Four months ago I switched to Claude Code as my primary development tool. Not as a supplement. Not as a side thing. As my MAIN tool. Terminal-based, no VS Code, no JetBrains. Just Claude in the terminal. Here is the honest review. WHAT WORKS GREAT: Refactoring. This is where Claude Code absolutely shines. "Refactor this service to use the repository pattern." Done. Across multiple files, with tests updated, with imports fixed. What would take me an afternoon takes 10 minutes. Architecture. Describing a module in natural language and getting a complete implementation that follows the existing patterns in your codebase. For TOPO Contabil I described the fiscal reporting module and got a full Clean Architecture implementation, entities, use cases, repositories, controllers, all consistent with the rest of the project. Debugging. Paste an error, get a diagnosis. Claude traces through the code, identifies the issue, suggests the fix. For complex bugs that span multiple files, having the full context makes this incredibly effective. Test writing. "Write tests for this service, cover edge cases." The generated tests are thorough and actually test meaningful behavior, not just "does this function exist." Git workflow. Commit messages, PR descriptions, branch management. The Git Safety rules I have in my config mean Claude never does anything destructive without confirmation. WHAT DOES NOT WORK: UI work. Anything visual is rough. You cannot see what you are building. I still switch to a browser-based workflow for frontend stuff. CSS tweaks, layout adjustments, responsive design, these need eyes on a screen. Highly interactive debugging. When you need to set breakpoints, step through code, inspect state at runtime. The terminal-based workflow has limits here. When you do not know what you want. Claude is great at executing a vision. It is less great when you are exploring. "Try something" is not a good prompt. You need to know what you want before you ask. WORKFLOW CHANGES: I now think in terms of PROMPTS, not keystrokes. Instead of "open file, go to line 47, change this variable," I think "extract this validation logic into its own function." Higher level. More intentional. My commit frequency went up. Claude makes small, atomic commits easy. I commit after every meaningful change instead of batching. My code review quality went up. I use Claude to review my own code before pushing. It catches things I miss. WOULD I GO BACK? No. Even with the limitations, the productivity gain is too significant. I run 6 projects in parallel and Claude Code is the only reason that is possible. The speed of implementation, the consistency of patterns, the quality of refactoring. It compounds. The key is knowing when to use it and when to step out. It is a power tool, not a magic wand. You still need to be the architect, the decision maker, the one who knows what good code looks like. Claude just gets you there faster.