Rails creator DHH used Claude Code to rewrite the Python library TerminalTextEffects into Rust code in 3 hours and 11 minutes, consuming 11 million tokens.Article author and source: AI New Era
The creator of Claude Code has publicly stated that he hasn't written a single line of code by hand in over two months.
In one day, he was able to merge 27 PRs, all handled by Claude.
OpenAI researcher Roon put it even more bluntly: "I don't write code anymore; 100% is done by GPT."
Now, another expert, after deeply experiencing Claude Code and Codex, exclaimed, "In five years, humans won't write code anymore!"
Over the past few days, Rails' creator DHH personally took on a major undertaking—
Rewritten entirely in Rust from the Python library 'TerminalTextEffects', using only Claude Fable 5.
Amazingly, this restructuring burned 11 million tokens, almost clearing the challenge in one go.
The results after optimization were phenomenal: startup time was reduced from 87 milliseconds to just 2 milliseconds, and rendering speed increased by 9.6 times.
As soon as the post was published, it instantly drew a million viewers online.
An AI expert cut to the chase and posed a profound question to the creator of Rails: "If that's the case, where should Ruby go in the next five years?"
DHH's response was very straightforward—
Within five years, very few people will still be manually writing or reading code, so it really doesn’t matter.
Who could have imagined that just one year later, the contrast would be so stark!
Hand over the keyboard to AI; I'd rather retire.
In May last year, DHH was still firmly advocating online that the joy of coding should not be surrendered to AI.
In the lengthy article "Coding should be a vibe!", he clearly stated:
AI is at best a supportive "pair programmer," useful for checking APIs and answering questions.
He even made a strong statement: "If one day I must completely hand over the keyboard to AI, I'd rather retire."
I have no intention of giving up coding at all. This isn’t some grunt work I’d hand off to AI—what would be the point? To become a project manager for a bunch of AI "mob"?
During Lex Fridman’s six-hour in-depth conversation, DHH insisted that every line of his code was written by hand.
While building a Linux distribution, he repeatedly had AI generate the same Bash conditional statement, until he suddenly realized that without typing it out himself, he hadn’t truly learned it.
The loss of this "muscle memory" left him shaken, wondering, "Could this be the end of learning?"
However, in April this year, the tide turned sharply.
In a podcast, he admitted that he has now fully shifted to an "agent-first" approach and has largely moved away from writing code by hand.
Yet, it was from the father of Rails himself that the statement “In five years, not many people will still be reading or writing code” was uttered.
Fable 5 all-in
In five years, no one will write code.
Take a close look at Claude's hardcore rewrite of Python.
TerminalTextEffects, abbreviated as TTE, is a terminal visual effects engine.
It can be used as a command-line program or imported as a Python library into other applications.
Developers can, like magicians, control the movement, colors, gradient effects, and animation sequences of text to transform dull UIs into stunning experiences.
The Rust version demonstrated by DHH can run 37 effects.
A software that originally required a Python runtime environment has been transformed by Claude into a mere 3MB executable file.
This new repository is called ttfx and is hosted under DHH's own Omarchy organization, with every commit preserved.
The entire process took 3 hours and 11 minutes, with 21,000 lines of main Rust code—nearly identical in size to the original Python version.
In the task, eight agents work simultaneously on separate branches, merging in batches: each reads the code, generates the implementation, compiles it, runs tests, handles failures, then proceeds to the next round.
所谓「one-shot」，实际上是一次性交付任务。
Using the same approach, DHH had Codex complete the task, and the result after a single prompt was also excellent.
However, the speed is 30% slower, and the token cost is $43 (¥290).
DHH's aggressive move directly drew out several top figures from Anthropic.
Boris Cherny, the creator of Claude Code, couldn't resist appearing in the comments to exclaim, "This is amazing!"
In response to further questioning from researcher Thariq, DHH revealed an astonishing detail—
He simply asked Claude to create a plan, then intervened zero times throughout the process—no complex workflows, no preset goals, fully empowering the process.
Million-line codebase, migrate with Bun in one click
TerminalTextEffects, given its limited scale.
What truly demonstrates the power of AI coding is the major refactoring beneath Bun.
Several months ago, founder Jarred Sumner personally led the migration of the large codebase from Zig to Rust.
Amazingly, this massive project involving a million lines of code was completed in less than two weeks.
A few years ago, a move of this magnitude would have been a marathon lasting multiple quarters, even years.
Future developers must become "How to Train Your Dragon" masters.
Today, all signs are wildly suggesting a harsh yet exciting truth—
The marginal cost of code generation is approaching zero indefinitely.
This inevitably causes many people to fall into panic: "If no one is coding in five years, will programmers disappear?"
In fact, "no one writes code" does not mean that programmers disappear.
Future programmers will experience a fundamental shift in their core responsibilities—
Shift entirely from "writing code by hand" to defining requirements, designing constraints, establishing testing frameworks, and evaluating whether AI has written the code correctly.
It is foreseeable that when "coding from scratch" becomes history, the only two true moats remaining in the future will be:
Gain insight into "what's worth doing" and define "what counts as right."
Instead of worrying about losing your keyboard, start now by thinking about what kind of Rome you want this boundlessly powerful AI, your "super coder," to build.