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Claude Code sends 33k tokens before reading the prompt; OpenCode sends 7k

systima.ai

361–370 of 433 posts

Re: Claude Code sends 33k tokens before reading the prompt; OpenCode sends 7k

#361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any tips on how to get started?

At a minimum, you need an inference endpoint: either cloud or local. If going local, llama.cpp is going to be the more beginner friendly local inference engine that supports more processor types (AMD GPUs, Intel GPUs, CPUs, anything that supports Vulkan, not just Nvidia). LM Studio is a nice wrapper for this if you'd rather avoid cloning repo and compiling yourself, provided you don't mind closed source software; it'…

Quick self-correction: "Responses" is a newer OpenAI API format, "Messages" is the Anthropic format.

Re: Claude Code sends 33k tokens before reading the prompt; OpenCode sends 7k

#364
post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the commenter (who is not me) is saying to use Fable as the main agent but then use lesser models for your subagents so that you get the advantages of Fable to plan but then the subagents don’t cost as much, and may be more focused because they lack Fable’s thinking modes.

I’ve heard the proper pattern is to have Fable write a software design doc and then tell Opus to follow that doc strictly in implementation and testing.

I hear that too, but I'm much more ad-hoc about what model I use for what. Opus can be good at planning too, and Fable is remarkably good at figuring out obscure complexities in the code.

Re: Claude Code sends 33k tokens before reading the prompt; OpenCode sends 7k

#365
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And in my experience the sub agent performance is usually worse than just a single agent.

I find it useful for code reviews (spawn a subagent with minimal/no context to review X commit). Of course, this is more or less a shortcut that could be done with a seperate agent. Another use is multiple reviews at once if tokens are not an issue, with seperate "personas" or focuses. As far as implementation goes I have not seen any major usecase.

Yeah, my personal workflow has different reviewers for codebase(patterns, code cleanliness, etc), frontend, security, product fit, etc. So they spawn as separate subagents. Both so that they stay limited to their role, and so they don't have preconceived notions about the implementations. It's a bit heavy-handed but works for me.

Re: Claude Code sends 33k tokens before reading the prompt; OpenCode sends 7k

#366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried using omp, and really like the interface, but I found it used tokens much much quicker than the Claude cli. Some simple tasks would use all the session tokens in less than an hour, as where I could get easily get 3-4 hours with Claude. Both set to use opus 4.8 auto effort. I tried tweaking the models for agents down to haiku and sonnet in omp, but didn't notice any real difference in the speed tokens were bei…

if the website is any indication, omp is just vibe coded AI slop as well. pi is awesome but it looks like omp is a step down including unnecessary stuff no one needs. it's kinda the opposite of pi

I've heard amazing things about pi and it's effectivenes but when I tried installing it I quickly found out it doesn't respect XDG_BASE_DIRECTORY at all, you need to set some environment variables and the author rejected both a proposal as "going full gpt", seemingly not even knowing about XDG_BASE_DIRECTORY, and even rejected a PR.

I've heard really good things but that being my first experience with pi didn't fill me with confidence about it's code quality either.

For now I stay with OpenCode I think - I was using zed editor and agent for the longest time anyway and think I will go back to that. CLI tools for me seem a bit too disconnected from the code.

Re: Claude Code sends 33k tokens before reading the prompt; OpenCode sends 7k

#367
post #362

Doesn't that mean these 33k tokens can be cached, since they don't depend on the input? The model can just start generation on the 33k+1th token.

Yes, but all subsequent tokens do depend on them, so they are still being charged for

Re: Claude Code sends 33k tokens before reading the prompt; OpenCode sends 7k

#368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bailed on Anthropic the moment they started blocking alternative harnesses like pi on their subscription plans.

If I were anthropic I’d force that too. They offer the harness and if they control the entire pipeline then they can optimize the entire experience. It doesn’t have to be nefarious.

> if they control the entire pipeline then they can optimize the entire experience

The only issue is that Anthropic optimizes the entire experience for their bottom line. User experience and price only suffer becaue of that.

Re: Claude Code sends 33k tokens before reading the prompt; OpenCode sends 7k

#369

My opinion is that claude code uses more tokens simply because Anthropic makes more money that way and forces people into their subscriptions. This is supported by the fact that they won't let you use your sub on a different coding agent. I use pi btw.

I thought I read somewhere that according to filings for going public, subscription revenue is tiny… like 5%. Edit: consumer Claude subs are the 5%. I’d bet most all of CC subs lump in under enterprise. - API & Enterprise: 75% to 85% of total revenue. - Business Subscriptions: Roughly 10% to 15%. - Individual Subscriptions: About 5%.

The fact that individuals are more likely to use the alternatives than businesses is telling.

Anthropic is fine, as long as someone else (a clueless employer drinking Dario Koolaid) is paying for it. But the moment you have to pay for it, people just bail and go for DeepSeek, Kimmi, OpenRouter, OpenCode Go and other alternatives that give more bang for the buck than Anthropic.

Re: Claude Code sends 33k tokens before reading the prompt; OpenCode sends 7k

#370
The OpenCode CLI does not work as well for me as the PI CLI. I'm a subscriber of OpenCode Go (the sub, good value for me really) but I had not great experiences with OpenCode CLI. It multiple times with different models deadlocked itself into listing endlessly to non ending processes (Android Debugging Bridge, COM serial log, ...). There was also a problem where the OpenCode CLI would crash after sometime with a Bun error.

I switched to the PI CLI and have no problems with hanging processes anymore. OpenCode Go allows for API access so I'm keeping this sub.

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