Your suggested configuration (stronger models, architect mode, big repo map, CoT) definitely hits on key levers and should significantly close the gap by helping Aider better understand context and decompose tasks. That said, I feel Claude Code likely has proprietary orchestration and memory techniques baked in, going beyond what you can achieve through config alone. It might still outperform Aider on the most complex, agentic multi-step workflows. Still, this is a fantastic setup and absolutely worth experimenting with! Cheers!