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Using AI Services & Tools

Using AI Services & Tools

Anh-Thi Dinh
API & Services
Tools
This notes is for using AI services and tools. For working with APIs, please refer this note.

Using AI services

This is based on my personal experience with the current versions. The list may change significantly in the future.
  • Summarize YouTube videos: Notebook LM or ask Grok with a URL.
  • Get updated news (requires up-to-date information): Grok, then ChatGPT, then Gemini.
  • Check references/sources: Perplexity then Grok/ChatGPT.
  • Translation: Gemini, ChatGPT, or Grok.
  • Coding assistance: Claude, then Grok, then ChatGPT.
  • Record and summarize live meetings: ChatGPT Pro.
  • All-in-one chatbot models: Monica (affordable option).
  • Work with personal files/sources: Use Project or Spaces features in AI services and upload your resources.
  • Summarize Vietnamese books: ChatGPT, then Notion AI.
  • Voice Mode (for English speaking practice): ChatGPT (has memory), Grok (for creative conversations).
  • AI IDE: Cursor, then VSCode with Github Copilot. Both use Claude models.
  • Image editing/generation: Gemini Banana.
  • Video generation (photo to video): Grok Imagine.

General things

  • Always look for llms.txt of a site. This doc is LLM friendly for AI services. For example AI SDK’s llms.txt,
How I use LLMs by Andrej Karpathy
I Shipped a macOS App Built Entirely by Claude Code | Indragie Karunaratne

Cursor IDE

  • Note: VSCode.
  • Official docs.
  • Cursor Daskboard.
  • Different from VSCode, all cmd+k is replaced by cmd+r!
  • Using the CLI commands.
  • If you prefer a vertical activity bar like VSCode’s (for search, extensions, and other icons) instead of the horizontal layout, navigate to Settings → Workbench → Activity Bar → Orientation and change it there.

Useful rules

Play a sound after task completion

This method works with both Claude Code CLI and the latest Claude Code extension in IDE.
  1. Create or update ~/.claude/settings.json with the following hook:
  1. Create a script ~/.claude/scripts/notify-end.sh with following content:
  1. Then run chmod +x ~/.claude/scripts/notify-end.sh p
  1. Restart your Claude Code (both CLI or extension) to see the result!

Claude Code (CC)

📚 References

  • Claude Code: Best practices for agentic coding
  • claude-cookbooks
  • Tools available to Claude Code
  • Subagents
  • Claude Code settings
  • Use Anthropic’s prompt improver / generator.
  • ✍️ Goon's Solo Playbook | Substack
  • ❤️ Alternative to (and compatible with) Claude Code: Z.ai's GLM Coding, which is much cheaper.
  • anthropics/skills: Public repository for Skills
  • carlrannaberg/claudekit: A toolkit of custom commands, hooks, and utilities for Claude Code
  • BehiSecc/awesome-claude-skills: A curated list of Claude Skills.

Hooks & Skills & How to work with?

  • Create skills (under 500 lines each) and use them with hooks
  • Best practices in the codes should be in skills.
  • The magic: Skills handle all the "how to write code" guidelines, and CLAUDE.md handles "how this specific project works." Separation of concerns for the win.
  • Dev Docs System: track the TODO
  • Create custom slash commands to avoid repeating tasks and prompts.

Best practices

  • Always start with plan mode before asking CC to do things.
  • Agent Skills Best Practices - official docs.
  • Instruction prompt: Add instructions to ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md for global guides (for any project). For a single project, add CLAUDE.md in the root of the project!
  • When coding CLI with Claude, if you want to add something to CLAUDE.md, just add # before what you want to say, e.g. # Response in Vietnamese every question.
  • For reading images/photos, should use Gemini with CC.
  • ⭐ Claude Code usage limit hack
  • ⭐ Claude Code is a Beast – Tips from 6 Months of Hardcore Use : r/ClaudeAI
  • PM2 for production process manager with built-in load balancer.

Working with IDE (CC extension)

  • Set a keyboard shortcut for "Claude Code: Open in Side Bar" (I use ctrl+ESC) to quickly open Claude Code in the Side Bar.
  • When Claude Code is open in the Sidebar, an icon will appear. Drag and drop this icon to the other sidebar (for example, in the same area as Cursor Chat or GitHub Chat).
    • 🎉 Once configured, Claude Code will automatically open in the chat panel whenever you access it from the sidebar.
  • You can drag and drop the CC extension menu back into the sidebar to display the CC icon and open it on demand.

Tools with CC

  • sniffly — Claude Code dashboard with usage stats, error analysis, and sharable feature.
  • spec-kit — Toolkit to help you get started with Spec-Driven Development

Setting Up GLM with Claude Code

☝
Best practice: Always use Claude Code login in the VSCode extension (it will be reset after each 5 hours). Always use Claude Code CLI with GLM, open a new tab as a Terminal (next to the tab of extension). With that way, whenever, the usage runs out, we can change to use GLM in the Terminal tab easily.
☝
CCS - Claude Code Switch — Instant switch between Claude Subscription profile and GLM Coding Plan profile with one command.
  • Check the official guide but it’s not enough.
  • The official Claude Code Extension
  • Modify your ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc
      • Then source ~/.zshrc or source ~/.bashrc in the current terminal to make them work!
  • To switch between services, run vb_glm to use GLM or vb_claude to use default Claude Code.
  • Verify the configuration by typing claude in the terminal, then running /status.
    • You can also simply ask "Who r u? Which model r u?"
  • To make GLM work with the latest VSCode extension: open the terminal, switch to GLM with vb_glm, then open the current folder using cursor . or code ..
    • Test the Claude Code extension by asking: "Who r u? Which model r u?" (you may need to ask several times until you see an answer containing "glm-4.6")
    • ⭐ Another way: Open IDE Settings → search for "Claude Code" → Click to open the settings.json file and add the following:
        • Then reload the current IDE windows.
        ⚠️ Note that "default" for "selectedModel" will not work! You can also type /model and then select "opus".

MCP

  • Cursor Directory/MCPs
  • Github Model Context Protocol Servers
  • Install MCP for Claude Desktop: Settings → Developer → Edit Config
  • Install MCP for Cursor:
    • Global: Cursor → Settings… → Cursor Settings → Tools & Integrations
    • Project: .cursor/mcp.json

Using Local Models with IDEs

  • Download LM Studio and download the coder models. Alternatively, you can use Ollama.
  • In your IDE (VSCode or Cursor), install the Continue extension.
  • In LM Studio, navigate to the Developer tab, select your downloaded model → Settings → enable "Serve on Local Network" → enable the server.
  • In your IDE, select the "Continue" tab on the left sidebar → Choose "Or, configure your own model" → "Click here to view more providers" (or select the Ollama icon tab if you're using Ollama) → in the provider list, select LM Studio → Set Model to "Autodetect" → Connect → a config file will open at ~/.continue/config.yaml, keep the default settings and save.
  • That's it!
  • As another option, you can use Granite.code (from IBM)

No need to remember commands using AI

I’m using Claude Code, if you use another Coding CLI service, modify the codes. Insert below codes in .bashrc or .zshrc and then source ~/.zshrc:
In this post
◆Using AI services◆General things◆Cursor IDE○Useful rules○Play a sound after task completion◆Claude Code (CC)○📚 References○Hooks & Skills & How to work with?○Best practices○Working with IDE (CC extension)○Tools with CC○Setting Up GLM with Claude Code◆MCP◆Using Local Models with IDEs
1- **[IMPORTANT]** Do not just simulate the implementation or mocking them, always implement the real code.
2- Use file system (in markdown format) to hand over reports in `./plans/reports` directory from agent to agent with this file name format: `NNN-from-agent-name-to-agent-name-task-name-report.md`.
3
4**Task Completeness Verification**
5- Verify all tasks in the TODO list of the given plan are completed
6- Check for any remaining TODO comments
7- Update the given plan file with task status and next steps
1{
2  "hooks": {
3    "Stop": [{
4      "matcher": "",
5      "hooks": [{
6        "type": "command",
7        "command": "bash ~/.claude/scripts/notify-end.sh"
8      }]
9    }]
10  }
11}
1#!/bin/bash
2# macOS
3# osascript -e 'display notification "Task completed" with title "Claude Code" sound name "Glass"'
4
5# Or just play a custom sound file
6afplay /System/Library/Sounds/Glass.aiff
1### Starting Large Tasks
2
3When exiting plan mode with an accepted plan: 1.**Create Task Directory**:
4mkdir -p ~/git/project/dev/active/[task-name]/
5
62.**Create Documents**:
7
8- `[task-name]-plan.md` - The accepted plan
9- `[task-name]-context.md` - Key files, decisions
10- `[task-name]-tasks.md` - Checklist of work
11
123.**Update Regularly**: Mark tasks complete immediately
13
14### Continuing Tasks
15
16- Check `/dev/active/` for existing tasks
17- Read all three files before proceeding
18- Update "Last Updated" timestamps
An example from this post.
1Me: "The email service is throwing errors"
2Me: [Manually finds and copies logs]
3Me: [Pastes into chat]
4Claude: "Let me analyze this..."
Before PM2…
1Me: "The email service is throwing errors"
2Claude: [Runs] pm2 logs email --lines 200
3Claude: [Reads the logs] "I see the issue - database connection timeout..."
4Claude: [Runs] pm2 restart email
5Claude: "Restarted the service, monitoring for errors..."
After PM2…
1export GCL_API_KEY="xxx"
2# GLM Setup
3vb_glm() {
4  echo "🚀 Using GLM for claude code"
5  export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://api.z.ai/api/anthropic
6  export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=$GCL_API_KEY
7  export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL="GLM-4.6"
8  export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL="GLM-4.6"
9  export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL="GLM-4.5-Air"
10  echo "✅ Done"
11}
12# Claude Setup (unset the variables)
13vb_claude() {
14  echo "🚀 Using default claude for claude code"
15  unset ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL
16  unset ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN
17  unset ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL
18  unset ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL
19  unset ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL
20  echo "✅ Done"
21}
1"claude-code.environmentVariables": [
2    {
3        "name": "ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN",
4        "value": "xxx"
5    },
6    {
7        "name": "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL",
8        "value": "https://api.z.ai/api/anthropic"
9    },
10    {
11        "name": "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL",
12        "value": "glm-4.6"
13    },
14    {
15      "name": "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL",
16      "value": "glm-4.6"
17  },
18    {
19        "name": "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL",
20        "value": "glm-4.5-air"
21    }
22],
23"claude-code.selectedModel": "opus"
1claude_execute() {
2  emulate -L zsh
3  setopt NO_GLOB
4  local query="$*"
5  local prompt="You are a command line expert. The user wants to run a command but they don't know how. Here is what they asked: ${query}. Return ONLY the exact shell command needed. Do not prepend with an explanation, no markdown, no code blocks - just return the raw command you think will solve their query."
6  local cmd
7  # use Claude Code
8  cmd=$(claude --dangerously-skip-permissions --disallowedTools "Bash(*)" --model default -p "$prompt" --output-format text | tr -d '\000-\037' | sed 's/^[[:space:]]*//;s/[[:space:]]*$//')
9  if [[ -z "$cmd" ]]; then
10    echo "claude_execute: No command found"
11    return 1
12  fi
13  echo -e "$ \033[0;36m$cmd\033[0m"
14  eval "$cmd"
15}
16alias ask="noglob claude_execute"
1# Usage
2ask "List all conda env in this computer"