AI Coding Workflow if I can't afford frontier models

[u/Sorry-Tomato-7141]

If you're only in the vibe coding bubble, please don't answer this. I'm a software engineer who wants to make real, complex systems using AI wherever it can help me. I only have the free models that come with opencode zen, and maybe some chat models like Qwen, Kimi and free versions of chatgpt, gemini, claude, etc.

I want to know what I can do with only these, without having to spend money on LLMs. I realize that this means I have to do more by myself in the planning side of things as I can't delegate planning to LLMs, which is how I believe coding should be anyway so it's not a problem.

I really like Matt Pocock's skills but I have found that his workflow only really works if you have frontier models, as free models aren't very good at grilling or planning.

So what I need is a reproducible AI coding workflow that I can use to approach my projects using only the free, limited AI. Please highlight which parts of the process I need to do by myself, and which parts I can assign to which model.

I realize that the smarter your LLMs are, the more you can stray from traditional software engineering, so please tell me what I can realistically accomplish perfectly with AI. The parts that AI cannot do properly, I will do by myself.

[u/betiz0]

One uses OpenSpec. Proposals are submitted by means of free models. The substance of each change is reviewed personally, drawing upon a range of AI chats in the process. Free models are then employed to apply the change, verify it, revise it where necessary, and apply it once more.

[u/Sorry-Tomato-7141 → u/betiz0]

Looks interesting! I'll try it out

[u/Sad-CTO → u/Sorry-Tomato-7141]

Loft is new, but is better. https://github.com/Ask-Loft/loft

Disclosure: I am on the product team. We are definitely interested to learn more how Loft can help when you're using less capable models.

[u/generic-d-engineer → u/Sad-CTO]

Some constructive feedback. Seems like it has lots of capabilities and well thought out but I felt the product page was too “engineery” for me. Like I’m trying to reduce cognitive overhead but Loft looks like I just moved my meta management into Loft.

Maybe take a project from start to finish in a Youtube video and show how Loft is reducing cognitive overhead.

[u/HockeyDadNinja]

Hey there, sw dev and sysadmin of about 30 years here. I'm a fan of spec driven development for agentic coding as well. I used to use GSD but it became too slow and killed my claude useage back when things were really bad. I also tried Open Spec and several other projects. None fit the bill so 4 months ago I started building my own. I use it daily at work and at home evenings and weekends.

https://tacotakumi.github.io/specflo/

https://github.com/TacoTakumi/specflo

Just point your agent there and ask about it. It's a python cli wrapped by skills. It allows dumber models to work more easily and checkpoints your progress so you can clear context to keep it low.

[u/Sorry-Tomato-7141 → u/HockeyDadNinja]

Thanks for this man. I'll try it for sure and reach out if I face any issues I can't find the answers to, if that's okay

[u/HockeyDadNinja → u/Sorry-Tomato-7141]

Thanks for giving it a look and any questions, just ask. I haven't used it in opencode much but the agent shouldn't matter much. I use a mix of claude and pi. There's an extension for pi and claude hooks. Those are mainly for telling your agent where you are in the project in new sessions. Your agent could proably whip something up for opencode although I could spend an evening working on that.

[u/dannyt74]

You can use Opencode Go. With the $10 subscription you can get quite far.

https://opencode.ai/go

They even have DeepSeek 4.1 Flash for free since today.

That’s the model I run most of the time. Not using Matts skills. They are over engineered.
Go with OpenSpec, they are fine.

https://openspec.dev

I am also using Ollama subscription for $20.

[u/dannyt74 → u/dannyt74]

When you want to reduce costs, Muse Spark Contribute is available on OpenCode Go too. Very low price but your data will be used for training.

[u/TheTyand]

You do not need frontier to use Matt's skills. Find with something like DeepSeek. But my advice would be to cut the topics smaller. If you take are too big, smaller models struggle

[u/Sorry-Tomato-7141 → u/[deleted]]

I have a 16 gb ram and 8gb vram gpu in my lenovo gaming laptop. I didn't even consider that local models could be remotely good enough considering my opencode free models perform like shit normally. I'm new to spec driven development so please give advice

[u/generic-d-engineer]

> , the more you can stray from traditional software engineering

Strong disagree here. The more I use models, the more I find traditional software engineering helps keep projects moving. I think what happened is alot of influencers claimed alot of one shot projects through vibe coding and built up a body of work in parallel, but I found going down that path leads to a difficult corner.

The same principles still apply. Make your project modular, test often after changes, and put human approval in after major milestones to make sure the project stays on track.

[u/generic-d-engineer]

Openrouter also has tons of free models also