This. It helps to tell it to plan and to then interrogate it about that plan, change it to specification etc. Think of it as a refinement session before a pairing session. The results are considerably better if you do it this way. I've written kubernetes operators, flask applications, Kivy applications, and a transparent ssh proxy with Claude in the last two months, all outside of work.

It also helps to tell it to write tests first: I lean towards integration tests for most things but it is decent at writing good unit tests etc too. Obviously, review is paramount if TDD is going to work.

As a hobbyist coder, the more time I spend brainstorming with all the platforms about specs and tests and architecture, the better the ultimate results.