alt Hacker NewsA little off topic, but this seems like one of the better places to ask where I'm not gonna get a bunch of zealotry; a question for those of you who like using AI for software development, particularly using Claude Code or OpenCode.
I'll admit I'm a bit of a sceptic of AI but want to give it another shot over the weekend, what do people recommend these days?
I'm happy spending money but obviously don't want to spend a tonne since its just an experiment for me. I hear a lot of people raving about Opus 4.5, though apparently using that is near to $20 a prompt, Sonnet 4.5 seems a lot cheaper but then I don't know if I'm giving it (by it I mean AI coding) a fair chance if Opus is that much better. There's also OpenCode Zen, which might be a better option, I don't know.
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If you want to try Opus you can get the lowest Claude plan for $20 for the month, which has enough tokens for most hobby projects. I've been using to vibe code some little utilities for myself and haven't hit the limits yet.
Take some existing code and bundle it into a zip or tar file. Upload it to Gemini and ask it for critique. It's surprisingly insightful and may give you some ideas for improvement. Use one of the Gemini in-depth models like Thinking or Pro; just looking at the thinking process is interesting. Best of all, they're free for limited use.
give codex a try for $20. You get a lot out of the base subscription. Opus will burn through the $20 sub in an hour
The latest models are all really good at writing code. Which is better is just vibes and personal preference at this point IMO
The agent harness of claude code / opencode / codex is what really makes the difference these days
Claude Code is the best thing I’ve used, though it’s been a while since I tried other tools. If you want to give it a fair shot, that’s what I’d use. I use the Max plan, I think. I write my initial instructions in markdown with pseudo code for the parts that really matter.
Here’s an example prompt: https://christophilus.com/blog/posts/example-claude-code-pro...