This is the key to getting decent feature work out of Claude Code. I've had good success recently using GPT-5 High (in Cursor) to write the plan, then take that to Claude Code to implement.

You can get an extra 15-20% out of it if you also document the parts of the codebase you expect to change first. Let the plan model document how it works, architecture and patterns. Then plan your feature with this in the context. You'll get better code out of it.

Also, make sure you review, revise and/or hand edit the docs and plans too. That pays significant dividends down the line.

We have Google Workspace at work and I find Gemini is awesome at “academic style” writeups but less good at writing code compared to CC.

So; I have Gemini write up plans for something, having it go deep and be as explicit as possible in its explanations.

I feed this into CC and have it implement the change in my code base. This has been really strong for me in making new features or expanding upon others where I feel something should be considerably improved.

The product I’ve built from the ground up over the last 8w is now in production and being actively demoed to clients. I am beyond thrilled with my experience and its output. As I’ve mentioned before on HN, we could have done much of this work ourselves with our existing staff, but we could not have done the front end work. What I feel might have taken well over a year and way more engineering and data science effort was mostly done in 2m. Features are added in seconds rather than hours.

I’m amazed by CC and I love reading these articles which help me to realize my own journey is being mirrored by others.