00:00:00Ultra plan might completely change how we build projects inside of cloud code.
00:00:04So you remember that huge cloud code leak that just happened. Well,
00:00:07inside of that leak included a reference to a new feature called
00:00:12ultra plan and anthropic just released it for real.
00:00:15Now there's already a ton of hype building up around this feature,
00:00:18but the problem is when you look at the actual documentation surrounding ultra
00:00:23plan, it feels like it's just plan mode, but in the cloud.
00:00:27So in order to figure out if this ultra plan really is a step forward in today's
00:00:32video,
00:00:32I'm going to do a head-to-head test between normal plan mode and ultra plan.
00:00:36So you can see how it differs from what we already work with and whether this is
00:00:41worth your time.
00:00:42So the idea with ultra plan is that we start with our normal cloud code session
00:00:46in a terminal.
00:00:47And then that plan mode session is pushed to a cloud code session in the
00:00:52cloud, where we get sort of additional planning resources thrown at it.
00:00:56But when I say additional planning resources,
00:00:58that's kind of just assumed because you're going to hear people talk about ultra
00:01:02plan mode and say,
00:01:03it's giving you additional agents and resources and architecture.
00:01:06None of that's actually stated here in the documentation. None of that,
00:01:10all the documentation tells us is that, Hey, it goes into the cloud.
00:01:13You have to make sure you have a GitHub repo ready to go before you use this.
00:01:17And it's easier to essentially revise the plan inside of the browser. However,
00:01:21from my own testing and what you will see here today,
00:01:25it does feel like ultra plan does have a bit more power behind it.
00:01:29And it's kind of a shame that anthropic doesn't go a little deeper into what it
00:01:32actually buys us. Now, as you'll see, running ultra plan is very simple.
00:01:36And if you are on the latest version of cloud code,
00:01:38it's going to be available to you.
00:01:39You literally just say ultra plan or forward slash ultra plan,
00:01:43and that will prompt that cloud code does the rest from there.
00:01:46It teleports you to the browser. You'll see something like this.
00:01:49And if you like what it gives you,
00:01:50it gives you an option to bring the plan mode back to the terminal.
00:01:54So nothing too crazy going on.
00:01:55The only one sort of hiccup is you do need some sort of GitHub repo
00:02:00already created with at least one commit to it,
00:02:03even if it's something like a read me.
00:02:04So let's just jump into the head to head test right away.
00:02:07So you can see how these two things compare and how to actually use ultra plan.
00:02:11Now the prompt we're going to give it is this one.
00:02:13We're telling it to use the front end design skill as it builds a premium Kanban
00:02:17board web app from scratch. We tell it that it's a greenfield project.
00:02:21So there's no existing code base,
00:02:23although we have created a GitHub repo for it.
00:02:25And we pushed a very simple read me that read me doesn't include any sort of
00:02:29like architecture or anything like that.
00:02:30We then give it a series of requirements and tell it to plan thoroughly.
00:02:33So let's see how this works. So on the left, we have normal plan mode on the right.
00:02:37We have ultra plan and you know,
00:02:38it's ultra plan because it's got the fancy rainbow gradient on the ultra plan
00:02:42side. It's going to ask you,
00:02:44are you ready to run ultra plan and will automatically launch cloud code in the
00:02:47web. We'll then give you a link to follow.
00:02:50And then you should see a page like this. It shows your prompt and says, Hey,
00:02:53I'm about to run through this whole thing.
00:02:54So here's a look at what it came back with in about 30 seconds.
00:02:57I'll move over here for this. So it gives us the architecture,
00:03:01gives us a nice little mermaid graph dependencies to install and all this other
00:03:06stuff. Now with this sort of ultra plan mode,
00:03:10you can very easily select specific parts of the plan just by highlighting it.
00:03:15And you can either leave a comment or you can leave an emoji because we code in
00:03:20emojis these days. But overall, it's a little bit easier to pull out.
00:03:24Specific things in the plan that you want to change versus the normal terminal
00:03:28where you actually have to say it here. It's very easy. Just like I said,
00:03:30highlight it, leave a comment. Now, once you are happy with the plan,
00:03:34all you have to do is hit approve plan and it will bring that plan back to the
00:03:38terminal for reference. In terms of speed with normal plan mode,
00:03:41we are at five minutes and 30 seconds and counting over here on the left. And again,
00:03:45ultra plan took 30 seconds max.
00:03:48So we're going to go ahead and execute this ultra plan.
00:03:50So the local plan mode finally came back with something.
00:03:53I actually had to restart it because it got hung up on the first attempt.
00:03:56The second attempt was able to knock it out in a few minutes.
00:03:59And here's a breakdown of what these two plans came up with.
00:04:02So we have the local plan versus the ultra plan. Obviously in terms of timing,
00:04:06the local plan took much longer than the ultra plan, the ultra plan.
00:04:10We were in and out in 30 seconds.
00:04:11Now a big plus for the local plan versus the ultra plan.
00:04:14Is it actually used the front end design skill? Like I told it to,
00:04:18the ultra plan really didn't, even though we explicitly put in the prompt,
00:04:22use this skill, it totally ignored it.
00:04:24And you see this reflected in things like the typography,
00:04:27local plans actually using stuff like Google fonts,
00:04:29and it's not even mentioned at all in the ultra plan.
00:04:32So now I'll have the local plan actually build out what it came up with and we'll
00:04:36take a look at the final results. So here's our Kanban boards on the left.
00:04:39We have the normal plan mode, which actually used front end design.
00:04:44And on the right we have ultra plan. So they both have light and dark mode.
00:04:48You can tell right away that the one on the left used front end design.
00:04:52It just looks a little more put together. The cards have,
00:04:55I think better shading between them. And they had the little flourishes,
00:04:59like the sort of just orange right here alongside the timer.
00:05:04So just minor things, but it does stick out.
00:05:07You also notice that in other little things, like when I go from high to medium,
00:05:10to low, they have different colors up here in the top left versus the ones on the
00:05:14right. Now, in terms of adding tasks, again,
00:05:17this looks so much nicer on the left and this was just the first pass,
00:05:20but the actual functionality for all intents and purposes looks the
00:05:25same. So we can create the card. They're not letting me move the card.
00:05:30I don't know. I can move the card just fine.
00:05:34So functionality on this seems totally okay,
00:05:38but definitely a gap in terms of the front end visuals.
00:05:42So that's what the front end looks like. What about the backend?
00:05:44What about the actual code quality? Well,
00:05:46I spun up another session of Claude code and had it look at both the local plan
00:05:49mode and the ultra plan and compare and contrast.
00:05:52And truth be told there wasn't a huge difference besides sort of the frameworks
00:05:56they used and ultra plan had a few hundred lines more of code.
00:06:00So we had Gary Tan take a look at it too. And so he said ultra plan was better,
00:06:04but other than that, there isn't a huge difference here besides the skills,
00:06:08not being evoked, which to be honest is a downside.
00:06:10Like if I tell cloud code to use a specific skill,
00:06:13I want it to use a specific skill. Now let's be honest.
00:06:16This could be a situation where we use ultra plan for a project that was just way
00:06:20too simple.
00:06:21And this may be something where we need to be using ultra plan on something that
00:06:26is infinitely more complex.
00:06:28And it's almost like when we use something like GSD or superpowers,
00:06:31where these things really are able to show their,
00:06:35their worth in these very large complex projects that take days and days and days
00:06:39to put together. And when we test it on something like a simple Kanban board,
00:06:43well, you know, there isn't enough room for it to, you know,
00:06:45create a gap between local plan mode and itself,
00:06:49but there is definitely something to be said on the speed side of the equation.
00:06:53Like you saw using ultra plan was infinitely faster than going to
00:06:57normal plan mode route. So taking all that together,
00:07:00should we be racing to use ultra plan over the standard plan mode?
00:07:04Maybe, maybe not. The fact that didn't use the skills is very annoying,
00:07:10especially if you're someone who's going to be, you know,
00:07:14invoking a lot of skills on at the beginning of your project creation,
00:07:17or if you're trying to use it in the middle of your project,
00:07:19we all know how powerful skills are.
00:07:21So this also wasn't the first time I had issues with skills and ultra plan.
00:07:25When I was doing my own testing outside of this video,
00:07:27that was a problem I ran into as well, which is a huge issue.
00:07:31So we're almost at the point where it's like, well, are we balancing speed?
00:07:34Do we want it to be really fast? Like we get with ultra plan,
00:07:36or do we want to actually use the skills and does the speed really matter if it's
00:07:40not actually calling in the skills correctly?
00:07:42And is it always not going to call them the skills again, very new tool.
00:07:45I think the conclusion you should draw here is try it out yourself,
00:07:49see how it does on these ultra complicated projects. But other than that,
00:07:54I don't think it's some automatic, Oh, local plan mode's dead. Get rid of that.
00:07:59We're going to ultra plan for everything. So we'll see.
00:08:01I wouldn't be surprised if this also gets a lot more upgrades and changes as we
00:08:05move forward, because seeing as this was in the leak,
00:08:08and then it comes back two days later and the documentation kind of leads a lot
00:08:12to be desired.
00:08:12It almost feels like this was kind of just pushed out to get it out there.
00:08:16So hopefully this sheds some light,
00:08:19just a little bit of light on how ultra plan works and how it compares to
00:08:24the normal plan mode.
00:08:25I don't think this is going to completely change how you approach these things,
00:08:28but I would test it out.
00:08:29Your results might vary depending on your particular project. So as always,
00:08:34let me know what you thought. Make sure to check out chase AI.
00:08:36Plus if you want to get your hands on my cloud code masterclass,
00:08:39there's a link to that in the pin comment.
00:08:41There also is the free chase AI community with tons of free cloud code resources.
00:08:46You can find that in the description, but besides that, I'll see you around.