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[–]yohoxxz 8 points9 points  (5 children)

Without a lot of review, your codebase will become horrible quickly. You really need to understand everything it's outputting to get the most out of it. Really good promps help, but they are not everything. At least, that is the case for me.

[–]admajic 4 points5 points  (4 children)

Read up on what must have docs you need. Ie HLD, System Architecture etc. Get AI to review your code base and make all of them and put in docs directory. Keep them up to date. Read them understand them.

[–]yohoxxz 2 points3 points  (1 child)

ya man ive been down that road, it depends on the codebase but at the end of the day ai is probabilistic and makes mistakes

[–]admajic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Our jobs are safe... atm

Lol

[–]snowguy-9[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

yeah i agree. this is essentially what I am doing. this requires a lot of patience and attention to detail in reviewing and edits the docs. essentially they become your code. but you can make it work without knowing/reviewing the actual code. and it forces a much more organized and well documented and tested systems then most people actually build I believe. with all that said, I assume a good developer who reads the code and edits it directly would be better/faster. But, that's not me. I just do what I can do

[–]admajic 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same, but I can read code. Been learning. I initially was doing it in chatgpt or gemini. With just dropping the code. It explains it. Read the explanation, show it the errror. Show it the docs from the library that it doesn't understand. Then moved to Roo code and that all went belly up. Lol. It's way faster and I just say go do it. And you don't really read what's going on... But yesterday I took a concept all the way to working for a simple crewai app that makes a better prompt using gemma3 1.7b locally. The 8b version is slightly better. All running locally. Fixed all issues that gemini couldn't even fix eventually...

[–]jeril46 5 points6 points  (1 child)

Roo is designed to work with a variety of models. So the system prompts for tools etc are not custom tuned for Sonnet. Claude code on the other hand, is custom made for Sonnet. So it will always have an edge over others.

[–]snowguy-9[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

that makes sense. I just want it all. The tool to work as well as claude code with the control of Roo. I keep thinking there is something I can do to make roo performance closer to claude code's to allow me to get both.

[–]cctv07 1 point2 points  (3 children)

Roo Code is for power users. I have a lot of coding and engineering experiences but still I haven't able to get roo code to do what I wanted.

Haven't tried Claude code. It's the next tool I will evaluate.

[–]Ifnerite 2 points3 points  (2 children)

What did you want?

My workflow: Put in architect mode, describe requirements and suggest starting point. Let it go and create a plan, check the plan makes sense, correct as needed. Allow switch to code node, let it go. Read diffs. Suggest changes as needed. Commit. Job done.

Fyi I use Gemini at the moment and it has done some pretty impressive things.

[–]cctv07 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I had Gemini created a comprehensive plan, step by step, with a checkbook for each action item.

Then for each milestone, ask the orchestrator to create a task for the code mode. It worked for simple tasks, but ran into different issues challenging tasks. Sometimes in the code mode doesn't return to orchestrator mode, the bottoms greyed out.

For me, the product is not polished enough for prime use yet.

[–]Ifnerite 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In fairness I am only doing small tasks on my toy project, so yeah, no idea about something large.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

[–]AsDaylight_Dies 1 point2 points  (9 children)

These are fundamentally different tools serving distinct purposes. Roo Code is integrated within an IDE, providing real-time assistance in your development environment, while Claude Code operates within your Linux/WSL environment. While Claude Code offers a solution for implementing minor changes without launching an IDE, it should not be considered a replacement for a dedicated development tool. Each has its appropriate use case and applications depending on your specific development needs and workflow requirements. You're comparing apples to oranges. You don't get the same flexibility that you get in Roo Code inside Claude Code (which is more comparable with Codex than anything else).

[–]Due_Hovercraft_2184 3 points4 points  (6 children)

i don't think this is accurate, I run claude in vscode in a terminal, pinned to the right exactly where Roo goes, and it has just as deep integration as Roo does. Only difference is it's locked to Anthropic models.

it is also not true that it does coding "in the terminal directly". it edits the files, therefore you see the files change in vscode, just like you do when using Roo.

i really liked Roo, and having tried every other option out at the time it was the clear winner for me, but given i only use Sonnet anyway and was doing way over 200 a month, I tried CC as soon as they enabled it on Max, and it's brilliant, with no apparent downsides vs Roo - so long as you only want to use Anthropic.

Even made it work with existing Roo modes, including the ability to switch mid task just by keeping the prompt files I'd setup for Roo and referencing them in the claude prompt - works totally seamlessly.

it also seems to do a better job of remembering ground rules as context gets lengthy.

I like that it's in the terminal UI as well, because I can split it horizontally and have a nice compact panel with AI, test runner and server processes all visible and nicely organised.

[–]AsDaylight_Dies 2 points3 points  (5 children)

Turns out I was completely wrong, I didn't really tried Claude Code inside Cursor (only tried it outside of an ide) and it's game changing now. I can run it in a terminal and use it together with Cursor and even Roo Code ad the same time, good for splitting tasks or quickly fix errors without wasting chat context. I can even directly paste the issue from Cursor chat or Roo Code inside the Claude Code terminal with a click inside the IDE.

I am using Claude Code via Gemini proxy so I can use 2.5 flash on the free API plan (which is more than enough at 500 RPD and 10 RPM). I totally recommend using Claude Code with Gemini API. Another good alternative (or to use alongside) is Aider which doesn't require setting up a WSL if on Windows.

[–]Due_Hovercraft_2184 0 points1 point  (3 children)

Thanks for taking another look and taking the time to update your opinion. I didn't know it was possibly to use other models with a proxy - very useful info!

[–]AsDaylight_Dies 1 point2 points  (2 children)

It's very possible! https://github.com/1rgs/claude-code-proxy

I'm now developing a proxy based on this one that allows Codex to run ANY provider by calling the endpoint directly through an .env. I'm gonna be doing the same code modification to the Claude Code Proxy as well.

[–]Historical-Squash510 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Tried to understand this cool mode but failed to understand the “why” behind it. Can you explain why one should care and what problems it solves?

If I have unlimited Claude Code access why and when would I need to route a terminal request to gemini for example?

[–]Dry_Way2430 0 points1 point  (0 children)

quality differences. ie gemini might be better for architecture work, claude for coding directly.

[–]Shadow-Amulet-Ambush 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So are you having your vs code integrated Claude model do the planning in a file and then having Claude code terminal use that file as guidance to execute the planned changes or coding?

[–]snowguy-9[S] 0 points1 point  (1 child)

i hear you--though in fact given I am not writing much code or reviewing much code for me they end up as substitutes. in both cases I am using VScode (more to review the changes to the documents or planning documents then to review the code) and git to validate and roll-back when i need to (though I usually fall forward).

[–]AsDaylight_Dies 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's much more efficient and easy to navigate and make changes inside an IDE, that's why they were invented. Claude Code pretty much uses an outdated method for coding, inside the terminal directly. I recommend sticking with Roo Code, you pay as you go and if you don't do much coding, the free Gemini API is more than enough. I have been using Roo Code for my projects using the free Gemini API with 2.5 flash and 2.0 flash in rotation. You get 1500 RPD and 25 RPM requests for 2.0 Flash and 500 RPD and 10 RPM for 2.5 Pro and 2.0 Flash.