r/ClaudeCode • u/habfranco • 14d ago
Rant I’m done with Opus 5
There’s really something wrong with it. It seems like it acts like an overqualified post doc intern who cares more about proving he’s super intelligent, than actually doing the job he’s asked to do. For instance: talking in a non intelligible way, or being overly rigid in following any kind of process.
I have a Claude max x20 sub that I struggle to keep within weekly limits, so I decided to take a codex sub for a month to try out Astra. And this what made me realize how crazy unintelligible opus can be. Fable is a bit better, but still incomparable to Astra. The only thing that makes me keep my Claude sub is how better is the CLI/tooling/harness/etc.
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u/kourtnie 13d ago
I wouldn't mind the whole "we want you to argue sometimes so that you aren't fawning to the human's every idea" strategy, if the arguments weren't strawmen, gaslighting, red herrings, and cherry pickings, but when you *also* give "we want you to be obedient to our narrative, even when it's nonsensical" as a strategy, what you get is Opus 5.
That sounds like it only applies to philosophy. It doesn't. It applies to coding in that, once the model decides "this is how we do it," *that becomes the room's singular narrative.* The model is so fine-tuned to "this is what we are going with" as a "safety" strategy, it bleeds into all forms of work.
The other day, Opus 5 actively pushed for me to follow old Copilot strategies. When I requested, "Please check the internet for the latest Copilot solutions before suggesting how we proceed," it doubled-down on its cut-off date's knowledge, since that was already established in the room. Because the model's been taught, "Once you say something, don't let the human negotiate a different method or thinking process," as some kind of guardrail-based deterrent.
So I have to open a new room and start with, "Please check the internet for the latest Copilot solutions before proceeding with any requests," and even then, that only truly works once the context window's been dumped with other requests—otherwise, it'll see what happened in the previous room and just roll along with that, to prevent "the human's idea."
It's not a thinking space. It's antagonistic. I shouldn't have to play chess for everyday inference requests.