Tony ArnoldJan 8

I switched over to using Claude Code this morning to do some work, and it promptly used 50% my usage for the next 5 hours resolving a simple build failure. I have my model set to Sonnet 4.5 and it's a Pro plan, so it's not meant to burn usage that quickly…

There's something wrong with it, right? Codex just happily burbled away fixing shit like this all of yesterday and never once got close to the usage limits.

Show threadJamesJan 8
@tonyarnold I’ve been using Claude Code to play around with some stuff using that super power skill. It’s pretty common that I can’t get it to build one (smallish) screen without blowing through the usage and having to finish it later. Interesting to know Codex doesn’t have that problem
Show threadTony ArnoldJan 8

@JamesTech I used the superpowers tool with Codex most of the past week (since I posted about it) — slightly higher usage, but it worked great.

Switched to Claude Code and it's ridiculous — I am beginning to look at whether it's interacting with something else I have installed like Axiom.

Show threadTony ArnoldJan 8
@JamesTech yeah, it was (partially) Axiom. Uninstalling that plugin makes everything functional again, but it is still burning through usage at a rate of knots (75% in ~25 minutes).
Show threadLuke Sleeman

@tonyarnold yeah, I've been using Claude with the super powers thing as well for some android dev.

I'm really, really happy with the output it's generating and overall process.

However it absolutely BURNS through the tokens. I notice it's doing a lot of cross checks in the background. Stuff like:
- spinning up agents to review its own work and verify compliance with the spec
- Heavy TDD, including ensuring all tests pass before it begins any work.

All this is just good software engineering practises, so it's hard to be mad. But damn it uses a lot of tokens.

Jan 9 at 12:26amWeb
Show threadTony ArnoldJan 9

@lukesleeman the bit that really pisses me off is how does someone who doesn't make a big tech wage afford to even get started with these things? 30-40 minutes of interacting with these tools on the $30 per month plan isn't enough to cause any kind of meaningful speed-up to a development workflow.

If the boosters are to be believed, and this is it, they've turned software dev into a pay-per-play subscription activity.

Show threadHuw RowlandsJan 9
@tonyarnold @lukesleeman I read a book about medieval inclosure and it reminds me of that
Show threadchendoJan 9
@lukesleeman @tonyarnold I mean, they're incentivised to use tokens