Is there a reason you recommend Claude Code over others?
I notice that Elements encourages me to use Claude Code in particular, but shouldn't it work just as well with Codex or others? In fact, thanks to Elements's design and affordances, I'm guessing you could get away with using free/fast/cheap harnesses and models even better than you might with other systems. Perhaps the advice should not be to get Claude Code but save $200/mo by cancelling Claude Code, and use Pi + a cheap and faster model? Not sure but seems worth investigating. I have a strong sense that a lot of new vibecoders are using unnecessarily powerful models (wasting time and money) for many personal software use-cases...
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It's conceivable!
My recommendation stems from two things: (1) I use Claude Code myself extensively, in the terminal. (2) And, of the more desktop vibe coding apps, I found Claude desktop app to be the best I've tried so far. Just an overall smoother experience. Watching the app come to life in the Claude Desktop app in real time is magical, and I think a far better experience than online vibe coding platforms, once you're set up.
I also think the VSCode editor is fantastic. And the Copilot auto model, including a generous free tier (as far as I can tell), works great. If someone is used to working in an editor, then VS Code or Cursor are great options.
Elements itself is designed to work with any agent / model / editor. The binary ships with its own manual such that the agent can learn to use it. And the languages are all standard so the models have plenty of priors for it -- html, css, typescript, sql. You can also have multiple agents at once working on an elements app, since the project server can serve many concurrent clients, with the same build state.
Interested to hear what you find with your own setup!
Also, the demos I've been doing with Claude desktop app are using the $20/mo plan and that's fine for getting an app finished.
I haven't tested how long it would take to exhaust it.
Our company has the unlimited plan.
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