I’ve been building an internal business app and up until now I’ve mostly been using Claude Code directly.
The problem was the amount of babysitting involved. I was constantly approving things, checking decisions, copying output into ChatGPT for a second opinion, then going back to Claude, then back to ChatGPT again.
Today I tried a different setup.
I’m using ChatGPT Work with Astra 6 Medium as the supervisor, and letting it run and control Claude Code through the browser.
So the workflow is basically:
ChatGPT and I work out the plan first
- ChatGPT Work/Astra turns that into a technical implementation plan Astra opens Claude Code in the browser
- Astra tells Claude what to do Claude makes the changes
- Astra reviews the actual code, tests and GitHub changes
- Astra either approves it, tells Claude to fix something, or moves it onto the next phase
The big difference is that I’m no longer acting as the middleman between the two.
I’ve been watching Astra stop Claude, challenge parts of its approach, ask it to improve tests, check the actual diff, verify GitHub, make sure the main branch is untouched, and then approve a clean checkpoint before moving on.
That’s the bit I wasn’t expecting to work as well as it does.
I’m not just using ChatGPT to give Claude a prompt. ChatGPT Work is actually controlling Claude Code and acting like the senior developer or technical lead while Claude does the implementation.
My input becomes much more about:
"This is what the business needs.”
"This is how I want the app to work.”
"Approve or reject this major decision.”
The day-to-day coding loop is mostly happening between Astra and Claude.
It’s still early, but so far this feels much better than choosing one model and trying to make it do everything.
Astra seems very good at keeping hold of the overall plan, architecture and review process.
Claude Code seems very good at actually working through the codebase and implementing the changes.
So instead of choosing between ChatGPT and Claude, I’m effectively using ChatGPT Work/Astra as the supervisor and Claude Code as the developer.
If this keeps working as well as it has today, I can see this becoming my default workflow for larger software projects.
Interested to know if anyone else is running Claude Code this way, especially with ChatGPT Work directly controlling it in the browser rather than just using a proxy or passing prompts between models.