CODE IN TOKYO

Is the Era of Learning "How to Use Claude Code" Coming to an End? My Surprise with Dynamic Workflow

A Large-Scale Change Request

Recently, I ran into a fairly large modification task.

It was not just that there were many places to change. The work crossed multiple modules, and the impact area was broad. If I investigated and fixed everything one step at a time, there would never be enough time.

In cases like this, the hardest part is often not the coding itself.

It is this:

How should the work be divided and moved forward?

Which parts can be handled independently?

Where are the dependencies?

What should be investigated first?

In large-scale changes, the planning is often harder than the implementation.

I Asked, “How Should I Approach This?”

At first, I was struggling with it in the usual way.

I opened Claude Code and asked:

“This is a change of this size. What seems like the best way to proceed?”

I explained the requested changes, the expected impact area, and the parts I wanted to move forward in parallel. From there, we started shaping the plan.

This part is no different from a meeting between humans.

AI does not magically do everything on its own.

The first strategy discussion is still necessary.

But after we had talked through the situation for a while, Claude made an interesting suggestion:

For work of this scale, I think it would be better to use Dynamic Workflow.

After looking into it later, it seems this is a new feature added in Claude Opus 4.8.

AI Suggested the Work Plan Itself

What surprised me was not the new feature itself.

What surprised me was that it proposed the way the work should be carried out.

Of course, Claude has always suggested how to proceed with tasks.

That part has not changed.

But this time, the suggestion felt like it came from a broader perspective.

First, investigate the impact area.

Identify the related modules.

Organize the dependencies.

Split the work into units that can run in parallel.

Then run multiple investigations at the same time.

And the best tool to make that happen is this. Shall we use it?

It felt like the kind of thinking a technical lead would use when creating a work plan.

Humans Become Supervisors

Of course, this is not fully automatic.

I still checked the direction.

I still reviewed the proposal.

But once the direction was set, AI moved forward with a large part of the work autonomously.

The feeling was not like handing everything to a junior engineer.

It was closer to aligning with a capable lead engineer at the beginning and then saying:

“Please go ahead with the investigation.”

After approving the proposal, I worked on something else for a while.

I drank some cola, handled my email, and when I came back, the investigation results had been organized.

Honestly, I thought:

“How many hours would this have taken if I had done it myself?”

How Long Will Claude Code Usage Tips Stay Useful?

Recently, I often see posts and videos about:

I find them interesting too.

But this experience changed how I think about them a little.

I thought I was asking:

How should I use Claude Code?

But AI responded by saying:

For this case, this is the best way to use it.

In other words, before humans even finish researching the best usage techniques, AI itself is starting to propose the optimal way to use the tool.

What Remains for Humans Is Deciding the Goal

Of course, there is still value in understanding how Claude Code works.

Knowing the available features gives you an advantage in many situations.

But that value may gradually change.

Until now, what mattered was learning:

How should I use this?

From now on, what may matter more is communicating:

What do I want to achieve?

What I told AI this time was simply:

I want to move through this large-scale change efficiently.

I did not know the name Dynamic Workflow.

AI was the one that told me it existed.

Perhaps from now on, instead of learning how to use Claude Code, we will increasingly ask Claude Code how it should be used.

At least, this experience gave me a small glimpse of that future.