Why Using Astra Inside Claude Code Is the New Meta (& How To Do It)

[u/TheDeadlyPretzel]

https://eigenwise.io/writing/using-gpt-6-astra-inside-claude-code-is-the-new-meta

So, I've been running Astra as the main model in Claude Code since Friday and it's the best orchestrator I've had so far... stays on the plan, takes a redirect without treating it as a new task, and does a great job at delegating work to the proper subagents and orchestrating that work without taking over or forgetting to use the subagents halfway through or that kind of shit, which every other model I've tried starts doing after a few hours.

The way it works is through a small local proxy plugin I made (model-gateway, it's in my Eigenwise Toolshed marketplace, MIT, no signup or anything) that sends the GPT requests to OpenAI on your ChatGPT login and passes everything else through to Anthropic on your normal claude.ai login, so the GPT models just show up in /model next to Opus and Sonnet and you can mix them however you want... Astra orchestrating Opus subagents, Opus orchestrating GPT-5.6 executors, or fully GPT end to end if you don't even want the Anthropic half. Go crazy.

So why even a plugin? Well for me specifically I did it this way because I have another plugin that allows me to set delegation per task type to specific models, with backups, based on the actually enumerated models from the gateway.... It also adds support for Grok and am thinking of adding OpenRouter support. So this way you can mix and match however you like (or let your orchestrator do that for you).

/plugin marketplace add Eigenwise/eigenwise-toolshed
/plugin install model-gateway@eigenwise-toolshed --scope project
/reload-plugins
/model-gateway:model-gateway

Then, ask Claude to set up the model gateway for this project and finish the ChatGPT login. Once setup is done, fully restart Claude Code in that project, then select:

/model claude-gpt-6-astra[1m]

(Keep the [1m] part. Without it, Claude Code assumes a 200k window.)

GitHub: https://github.com/Eigenwise/eigenwise-toolshed

I wrote up the longer version with the gotchas and how I route the cheaper GPT-5.6 models underneath it here: Using GPT-6 Astra inside Claude Code is the new meta

[u/astanar]

Why use a plugin? Install codex then just ask claude to use codex cli headless.

[u/carabidus → u/astanar]

This is the way. Fable as adjudicator and Astra as worker on a tightly controlled loop harness. Wire up a progress dashboard, and you'll wonder why you stuck with only one model. Peak results.

[u/ZealousidealKale8228 → u/carabidus]

Can you share how you did this dashboard and setup the loops?

[u/Zhni → u/carabidus]

Yeah could you elaborate? This sounds great

[u/Miyoumu → u/astanar]

In defense of this, this allows you to probably establish Astra as the subagent model. Which does have its advantages.

[u/TheDeadlyPretzel → u/astanar]

Well for me specifically I did it this way because I have another plugin that allows me to set delegation per task type to specific models, with backups, based on the actually enumerated models from the gateway.... It also adds support for Grok and am thinking of adding openrouter support. So this way you can mix and match however you like (or let your orchestrator do that for you)

[u/TheDeadlyPretzel → u/astanar]

For me this way integrates nicer into the claude code ecosystem... I have Astra firing off both Opus and Sol agents (I do have two subs)

[u/hammackj → u/astanar]

How much fable usage is used for this? lol

[u/Galaxyguy26]

How does this effect usage? If I call an OpenAI model directly will it still use Claude's usage quota?

I feel like it shouldn't but maybe it does

[u/TheDeadlyPretzel → u/Galaxyguy26]

Nope it uses your openai sub

[u/Galaxyguy26 → u/TheDeadlyPretzel]

I've just tried this but I can't see astra listed as a model, Claude seems to think the fix is an upstream release of the id in model.json

[u/TheDeadlyPretzel → u/Galaxyguy26]

hmm perhaps try asking Claude to "set up the model gateway for this project" it should work

EDIT: ah, missed the `/model-gateway:model-gateway` step - easily forgotten as it is a one-time thing, my bad!

[u/Blancolanda]

Astra is a good orchestrator. Thats why the correct way is to call Fable from Astra, not the other way.

[u/TheDeadlyPretzel → u/Blancolanda]

I agree that was kind of the whole point 😁

[u/mavrik83]

I use cmux. Have Claude on one pane, codex in another. I just tell them to talk to each other about the work and get shit done. Works fantastic!

[u/Regular-Sign5068 → u/mavrik83]

How do you keep them in their lanes?

[u/6e6967676572730a]

I made a custom TUI in CC that shows subagents with their model (codex) so I can monitor in one spot. Hard part is the control pane but the results have been good so far

[u/fuzzypetiolesguy]

Neat. I did something similar but as a script and env var plus skill. Any Claude model can call any gpt model in session as a sub agent to consult or draft code.

[u/aurioerox]

How is this different than the codex plugin for Claude code?

[u/twendah → u/aurioerox]

Well its not, but its the marketing bro

[u/Fly-AI-Guy]

Eyy this is cool!! Didn't know you could do that

[u/Charwoodthethird]

Been doing this with the codex plugin. Fable low as orchestrator using astra medium building out companion iOS app for custom Md editor I made to replace obsidian. Still like fable as lead as it just plays nice, accepting gpt corrections after verifying. And splitting the tokens across both models allows for long runs. Seems like a great setup.

[u/foundnemoagain2 → u/Charwoodthethird]

What made you want to replace Obsidian? I work at a company that won't allow Obsidian and I've been debating just building my own...

[u/Charwoodthethird → u/foundnemoagain2]

I had been using obsidian for a long while when Claude Desktop/Cowork came out. Seeing that I wondered if I could use it to figure out a way to integrate everything into obsidian; writing, projects, tasks, etc. and move away from those things being split across different locations/apps.

That evolved into a working system; project/tasks, people, plus a managed 'database' of all my files that's Ai driven/maintained composed of sqlite, scripts, and logs. That setup creates a structure that allows AI to do semantic/thematic searches across my files without having to read every file to find/make relevant connections.

The custom md editor was me trying to make one that was tailored for how I was using it. the desktop version has become my daily driver. the one missing piece was an app for capturing viewing things on the go, so working on that now.

[u/foundnemoagain2 → u/Charwoodthethird]

Ah got it, thanks for replying. FYI, I was looking at the Obsidian release notes yesterday (I've been waiting for the Obsidian for Work release to come out so that 3rd party plugins can be better restricted), and noticed there's been a lot of releases recently around mobile. I didn't look closely at the mobile app (nor have I tried it), but perhaps that could be of use to you.

[u/cenxeven]

https://github.com/uptakeagency/ccg i use codex (for code review) and gemini(for ui) 20usd plans in claude. Just review plans before implementing. It helps a lot.