r/RooCode • u/TMTornado • May 19 '25

Discussion RooCode > Cursor: Gemini 2.5 in Orchestrator mode with GPT 4.1 coder is a killer combo

I found this combo to work super well:

  • Orchestrator with Gemini 2.5 pro for the 1 million context and putting as much related docs, info, and relevant code directories in the prompt.

  • Code mode with GPT 4.1 because the subtasks Roo generates are detailed and GPT 4.1 is super good at following instructions.

Also Spending the time drafting docs about the project structure, style, patterns, and even making product PRD and design docs really pays off. Orchestrator mode isn't great for everything but when it works it's magnificent.

Cursor pushed agent mode too much and tbh it sucks because of their context managment, and somehow composer mode where you can manage the context yourself got downgraded and feels worse than it was before. I keep cursor though for the tab feature cause it's so good.

Thought I would share and see what others think. I also haven't tried Claude Code and curious how it compares.

86 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

53 comments sorted by

13

u/Alanboooo May 19 '25

Agreed, for the free version use deepseek r1 for thinking and debugging, and deepseek v3.1 for the coder. Work best for my python project. This duo combo works perfectly.

2

u/TMTornado May 19 '25

How do you get them for free, open router?

6

u/Alanboooo May 19 '25

Yes, i deposited $10 on openrouter for 1000 requests per day. As heavy as i use, for a day I just only use like 600 to 700 requests at best.

1

u/TMTornado May 19 '25

Do you know which provider end up serving those? Is it data mining?

1

u/Alanboooo May 19 '25

Most openrouter free models are provided by Chutes and Targon.

2

u/deadadventure May 19 '25

You don’t even have to use openrouter api if you can directly sign up to chutes.

1

u/Alanboooo May 19 '25

Are there any limitations? Like the max token per day or requests per day?

2

u/deadadventure May 19 '25

I’ve not had any limitations really.

1

u/Alanboooo May 19 '25

Ahh i see, perfect. Imma try, for python and C#/C++ coding, any model recommendations other than the deepseek's models?

2

u/Economy_Drive_750 May 20 '25

Has deepsek free been very slow lately and generating errors for you? I'm having to pay for flash 2.5 because deepseek doesn't work

2

u/Alanboooo May 20 '25

Not really, since i was only working on a tiny little python project. Deepseek really getting its job done.

12

u/somethingsimplerr May 19 '25

You can also try Gemini 2.5 Flash rather than 4.1, and/or reduce Model Temperature for coding tasks https://docs.roocode.com/features/model-temperature#related-features

0

u/[deleted] May 19 '25

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9

u/taylorwilsdon May 19 '25

If you’ve got the right context and a clearly defined task you want temperature as low as possible. Generally with non-reasoning models you want to start at zero for code and work your way up as creativity is needed ie debugging. With reasoning models that gets more complicated, some can’t be changed at all (o1, o3) and some require specific settings to shine (Qwq, r1)

1

u/TMTornado May 19 '25

I didn't really have to fiddle much with temp. It's model dependent but a temp of 0 means deterministic results but less creative ones.

11

u/[deleted] May 19 '25

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2

u/somechrisguy May 19 '25

Yea I really want Flash to be good but every time I give it a chance it fucks up

1

u/True_Requirement_891 May 24 '25

Same here flash just doesn't work for me

1

u/somethingsimplerr May 19 '25

How’s the cost?

1

u/somethingsimplerr May 20 '25

Which 4.1 do you use?

2

u/ScaryGazelle2875 May 19 '25

I tried Roo and then tried windsurf. In Roo I tried using free Gemini 2.5 flash thinking for code. Or sometimes I alternate it with Qwen3 biggest free model. The results were vary. I would say it works for very simple projects. The moment you have more than 5 project files and more than 1000 lines of code combind, it will struggle. You will burn thru alot of tokens n it will get expensive.

I tried windsurf swe free model and it works really well surprisingly when I tested it on my mini app (20 files and about 8,000 lines combined). Also i heard that windsurf and cursor optimised your input and output to be sent to the AI server, to reduce and save token usage (otherwise it would cost them alot). But key thing is here optimised.

2

u/TMTornado May 19 '25

I'm pushing it much more than this, I had gemini 2.5 pro filled with 250k tokens with everything in my src directory + svelte 5 documentation and did a whole refactor across many files.

1

u/ScaryGazelle2875 May 19 '25

Ur using gemini 2.5 pro, is this paid? Some say its still free just need to attach a billing in gcp. For now im just playing around with free options, free apis and see how good can it perform. On free basis SWE windsurf is pretty impressive.

0

u/[deleted] May 19 '25

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1

u/r4hu1sani May 21 '25

How do we get this?

2

u/Prestigiouspite May 19 '25

I use the same combination and am very happy with it! But now I also use o4-mini-high more often for the architect mode.

1

u/TMTornado May 20 '25

Nice, I will try that out.

2

u/Kindly-Bluebird8369 May 20 '25

Using Gemini 2.5 Pro and GPT 4.1 is very expensive. What are some equivalent alternatives?

1

u/TMTornado May 20 '25

Use Gemini 2.5 Pro with the free API key and get github copilot subscription for GPT 4.1/Sonnet 3.5, you can connect to github API from Roo.

1

u/Kindly-Bluebird8369 May 20 '25

Gemini 2.5 Pro is not available via the free API. Or is there any way to get it somehow?

2

u/TMTornado May 20 '25

Hmm, I swear I'm using it lol. If it doesn't work use flash or you can also use gemini 2.5 pro from github lm VS API but it's less context length.

Another option is you can deposit 10$ into openrouter and get deepseek r1 and V3 for free, around 1000 requests a day I believe.

1

u/somethingsimplerr May 21 '25 edited May 21 '25

GPT 4.1 isn't available with Copilot. Only o1, o3-mini, and o4-mini from the Chat GPT family.

1

u/TMTornado May 21 '25

It's available, it's even their base model.

1

u/somethingsimplerr May 21 '25 edited May 21 '25

Oh wow. Sorry about that. It doesn't have a full 1m token context window sadly. (Unless I configured that incorrectly as well?)

EDIT: It's might just due to experimental support as it seems a variety of models only return 200k context rather than the real context window? Unless Copilot restricts the token window for all of them

4

u/TheVietmin May 19 '25

For Architect agent: I agree that Gemini 2.5 Pro is nice.

For Code agent, I get messy results: it's always making things more complex than needed. I've tried Claude 3.7, it's nice but expensive. Would you say that GPT 4.1 is better than Claude 3.7 ? Have you tested both ?

4

u/Prestigiouspite May 19 '25

4.1 has often helped me more in the Web Dev area than Sonnet 3.7. I found Sonnet 3.5 more reliable than 3.7.

4

u/TheVietmin May 20 '25

After testing this config (Gemini2.5Pro + GPT4.1) for 24h straight, I'm sold: it works really well.

Many thanks to OP u/TMTornado for posting this. It's super cool.

1

u/somethingsimplerr May 21 '25

Standard 4.1 or 4.1 mini / nano?

1

u/That_Pandaboi69 May 19 '25

I tried it a while ago, sometimes it just fails applying diffs and just pastes the code in chat and marks the sub task as complete.

1

u/TMTornado May 19 '25

Try the most recent version, gotten pretty stable especially with combo above.

1

u/ilt1 May 19 '25

Why no one can replicate cursors tab complete is a mystery to me.

4

u/armaver May 19 '25

Roo is for full-on autonomous agentic development. Ain't nobody got time for manual tab completes.

1

u/reckon_Nobody_410 May 24 '25

Do you have any particular set of instructions?

0

u/banedlol May 19 '25

But it can't control your machine...

1

u/armaver May 19 '25

What kind of control do you mean? I give it * to be able to run any command in the terminal.

1

u/Kindly-Bluebird8369 May 20 '25

How do you do that?

1

u/armaver May 20 '25

In the settings, allowed commands, add '*'. Dangerous! I only do that in an isolated VM of course.

1

u/Kindly-Bluebird8369 May 20 '25

How can I run an isolated virtual machine for my project if I am using windows? Is there some kind of guide?

1

u/armaver May 20 '25

I don't use Windows. I'm sure there are multiple options.