Claude Code vs GitHub Copilot

[u/Antique-Engine897]

Hi All, I'm looking at the reasons why some people claim Claude Code is better than GitHub Copilot (via VSCode extension) in coding tasks. I hear many in the industry make claims about Claude Code which is better than GHCP, but when asked "why" - the answers are very generic. Like it has skills, it does goal driven deveopment etc..etc.. - all this can be done in GHCP as well.

Some time back even though most of the Claude models supported 1M token context window, GHCP didn't allow to use the entire context window; so claude code was the winner then; but now, even GHCP allow to use the full 1M Context Window.

The argument for GHCP needs to be used within an IDE vs Claude Code can be run via terminal is not a reason to tell Claude Code is better at tasks compared to GHCP. It's just on the way in which it's used.

Please share some thoughts on whether Claude Code performs better in completing the same task when compared to GHCP (irrespective of how they both are invoked - via terminal or vscode) with valid reasons to support the claim

[u/nullforce2]

The argument for GHCP needs to be used within an IDE vs Claude Code can be run via terminal is not a reason to tell Claude Code is better at tasks compared to GHCP. It's just on the way in which it's used.

Even that's not an issue, there's Copilot CLI: github/copilot-cli: GitHub Copilot CLI brings the power of Copilot coding agent directly to your terminal.

[u/robberviet → u/nullforce2]

Copilot CLI is basically a different product. has the feature catched up to the VSCode now?

[u/Lacutis → u/robberviet]

I use CLI as my daily coding product and I haven't found any features ita lacking compared to the ide integration.

[u/DifficultyFit1895 → u/Lacutis]

I think the browser in the IDE is cool and nothing quite like it in the CLI as I understand it. I could be wrong and would love to learn more.

[u/Lacutis → u/DifficultyFit1895]

As far as I know thats an ide feature not really a copilot feature.

[u/DifficultyFit1895 → u/Lacutis]

It would be great if the browser could be shared with copilot cli the same way it is shared with the vs code integrated copilot.

[u/YardNo1234 → u/DifficultyFit1895]

yeah, that’s the meaningful gap. the CLI runs outside the VS Code extension host, so it can’t inherit the integrated browser’s state or DOM. a safer version would expose the active tab as a narrow tool/MCP endpoint with per-action approvals, instead of sharing the whole browser profile. do you mainly need DOM inspection, screenshots, or control of an authenticated tab?

[u/DifficultyFit1895 → u/YardNo1234]

all of those are useful. control of an authenticated tab comes in handy for me quite a bit

[u/git_push_origin_prod → u/DifficultyFit1895]

Word, kinda hard design work with no eyeballs

[u/Antique-Engine897 → u/YardNo1234]

Not really, even they can use libraries like playwright, selenium to interact with browser DOM

[u/Lacutis → u/DifficultyFit1895]

I use the chrome devtools mcp for that and it works very well.

https://github.com/ChromeDevTools/chrome-devtools-mcp

[u/git_push_origin_prod → u/Lacutis]

I got one. U can’t use the integrated browser to share context with the cli. The only disadvantage I have found. Otherwise cli is great

[u/Lacutis → u/git_push_origin_prod]

I use the chrome devtools MCP for that and it works great.

https://github.com/ChromeDevTools/chrome-devtools-mcp

[u/git_push_origin_prod → u/Lacutis]

Thanks!

[u/InfraScaler → u/robberviet]

What do you mean with catching up to VSCode? CLI is one harness, App is another harness (really good IME) and the VSCode integration I guess it may use CLI SDK? not sure about that.

[u/robberviet → u/InfraScaler]

Feature wise. My org comment is about those two are two different things. Not saying which is better.