Claude desktop app as well as a complement to the CLI.
12:11The reason being is you can now, on the go, spin up Cloud Agents and take advantage of the Cloud Agents, which are a very impactful use of ClaudeCode. Being able to give commands on the go while you're doing other things, that is great. So definitely take advantage of the desktop app as well.
12:28But if you wanna get the most powerful AI coding to a planet earth, building in the most amazing apps, you need to be using CLI inside of Versus Code. It'll save you the money of using cursor and other AI tools, and it will give you the best functionality you possibly can get. If you learned anything at all, leave a like down below.
12:43Make sure to subscribe and turn on notifications. I also have the Vibe Coding Academy if you want a full Claude code masterclass and you want weekly calls with me every single Friday.
12:54Link for that is down below as well. I hope you enjoyed this video. I hope you learned a ton, and I will see you in the next video.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Alex Finn opens with a number — eleven — and a promise: one way is significantly better. The title already planted the seed of self-doubt; the first line waters it. By the time he starts eliminating options, you are leaning in to find out which way you have been doing it wrong.
Named ideas worth stealing.
01:06model
3-Way Claude Code Comparison
- CC Extension in VS Code: Great GUI, all basic features, lacks advanced planning functionality
- Claude Desktop App: Best GUI, manage multiple agents, Maximum efficiency, GREAT with Claude Skills, No plan mode
- CC CLI in VS Code: Worst GUI, No cloud agent management, All functionality and features, BEST plan mode
A 3-column verdict that frames CLI as winner despite having the worst UI, because plan mode is the differentiator that matters most.
Steal forAny product comparison video. Build the table, name the winner, make the trade-off explicit so it does not feel like you are hiding the downside.
05:51concept
Plan Mode Interview Loop
Shift+Tab twice enables plan mode. Claude asks structured multiple-choice questions about the app before writing any code, then outputs a phased implementation plan. Creates a spec without the user having to write one.
Steal forJoeFlow tutorial content. Show the Shift+Tab trick — it is not obvious to new users.
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
12:42product
“I also have the Vibe Coding Academy if you want a full Claude code masterclass and you want weekly calls with me every single Friday.”
Soft sell after full demo value delivered. Effective — audience just watched the app built live so credibility is at its peak.
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
FROM THE DESCRIPTION
PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
OTHER LINKSAlso linked in the description.
Visual structure at a glance.
