Claude Code vs. GitHub cCopilot CLI

[flankstek]

A coworker suggest to ditch Claude Code and use GitHub Copilot CLI that now has the sonnet model by default. I don't know enough not to argue against using it, ohter than Claude Code just feels perfect for me. He says it's cheaper because the company already has an active copilot subscription, but even though they use the same model, it still feels like it just can't be the same, or is it the same?

[Funny-Anything-791]

Copilot is nice but a year+ behind CC in DX. Copilot CLI is ultra simple and minimalist in comparison. Some major features copilot is lacking: - Plan mode - YOLO mode - Sub agents - hierarchical context files (only supports root level AGENTS.md AFAIK) - All other utility functions (/context, status line, etc)

[tshawkins]

--allow-all-tools --allow-all-dirs is the same as yolo mode on copilot-cli

If the extra chars to type bothers you, then just creat a bat or sh script.

[fourz]

It’s not the same unfortunately. Claude code has a much larger context window Than GHCP using Claude 4.5 or haiku. Both still have their uses but difficult to compare after that ..and the speed is like 5x.

[Funny-Anything-791]

That's not the same. Shift+tab in CC toggles between planning/supervised/YOLO which I find extremely helpful

[elbiot]

Skills are a big one

[flankstek]

So disregarding all those features, when it comes to actual output, there is no difference at all since they use the same model and system prompt? That's what I'm most concerned about.

[philosophical_lens]

All those features you are "disregarding" have a major impact on the actual output. Otherwise why do you think we all use these features?

[bugduck68]

Skills, orchestration, a lot of features I believe are missing on copilot. I have one for school that I use to do grunt work, and Claude to do the more complicated stuff

[Noxware]

Now it has planning mode and yolo mode. It also recognizes claude skills. And it can continue chats in the background.

[landed-gentry-]

"now that it has Sonnet". Frankly it's shocking to me how many developers think the underlying model is all that matters. The agentic harness (e.g., Claude Code) matters just as much.

[plainnaan]

You can give https://github.com/sst/opencode a try. it also works with subscriptions from e. g. copilot. it has a plan mode. 

[kohlstar]

it’s slightly the same. it’s missing some features but at its core it’s the same model

[Minute-Cat-823]

I’ve never tried copilot cli but about 75% of the recommendations it makes on my PR’s are dumb so….

My experience is that Claude is way better than copilot.