Nate Herk's Lean AI Tool Tier List

Nate Herk | AI Automation2026-05-08go watch the original →

the gist

Nate ranks AI tools by usage: S-tier daily drivers are Claude Code in VS Code and Glaido; keep stacks lean with tool-agnostic directories and pain-point testing.

Core Stack (S/A-Tier Daily/Weekly Drivers)

Nate uses six core AI tools daily or weekly. Claude Code serves as his main operating system inside VS Code, where he handles most work via terminal or extension. Glaido replaces Whisper for fastest private speech-to-text. Codex complements Claude Code's weaknesses. Claude chat handles quick chats. Hermes Agent manages general knowledge via Telegram with instant crons. Perplexity and Grok support agent research; Grok excels at X/Twitter insights.

Claude Code — primary coding agent, lives in VS Code projects.
VS Code — IDE for Claude Code.
Glaido — speech-to-text daily driver.
Codex — pairs with Claude Code.
Claude chat — quick chats.
Hermes Agent — on-demand via Telegram.
Perplexity — research.
Grok — X-specific research.

Specialists (B/C-Tier) and Graduated Tools

B-tier specialists handle niche tasks: Apify for automations/actors, GPT Image 2 and NanoBanana 2 for images (creator vs Photoshop), Key.AI as image/video model router, OpenRouter for models, HeyGen for avatars, 11 Labs for voice cloning, Claude Design for team landing pages. C-tier experimenting includes Gemini, 'anti-gravity', Ollama for open-source models/cloud, Manus sparingly.

Graduated tools no longer used despite quality: ChatGPT, OpenClaw (replaced by Hermes), Cursor, NotebookLM, 'nadn', Whisperflow (replaced by Glaido), Poppy AI (replicated in Claude Code).

Non-AI supports like Hostinger VPS, ClickUp PM, Fireflies meetings omitted from core AI focus.

Mindset and Frameworks to Avoid Overwhelm

Build tool-agnostic directories (e.g., 'herk-2' project with .claude.md, agents.md, scripts) that outlive agents; all harnesses (Claude Code, Codex, Hermes, OpenClaw) work in same dir. Define northstar goal; new tools distract unless they align. Expect 20% productivity dip on switches—only adopt if net gain exceeds baseline. Prioritize needle-moving hours over total hours: daily set one X goal driving northstar.

Be tool-agnostic per Bezos: focus unchanging needs. Match tools to process mini-tasks (e.g., Perplexity research, Claude Code structure video, GPT Image 2 thumbnail, NanoBanana 2 effects). Decision framework: New tool/video solves current pain point? Save if no; test in real low-risk scenario for week, then integrate or discard. Revisit saved links only at actual roadblocks.