Claude the model is still insanely great IF (and perhaps, ONLY IF) you are willing to fork over the money for the API and use a harness like OpenCode. Claude Code itself is complete trash. They had a massive headstart and now are routinely lapped by open source harnesses and then they STILL double down on not allowing e.g. OpenCode usage with the Max plan. Meanwhile, OpenAI lets you use whatever harness you want and…
Ask HN: Is it just me or is Claude Code getting worse?
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Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or is Claude Code getting worse?
#12Claude the model is still insanely great IF (and perhaps, ONLY IF) you are willing to fork over the money for the API and use a harness like OpenCode. Claude Code itself is complete trash. They had a massive headstart and now are routinely lapped by open source harnesses and then they STILL double down on not allowing e.g. OpenCode usage with the Max plan. Meanwhile, OpenAI lets you use whatever harness you want and…
Why do you feel the OpenCode harness is better than the Claude code one? Just curious what you feel it is doing better?
* Removes all the system prompt cruft and bullshit that CC pumps into the prompt and pollutes context and shit like "adaptive thinking"
* Is extremely good at keeping the model aligned with AGENTS.MD and opencode.json and using all the features available there (parallel agents, sub-sub agents, etc)
For example, I'm working on a repo with 5 distinct components and I have a specialized agent for each component. CLAUDE.MD is just a markdown file where I say "Hey Claude always use X agent for X component. X agent has this prompt blah blah" and then pray Claude remembers to use it. opencode.json is a structured file used by the harness and it has ALWAYS coerced the model to use it, including being able for the agents to delegate subagents in parallel etc.
This makes a massive difference. So if I have a feature that touches multiple components, OpenCode rips through it with the specialized subagents while Claude sits their spinning its wheels and occasionally remembering theres a specialized agent and then maybe once in a blue moon it will do it in parallel.
With CC I feel like I need to do all these invocations and coercions. OpenCode, once you've got your opencode.json and agents defined, just works.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or is Claude Code getting worse?
#13When you ALL were paying for subscription I was paying for API costing me much less than subscription, being less stressed, knowing I don't have to worry about fog of context.
I see it now, it's not sustainable. They've signed contracts they can't get out from and we're gonna have to pay, with blood, gold, or in this case, quality.
You will pay, you (we) will all pay for their debts.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or is Claude Code getting worse?
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you feel the OpenCode harness is better than the Claude code one? Just curious what you feel it is doing better?
OpenCode harness is so good I'm surprised one of the big players hasn't bought them outright. Essentially their harness: * Removes all the system prompt cruft and bullshit that CC pumps into the prompt and pollutes context and shit like "adaptive thinking" * Is extremely good at keeping the model aligned with AGENTS.MD and opencode.json and using all the features available there (parallel agents, sub-sub agents, etc)…
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or is Claude Code getting worse?
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you feel the OpenCode harness is better than the Claude code one? Just curious what you feel it is doing better?
OpenCode harness is so good I'm surprised one of the big players hasn't bought them outright. Essentially their harness: * Removes all the system prompt cruft and bullshit that CC pumps into the prompt and pollutes context and shit like "adaptive thinking" * Is extremely good at keeping the model aligned with AGENTS.MD and opencode.json and using all the features available there (parallel agents, sub-sub agents, etc)…
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or is Claude Code getting worse?
#16Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or is Claude Code getting worse?
#17The first advantage is that it can use many different models, not just Claude. The second is that I've noticed OpenCode streams out the entire reasoning process, while Claude Code doesn't show streaming of its thinking.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or is Claude Code getting worse?
#18Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or is Claude Code getting worse?
#19My observation: same model, same task, but different CLAUDE.md / hooks / skill state produces dramatically different outputs.
The hard part as a solo founder is finding the right balance between building the meta tools and making progress on the actual projects, without the meta layer drifting and quietly becoming worse over time.
Re: Ask HN: Is it just me or is Claude Code getting worse?
#20In what way is it getting worse — the model's reasoning, or your own setup drifting underneath you? My observation: same model, same task, but different CLAUDE.md / hooks / skill state produces dramatically different outputs. The hard part as a solo founder is finding the right balance between building the meta tools and making progress on the actual projects, without the meta layer drifting and quietly becoming wors…
with some small caveat: reporails can help with the drifting detection a lot.