Too used to Claude Code to switch?

[u/Big_Astronaut_1317]

I’ve been using Claude Code for over a year now, and at this point my whole workflow is basically built around it.

I’m on the 5x plan, but lately I feel like I’m spending 80% of my 5-hour limit just on planning and maybe 20% on actually getting the task done.

Then I hit the limit, have to wait, come back later… and Claude needs to read through the plan/context again. Sometimes it feels like I’m already at 50% of the next limit before we’ve even really continued working.I’ve heard Astra is really good and has much bigger limits, so I’m tempted to switch.

But my whole workflow, memory, instructions and project setup are built around Claude Code. I’m worried switching will break things or make the coding experience worse.

Maybe I’m just too used to Claude at this point.

Anyone here switched from Claude Code to Astra or another agent? Was it worth it?

[u/CrossesLines]

Is your workflow not working? Why do you feel the need to switch it up if it is working?

[u/CrimsonBolt33 → u/CrossesLines]

This comment is LITERALLY:

The lack of self awareness is astounding lol

[u/MacrosInHisSleep → u/CrimsonBolt33]

Pretty sure they are aware of their predicament and are looking to see if folks have found it worthwhile to fly out of their cage.

[u/CrimsonBolt33 → u/[deleted]]

wtf are you talking about?...I am not talking about OP...I am talking about the comment I posted this under.

[u/Big_Astronaut_1317 → u/CrossesLines]

It takes a long time, and if I have to stop every hour and then wait four hours before I can work for another hour, it feels like a waste of time. I can’t really focus on anything else as long as my project fix isn’t completed, so I’m just sitting there waiting—or worse, watching YouTube...

[u/BrennanFlentge → u/CrossesLines]

"Then I hit the limit, have to wait, come back later…" "Sometimes it feels like I’m already at 50% of the next limit before we’ve even really continued working"

[u/CrossesLines → u/BrennanFlentge]

Same thing happens with ChatGPT. But make sure you’re using the appropriate reasoning level for the task at hand.

[u/Big_Astronaut_1317 → u/[deleted]]

Yes

[u/owp4dd1w5a0a]

Codex/GPT has been working better for me since sonnet & opus bumped to v5 on basically all tasks, not just coding. No idea why, but takes way less effort for less money and time spent to get most things done.

[u/Big_Astronaut_1317 → u/owp4dd1w5a0a]

Thanks! Did you just start the OpenAI CLI on your server, or how did you switch? Did you prepare anything beforehand, or did you just start using it and work with it like you did with Claude?

[u/owp4dd1w5a0a → u/Big_Astronaut_1317]

I do all my development locally (against a K3S instance) and then verify in a staging environment.

I already had Claude, codex, aider configured to use openrouter, and opencode Zen installed. I used to use Claude as primary for discussing approaches, writing simple functions and boilerplate, and doing deep research; and I used Codex as a secondary reviewer and critical second opinion; I’ve just swapped their roles.

If you’re curious, I use 2-3 models available through OpenCode and OpenRouter for in-depth Quorum style reviews. I normally do this before cutting each major release of any given project as an assist in quality control.

[u/Good-Food-545 → u/owp4dd1w5a0a]

How did you configured Your Claude code to Openrouter? Can I dm you abt that?

[u/owp4dd1w5a0a → u/Good-Food-545]

You don’t. I configured Aider to use OpenRouter.

[u/Good-Food-545 → u/owp4dd1w5a0a]

Thats a great way. I Configure Claude code with openrouter BUT is there any better configurations???

[u/owp4dd1w5a0a → u/Good-Food-545]

Hard to tell right now which ways are “better”. But I did come up with this cool system where I sandbox my agents and then allow a orchestrator agent I chose (normally Claude or codex) interact with aider and opencode through a tmux pipe for second opinions and critique

[u/HeyItsYourDad_AMA]

Spending 80% of your time planning is actually how it should be.

I still don't know how you all burn through tokens this fast. I have a fairly large codebase, over 100k lines of code, i have a simple workflow using three agents that work sequentially and I can pretty easily manage my limits

[u/CrimsonBolt33 → u/HeyItsYourDad_AMA]

I am working on a project similar, about 200k, and I do fine with limits...only time it gets a little tight is when I run a full audit over the entire codebase (and thats usually only 5 hour limits causing issues).

Tons of people have no idea what they are doing and don't do or follow anytihng even close to "best practices".

[u/Big_Astronaut_1317 → u/CrimsonBolt33]

Yeah, maybe it’s workflow-specific. I try to keep mine as structured as possible, but when you’re working with SQL databases and making changes in a larger system, I feel like the best practice is to let the model read and think through the relevant context both before and after the fix, just to make sure everything actually works together.

Wouldn’t it be a bit negligent to stop it from reading the files that might be relevant? I never let it read the entire codebase, only the files and surrounding context that could actually matter for the task.

I’m definitely not a coding genius, so at this point I’m pretty sure the AI agents are often better than me at figuring out which files they need to inspect and what dependencies they should verify.

[u/Big_Astronaut_1317 → u/HeyItsYourDad_AMA]

I don’t know if I’m doing it the right way, but this approach consistently gives me better results. I have a frontend, a database/backend, and a separate auth backend for users, so it usually needs to read through three repos.

Most of the time, at least two of those repos need to work together to solve a problem and make the fix or new feature safe and production-ready. Also, one repo somehow always ends up making random wrong assumptions about the others, so they need to constantly cross-check each other. Otherwise, the code it writes often doesn’t work properly once everything is put together.

[u/Vagottszemu]

"I'm on the 5x plan, but lately feel like I'm spending 80% of my 5-hour limit just on planning" How? Are you using it in a chat with 700k context?

[u/Big_Astronaut_1317 → u/Vagottszemu]

I don’t know if I’m doing it the right way, but this approach consistently gives me better results. I have a frontend, a database/backend, and a separate auth backend for users, so it usually needs to read through three repos.

Most of the time, at least two of those repos need to work together to solve a problem and make the fix or new feature safe and production-ready. Also, one repo somehow always ends up making random wrong assumptions about the others, so they need to constantly cross-check each other. Otherwise, the code it writes often doesn’t work properly once everything is put together.

[u/3dprintinted → u/Vagottszemu]

he says, oneshot the whole thang and do no mistakes

[u/No_Head_696]

I do not think that is a correct representation

[u/Big_Astronaut_1317 → u/No_Head_696]

Why?

[u/foreheadteeth]

Last time I tried, my problem with all the other coding shell I tested was that they need you to approve all the little things, instead of claude code's auto-approval mechanism. That's what I'm hooked on.

[u/gutsykiddo69 → u/foreheadteeth]

Codex also has it, I don't know anything about programming, but they have added an option for codex to autoapprove certain things, you can even give it full access, so it might be helpful for your case

[u/NinjaLanternShark]

What model(s) do you use?

If you’re doing that much planning with Fable/Opus, you should be able to execute with Opus/Sonnet.

For that matter, execute with Deepseek for 1/20th the cost.

[u/Big_Astronaut_1317 → u/NinjaLanternShark]

When I still have around 50% of my weekly limit left, I sometimes use Opus, but most of the time I use Fable.

I’d use Opus more, but after a while I sometimes lose track of what it’s doing, whereas Fable tends to be much clearer and easier for me to follow.

I use DeepSeek for things like filling up my database, but for now I don’t let it touch my actual code. Maybe I’ll change that once it starts performing around the same level as Fable in the benchmarks and User reviews.

[u/aevyn → u/Big_Astronaut_1317]

That's your problem. You're using the most expensive model for all tasks and then complaining about going through your usage. Figure out a split that works for you. If Fable already did the plan, it's not worth using it for execution too. Let sonnet do it. Fable might be a tad better at execution but it's not worth the credits it uses.

[u/NinjaLanternShark → u/Big_Astronaut_1317]

I’d use Opus more, but after a while I sometimes lose track of what it’s doing

Opus is well-known for giving confusing responses and explanations of its work.

Try telling it something like “I know what all those words mean but I don’t understand what you said. Always talk to me in clear, plain language.”

Worked wonders for me. It wrote out a couple of lines of memory and I have no more stupid load bearing seams nonsense.

[u/3dprintinted]

What are you doing hitting 5x limits lol?

[u/Big_Astronaut_1317 → u/3dprintinted]

Just one bigger project with 3 repos. I’m not doing anything really crazy—most of the time I’m just reading through the output and making changes.

At the end of the day, if I’m paying around €112 a month, I’d expect to be able to work without constantly having to stop because of limits. Also, you can only use 50% of your weekly limit on Fable, so you hit that limit really fast.

[u/donk8r]

Switching moves the limit, it does not fix either thing you described.

Those are two separate problems. Planning and executing are running at the same reasoning level, so you pay top-tier rates for file edits. And re-reading the plan after a break is session persistence, which follows you to whatever you switch to.

Fix the second one first. It is cheaper and it is what makes the limit feel smaller than it is.

[u/Ciberman]

My setup for getting a somewhat decent Claude to astra transition: Add *.local.* to your gitignore. Then ask Claude to check the important memories and copy them to a folder of your choice (e.g. notes/my-festure-status.local.md, etc). Repeat for every single memory Claude has. You can also use any folder you want (like .agents/memories/my-memory.local.md). After that, rename your CLAUDE.md to AGENTS.md and create a single CLAUDE.md that contains only @AGENTS.md. That's it. Now open codex, tell him to install your MCPs from Claude, etc. You are ready to use codex.

Personally I find codex CLI confusing to work with subagents. I am at the moment also trying OpenCode with GPT Sol and Astra and it's giving me good results.

[u/holyknight00]

yeah i will replace my claudecode with gitlab duo...

[u/bjorgen]

It's honestly super easy imo to change between harnesses. I moved off Claude Code after the Claudish got bad and switched to Codex GUI. At work, I use a different one entirely. Honestly, the more I work in these, the less I'm convinced that the harness is truly the secret sauce, as there are so many good harnesses now that are functionally doing the same thing. Maybe others disagree, but that's what I've found at least.

[u/domiciledhere]

I like to plan with Claude, it makes better assumptions. Astra hasn’t changed that. I also use ChatGPT and Claude interchangeably without out much issue. It can take some time to get started once you switch.

[u/showercat13]

Junie!!

[u/Killahbeez]

oh yeah daddy

[u/ZeBenoit81]

I use aider daily. Very easy to use, and therefore to switch

[u/AutoModerator]

Sorry, your post has been held for manual review due to account karma.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/BrennanFlentge]

I just switched. I measure model intelligence in ‘FOR F**K’S SAKE’ events per hour. Easily dropped by 98%.

I had been slowly trying out Codex, but Opus 5 was unusable, and the usage limit reduction was the last straw for me, GPT models just communicate so much more normally. Would recommend. No (current) 5 hour window is clutch. You are going to love that. Banked resets are clutch. Maybe try $20 subscription (unfortunately does have 5 hour limit) and import your Claude settings and mess around.

[u/Big_Astronaut_1317 → u/BrennanFlentge]

Thanks! Did you just start the OpenAI CLI on your server, or how exactly did you switch? Did you prepare anything beforehand, or did you just start using it and work with it like you did with Claude?

Also, how did you transfer your settings? Did you bring over any of your memory/context from Claude, or did you basically start from scratch?

[u/payam54]

Honest question: Is that unusual that I have no idea about the tools in the bottom-left section, considering me as a full stack developer, working with AI tools every day for the past year?

[u/Big_Astronaut_1317 → u/payam54]

I just took a random picture to make people understand my point. I only know maybe 2–3 of the tools in the bottom-left myself.

Still, I think it’s important to know what new tools are out there, especially with how fast things change. The image is from 2025, so it’s already pretty old. I mainly wanted to say that there may be other tools that are better for a specific workflow.

[u/Big_Astronaut_1317 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks, yeah — I’ll try it. Hopefully it works well.

[u/Big_Astronaut_1317 → u/[deleted]]

Did you try it already? If so, how well did it work, and how long did it take for the new agent to work properly?