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Issue: Claude Code is unusable for complex engineering tasks with Feb updates

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Re: Issue: Claude Code is unusable for complex engineering tasks with Feb updates

#31

Post by andoando »

summarity wrote: post #8

Not claude code specific, but I've been noticing this on Opus 4.6 models through Copilot and others as well. Whenever the phrase "simplest fix" appears, it's time to pull the emergency break. This has gotten much, much worse over the past few weeks. It will produce completely useless code, knowingly (because up to that phrase the reasoning was correct) breaking things. Today another thing started happening which are…

Ive been noticing something similar recently. If somethings not working out itll be like "Ok this isnt working out, lets just switch to doing this other thing instead you explicitly said not to do".

For example I wanted to get VNC working with PopOS Cosmic and itll be like ah its ok well just install sway and thatll work!

Re: Issue: Claude Code is unusable for complex engineering tasks with Feb updates

#32

Post by giwook »

I wonder how much of this is simply needing to adapt one's workflows to models as they evolve and how much of this is actual degradation of the model, whether it's due to a version change or it's at the inference level.

Also, everyone has a different workflow. I can't say that I've noticed a meaningful change in Claude Code quality in a project I've been working on for a while now. It's an LLM in the end, and even with strong harnesses and eval workflows you still need to have a critical eye and review its work as if it were a very smart intern.

Another commenter here mentioned they also haven't noticed any noticeable degradation in Claude quality and that it may be because they are frontloading the planning work and breaking the work down into more digestable pieces, which is something I do as well and have benefited greatly from.

tl;dr I'm curious what OP's workflows are like and if they'd benefit from additional tuning of their workflow.

Re: Issue: Claude Code is unusable for complex engineering tasks with Feb updates

#34

Post by codessta »

Retr0id wrote: post #17

This seems anecdotal but with extra words. I'm fairly sure this is just the "wow this is so much better than the previous-gen model" effect wearing off.

I've always been a believer in the "post honey-moon new model phase" being a thing, but if you look at their analysis of how often the postEdit hooks fire + how Anthropic has started obfuscating thinking blocks, it seems fishy and not just vibes

Re: Issue: Claude Code is unusable for complex engineering tasks with Feb updates

#37

Post by mikepurvis »

summarity wrote: post #8

Not claude code specific, but I've been noticing this on Opus 4.6 models through Copilot and others as well. Whenever the phrase "simplest fix" appears, it's time to pull the emergency break. This has gotten much, much worse over the past few weeks. It will produce completely useless code, knowingly (because up to that phrase the reasoning was correct) breaking things. Today another thing started happening which are…

That helps explain why my sessions signed themselves out and won't log back in.

Re: Issue: Claude Code is unusable for complex engineering tasks with Feb updates

#39

Post by thrtythreeforty »

I noticed this almost immediately when attempting to switch to Opus 4.6. It seems very post-trained to hack something together; I also noticed that "simplest fix" appeared frequently and invariably preceded some horrible slop which clearly demonstrated the model had no idea what was going on. The link suggests this is due to lack of research.

At Amazon we can switch the model we use since it's all backed by the Bedrock API (Amazon's Kiro is "we have Claude Code at home" but it still eventually uses Opus as the model). I suppose this means the issue isn't confined to just Claude Code. I switched back to Opus 4.5 but I guess that won't be served forever.

Re: Issue: Claude Code is unusable for complex engineering tasks with Feb updates

#40

Post by giwook »

summarity wrote: post #8

Not claude code specific, but I've been noticing this on Opus 4.6 models through Copilot and others as well. Whenever the phrase "simplest fix" appears, it's time to pull the emergency break. This has gotten much, much worse over the past few weeks. It will produce completely useless code, knowingly (because up to that phrase the reasoning was correct) breaking things. Today another thing started happening which are…

I think in general we need to be highly critical of anything LLMs tell us.
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