Descriptions:
Nate Herk provides one of the first detailed walkthroughs of Claude Code’s “Ultra Plan” feature — a relatively undocumented capability that offloads planning to a cloud-based web interface rather than running it entirely in the local terminal. Activated with `/ultraplan` from the CLI, the feature drafts a structured plan (with context, new files, modifications, and optional diagrams) in a browser-based document where users can comment on individual sections or add emoji reactions before sending the approved plan back to the terminal for execution.
Herk runs a direct side-by-side comparison building an analytics dashboard: standard plan mode took roughly 45 minutes and consumed 131,000 local tokens, while Ultra Plan completed planning in about 5 minutes and full execution in 10-15 minutes total, using only 82,000 local tokens (with additional compute handled in the cloud). The resulting dashboards were functionally comparable in quality.
Important constraints documented: Ultra Plan only works from the Claude Code CLI, not from the desktop app or VS Code extension. The feature also syncs to the local Git directory, allowing the cloud session to inspect existing project files and build on prior work. Herk argues that upfront planning clarity translates directly into faster, cleaner agent execution — spending more tokens on planning to save significantly more during implementation. A useful reference for Claude Code power users looking to reduce total session cost and improve output quality on complex builds.
📺 Source: Nate Herk | AI Automation · Published April 06, 2026
🏷️ Format: Tutorial Demo
