> Aider is much nicer, from the standpoint that you can add the files you need it to know about, and send it off to do its thing.
As a user, I don't want to sit there specifying about 15-30 files, then realize that I've missed some and that it ruins everything. I want to just point the tool at the codebase and tell it: "Go do X. Look at the current implementation and patterns, as well as the tests, alongside the docs. Update everything as needed along the way, here's how you run the tests..."
Indexing the whole codebase into Qdrant might also help a little.
I think it makes sense to want that, but at least for me personally I’ve had dramatically better overall results when manually managing the context in Aider than letting Claude Code try to figure out for itself what it needs.
It can be annoying, but I think it both helps me be more aware of what’s being changed (vs just seeing a big diff after a while), and lends itself to working on smaller subtasks that are more likely to work on the first try.
You get much better results in CC as well if you're able to give the relevant files as a starting point. In that regard these two tools are not all that different.
Aider does know the whole repository tree (it scans the git index). It just doesn't read the files until you tell it to. If it thinks it needs access to a file, it will prompt you to add it. I find this to be a fairly good model. Obviously it doesn't work off line though.
As a user, I don't want to sit there specifying about 15-30 files, then realize that I've missed some and that it ruins everything. I want to just point the tool at the codebase and tell it: "Go do X. Look at the current implementation and patterns, as well as the tests, alongside the docs. Update everything as needed along the way, here's how you run the tests..."
Indexing the whole codebase into Qdrant might also help a little.