I am on the $20 plan for CC and Codex, I feel like a session of usage on CC == ~20% Codex usage / 5 hours in terms of time spent inferencing. It has always seemed way more geneous than I would expect.
Agreed. The $20 plans can go very far when you're using the coding agent as an additional tool in your development flow, not just trying to hammer it with prompts until you get output that works.
Managing context goes a long way, too. I clear context for every new task and keep the local context files up to date with key info to get the LLM on target quickly
It is ironic that in the gpt-4 era, when we couldn't see much value in this tools, all we could hear was "skill issues", "prompt engineering skills".
Now they are actually quite capable for SOME tasks, specially for something that we don't really care about learning, and they, to a certain extent, can generalize.
They perform much better than in gpt-4 era, objectively, across all domains. They perform much better with the absolute minimum input, objectively, across all domains.
If someone skipped the whole "prompt engineering" and learned nothing during that time, this person is more equiped to perform well.
Now I wonder how much I am leaving behind by ignoring this whole "skills, tools, MCP this and that, yada yada".
My answer is that the code they generate is still crap, so the new skill is in being able to spot the ways and places it wrote crap code, and how to quickly tell it to refactor to fix specific issues, and still come out ahead on productivity. Nothing like an ultra wide screen monitor (LG 40+) and having parallel codex or claude sessions going, working on a bunch of things at once in parallel. Get good at git worktree. Use them to make tools that make your own life easier that you previously wouldn't even have bothered to make. (chrome extensions and MCPs!)
The other skill is in knowing exactly when to roll up your sleeves and do it the old fashioned way. Which things they're good/useful for, and which things they aren't.
Prompt engineering (communicating with models?) is a foundational skill. Skills, tools, MCPs, etc. are all built on prompts.
My take is that the overlap is strongest with engineering management. If you can learn how to manage a team of human engineers well, that translates to managing a team of agents well.
If I want to continue the same task, I run /compact
If I want to start a new task, I /clear and then tell it to re-read the CLAUDE.md document where I put all of the quick context: Description of the project, key goals, where to find key code, reminders for tools to use, and so on. I aggressively update this file as I notice things that it’s always forgetting or looking up. I know some people have the LLM update their context file but I just do it myself with seemingly better results.
Using /compact burns through a lot of your usage quota and retains a lot of things you may not need. Giving it directions like “starting a new task doing ____, only keep necessary context for that” can help, but hitting /clear and having it re-read a short context primer is faster and uses less quota.
I'm not who you asked, but i do the same thing, i keep important state in doc files and recreate sessions from that state. this allows me to clear context and reconstruct my status on that item. I have a skill that manages this
Using documents for state helps so much with adding guardrails.
I do wish that ChatGPT had a toggle next to each project file instead of having to delete and reupload to toggle or create separate projects for various combinations of files.
This is why claude code/codex cli is the way to go for me because often they can recompute the state from the minimal description automatically. If i relaly do needto stop the session and come back in i can point it at the task file. it also has docs and scaladocs/javadocs in key places. good naming and project structure helps it very easily find the data it needs without me needing to feed it specific files. I did the 'feed it files and copy paste the code snippet' thing in chatgpt for months. wish i went to claude code sooner.
I must be missing something but $500 for an N150 mini PC pre-loaded with a 4tb nas and a custom OS is a terrible value proposition. And I have multiple form factor N1xx based machines running 24/7, so this is the exact type of thing I would be interested in. Could it have been priced in a more compelling manner without the NVME?
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