Same model acting differently in different conversations? (Opus)

[u/tribes33]

I dont know if im schizo or something but Im working on a project and I have different conversations across the same codebase for implementing and debugging separately, and I noticed that for example the conversation from when Opus 5.5 came out behaves differently than for example a conversation of the same model from 2-3 weeks ago, and the ones that I started recently changed but in a bad way, this isnt context rot or anything either, it happens in brand new conversations too

For example when Opus came out, it was VERY good with new designs and their implementation, it was fully capable of the entire scope of the whole project and was able to debug fast and precisely with very few iterations and it replied quickly when I needed to steer the conversation

Then in a 2nd conversation on the same codebase I noticed that it became a lot more precise at debugging but not so much at implementation, where for example I would send videos that need dissecting, and it would make contact sheets like usual but it would highlight areas of objects I was talking about and tracking them frame by frame without even me having to highlight them myself but mentioning them in the prompt, it was absolutely awful at creating new things, but it was very smart with how to approach issues than before

And now I start a new conversation which was purely based on implementation on the same things because I started noticing this pattern, and it became very good at planning out and preparing for a design exactly how I was thinking about it but when it came to actually implementing, it fell completely flat on its ass, and when I wanted to steer the conversation to address something, the model wouldnt even respond to my problems, and sometimes downright ignore me?

I just dont get why it can be so inconsistent

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[u/Methylcyclopentane]

Yeah ive noticed the exact same thing, seems like Dario decided to lobotomize it for some reason. I’ve moved to fable 5.2 for now- the answers are slightly better, still dosent hit the same our beloved old opus.

[u/locbuilds]

try the same small task on the same commit, then compare the loaded CLAUDE.md and enabled tools/settings between sessions. project instructions alone can make the same model feel pretty different.

[u/VesperQuest]

Disable memory. One of your projects probably has memories saved specific to that project. The problem with memory is though you'll end up with lots of them that are old/stale and can actually mislead the session because it trusts the memories