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Decision Trees

Reading time: 5 minutes | Skill level: All levels | Last updated: 2026-01-22

Visual decision guides to help you choose the right command, provider, and model for your specific situation.

📋 Table of Contents

Which Command Should I Use?

Start here if you're not sure which command to run:

                    🎯 START HERE
                         │
                         ▼
            ┌────────────────────────┐
            │ Do you need to work    │
            │ offline or keep code   │
            │ 100% private?          │
            └────────┬───────────────┘
                     │
          ┌──────────┴──────────┐
          │                     │
         YES                   NO
          │                     │
          ▼                     ▼
      Use cco          ┌─────────────────┐
   (Ollama Local)      │ Do you have     │
   100% Private        │ GitHub Copilot  │
   Offline capable     │ Pro+?           │
                       └────┬────────────┘
                            │
                 ┌──────────┴──────────┐
                 │                     │
                YES                   NO
                 │                     │
                 ▼                     ▼
        ┌────────────────┐      Use ccd
        │ What's your    │   (Anthropic Direct)
        │ task type?     │   Pay-per-token
        └───┬────────────┘   Best quality
            │
     ┌──────┼──────┬──────────┐
     │      │      │          │
     ▼      ▼      ▼          ▼
  Quick  Daily  Code      Compare
  Q&A    Dev   Review   Approaches
     │      │      │          │
     ▼      ▼      ▼          ▼
 ccc-   ccc-   ccc-      ccc-gpt
 haiku  sonnet opus    (GPT-4.1)
 (Fast) (Bal.) (Best)  (Alt view)

Quick Reference:

  • Offline/Private → cco
  • Daily dev → ccc or ccc-sonnet
  • Quick questions → ccc-haiku
  • Code reviews → ccc-opus
  • No Copilot → ccd

Which Provider for My Project?

Choose provider based on project characteristics:

         🎯 PROJECT CHARACTERISTICS
                    │
                    ▼
        ┌───────────────────────┐
        │ Is this proprietary   │
        │ or confidential code? │
        └───────┬───────────────┘
                │
         ┌──────┴──────┐
         │             │
        YES           NO
         │             │
         ▼             ▼
     Use cco    ┌──────────────────┐
   (Ollama)     │ How many files   │
   100%         │ in the project?  │
   Private      └──────┬───────────┘
                       │
            ┌──────────┼──────────┐
            │          │          │
            ▼          ▼          ▼
        < 500     500-2K      > 2K
        files     files      files
            │          │          │
            ▼          ▼          ▼
        cco or    ccc or      ccc or
         ccc       ccd         ccd
      (Either)   (Cloud)    (Cloud)
                 faster      faster

By Project Size:

  • Small (<500 files) → Any provider works well
  • Medium (500-2K files) → Prefer ccc or ccd (cloud)
  • Large (>2K files) → Use ccc or ccd only (Ollama too slow)

By Sensitivity:

  • Confidential → cco only
  • Internal → Any provider OK
  • Open source → Any provider OK

Which Model for This Task?

Choose model based on task requirements:

              🎯 WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
                        │
         ┌──────────────┼──────────────┐
         │              │              │
         ▼              ▼              ▼
    Exploring     Implementing    Reviewing
     codebase        feature         code
         │              │              │
         ▼              ▼              ▼
    ┌─────────┐   ┌─────────┐   ┌─────────┐
    │ Quick   │   │ Quality │   │ Need    │
    │ scan?   │   │ matters?│   │ best?   │
    └────┬────┘   └────┬────┘   └────┬────┘
         │             │             │
      ┌──┴──┐       ┌──┴──┐       ┌──┴──┐
      │     │       │     │       │     │
     YES   NO      YES   NO      YES   NO
      │     │       │     │       │     │
      ▼     ▼       ▼     ▼       ▼     ▼
   haiku sonnet  opus sonnet   opus  sonnet
   (Fast) (Bal.) (Best) (Bal.) (Best) (Good)

Task-Based Selection:

Task Type Model Reasoning
Quick questions ccc-haiku Fast, good enough for simple queries
Code exploration ccc-haiku Speed matters for rapid iteration
Daily development ccc-sonnet Best balance of quality/speed
Feature implementation ccc-sonnet Reliable, efficient
Bug fixing ccc-sonnet Good analysis capabilities
Code reviews ccc-opus Thoroughness critical
Security audits ccc-opus Need best detection
Architecture design ccc-opus Deep reasoning required
Refactoring ccc-sonnet Balanced approach
Documentation ccc-haiku Simple, repetitive task
Learning/experimenting ccc-haiku Fast feedback loop
Comparing approaches ccc-gpt Different perspective

Troubleshooting Decision Tree

When something doesn't work:

         🆘 SOMETHING NOT WORKING?
                    │
                    ▼
        ┌───────────────────────┐
        │ Run ccs to check      │
        │ provider status       │
        └───────┬───────────────┘
                │
                ▼
        ┌───────────────────────┐
        │ Which provider fails? │
        └───┬───────────────────┘
            │
     ┌──────┼──────┬──────────┐
     │      │      │          │
     ▼      ▼      ▼          ▼
  Copilot Ollama Direct   All fail
     │      │      │          │
     ▼      ▼      ▼          ▼
┌─────────┐ ┌──────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐
│copilot- │ │Is Ollama │ │Is API   │ │Check    │
│api not  │ │running?  │ │key set? │ │internet │
│running? │ └────┬─────┘ └────┬────┘ │& Claude │
└────┬────┘      │            │      │Code     │
     │      ┌────┴────┐  ┌────┴────┐ │install  │
     │      │         │  │         │ └─────────┘
     ▼      ▼         ▼  ▼         ▼
   Start  Check    Pull Fix      Verify
copilot- service model key/    base
  api    restart        restart install
     │      │         │  │         │
     ▼      ▼         ▼  ▼         ▼
   Test   Test     Test Test     Test
   ccc    cco      cco  ccd      all

Common Fixes:

Error Quick Fix
copilot-api not running copilot-api start
Ollama not responding brew services restart ollama
Model not found ollama pull devstral-small-2
API key invalid Check echo $ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
Aliases not working source ~/.zshrc

See TROUBLESHOOTING.md for detailed solutions.

Performance Optimization Path

When Ollama is slow:

        🐌 OLLAMA RUNNING SLOW?
                 │
                 ▼
     ┌───────────────────────┐
     │ How big is the        │
     │ project/context?      │
     └───────┬───────────────┘
             │
      ┌──────┴──────┬──────────┐
      │             │          │
      ▼             ▼          ▼
   Small       Medium      Large
  <10K ctx    10-40K     >40K ctx
      │             │          │
      ▼             ▼          ▼
  ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐ ┌─────────┐
  │Check    │ │Increase │ │Switch   │
  │model    │ │context  │ │to cloud │
  │loaded?  │ │to 16K   │ │provider │
  └────┬────┘ └────┬────┘ └────┬────┘
       │           │           │
       ▼           ▼           ▼
   Verify      Expect     Use ccc
    ollama     slower      or ccd
     ps      responses   (much
       │     15-25 tok/s  faster)
       ▼           │           │
   If slow        ▼           ▼
   increase   Still      1-3s
   to 16K      slow?    response
       │           │
       ▼           ▼
   Still    Consider
   slow?       ccc
       │           │
       ▼           ▼
   Use ccc    DONE

Performance Ladder:

  1. Ollama 8K - 26-39 tok/s (fast, small projects only)
  2. Ollama 16K - 15-25 tok/s (medium projects, slower)
  3. Ollama 32K - 8-15 tok/s (large projects, slow)
  4. Copilot/Anthropic - 1-3s total (cloud, always fast)

When to give up on Ollama:

  • Project >2K files → Use ccc or ccd
  • Response time >30s → Use ccc or ccd
  • You value speed → Use ccc or ccd

Provider Selection Matrix

Quick decision matrix:

┌─────────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┬─────────────┐
│ Requirement     │ Anthropic   │ Copilot     │ Ollama      │
│                 │ (ccd)       │ (ccc)       │ (cco)       │
├─────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┤
│ Best quality    │     ✅      │     ⚠️      │     ❌      │
├─────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┤
│ Lowest cost     │     ❌      │     ✅      │     ✅      │
├─────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┤
│ 100% private    │     ❌      │     ❌      │     ✅      │
├─────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┤
│ Offline capable │     ❌      │     ❌      │     ✅      │
├─────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┤
│ Fast (1-3s)     │     ✅      │     ✅      │ ❌ (varies) │
├─────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┤
│ Large projects  │     ✅      │     ✅      │     ⚠️      │
├─────────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┼─────────────┤
│ MCP compatible  │     ✅      │     ✅      │     ✅      │
└─────────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┴─────────────┘

✅ Excellent  ⚠️ Limited/Conditional  ❌ Not supported

Quick Decision Shortcuts

Memorize these for instant decisions:

  1. Need it fast? → ccc or ccd (cloud)
  2. Need it free? → ccc or cco (Copilot or Ollama)
  3. Need it private? → cco (Ollama only)
  4. Need best quality? → ccd or ccc-opus
  5. Learning/experimenting? → ccc-haiku (fast iteration)
  6. Large codebase? → ccc or ccd (cloud only)
  7. Quick question? → ccc-haiku (fastest)
  8. Code review? → ccc-opus (most thorough)
  9. Don't know? → ccc-sonnet (safe default)
  10. Having issues? → ccs (check status first)

📚 Next Steps

Based on your decision:

Chose ccc (Copilot):

Chose cco (Ollama):

Chose ccd (Anthropic):

Related Documentation:

Back to: Documentation Index | Main README