# Typical binary drop-in replacement pattern
# Place the claude-better binary in your PATH before the original claude
export PATH="/path/to/claude-better/bin:$PATH"

# Verify it's being picked up
which claude
claude --version

# Or alias it explicitly without touching PATH
alias claude='/path/to/claude-better/bin/claude-better'

# Show help (cold start: ~49ms vs 182ms baseline)
claude --help

# Check auth status (warm start: ~58ms vs 146ms baseline)
claude auth status

# Start an interactive chat session (~102ms bootstrap vs 311ms baseline)
claude chat

# One-shot non-interactive command (~131ms vs 428ms baseline)
claude -p "Summarize this file" < input.txt

# All standard flags pass through unchanged
claude --model claude-opus-4-5 chat
claude --output-format json -p "List 3 facts about Rust"

# Standard Claude CLI env vars are respected
export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=$ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

# The tool reads ~/.claude/ config directory as normal
# No migration of config files needed

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Existing Claude CLI scripts work without modification

# Non-interactive pipeline usage
echo "Explain this error:" | cat - error.log | claude -p /dev/stdin

# Exit code handling (100% compatible)
if claude auth status; then
  echo "Authenticated"
else
  echo "Not authenticated — run: claude auth login"
  exit 1
fi

# JSON output parsing
claude --output-format json -p "What is 2+2?" | jq '.content'

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Long-lived interactive session — memory pressure is significantly reduced
# Useful on memory-constrained machines (laptops, CI runners)
claude chat

# Ensure claude-better/bin is earlier in PATH than original claude
echo $PATH | tr ':' '\n' | grep -n claude
which claude  # should point to claude-better

# 1.3% of outputs differ before normalization (timestamps, whitespace, terminal width)
# If a script breaks on exact output matching, add normalization:
claude -p "..." | tr -s ' ' | sed 's/[[:space:]]*$//'

# claude-better reads the same auth store as the original CLI
# If auth fails, re-authenticate via the standard flow:
claude auth login

# If you hit an edge case, unset the alias/PATH change to revert instantly
unalias claude
# or
export PATH="<original-path-without-claude-better>"