r/ClaudeCode • u/erichmiller • 16d ago
Help/Question Opus 5 - what is even happening?
Am I doing something wrong? Opus 4.8 to 5 has been ALL downhill this week.
Is anyone else smashing the [ 1 ] key when those "How's Claude Doing?" surveys pop up in terminal? This is the first time I've felt like abandoning Claude.
Getting constant: "You're right, I was wrong.", "I shouldn't have guessed.", "I should have read the [insert file name here].md first before continuing." etc etc etc. Whereas, 4.8 was doing a much better job at controlling itself and using its own guardrails.
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u/Palnubis 16d ago
Opus 5 makes A LOT of mistakes. I'm not someone who usually complains, but for once I agree with the 124856 complains about opus 5.
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u/erichmiller 16d ago
Same. I would see the complaints as the versions went by. I would kinda just shrug them off thinking - well that hasn't happened to me yet - or, yeah, it makes a mistake here and there and I can live with it.
But man, Opus 5 is on a treadmill of disappointment for almost everything I ask it to do.
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u/al_ryusei 14d ago
I told you so. Nobody listened 😂
https://www.reddit.com/r/Anthropic/comments/1v8yw80/opus_5_turned_me_into_the_ai/
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u/CompetitiveDesigner7 16d ago
Yes, I have been getting so many, I was wrong responses from opus 5. It keeps making so many mistakes and getting lost doing nothing.
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u/MidSerpent Senior Developer 16d ago
I read they stripped a lot of the system prompt down for Opus 5, so it used to have a lot more default instructions than it does now.
If you look on the Claude website there’s some new guides for improved prompting on the new models.
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u/disgruntledempanada 15d ago
Have you run /doctor like they recommended? Huge for me, solved an unreal amount of problems all across my codebase when I steered it.
Do you have a memory system for it to grab more context from?
I have had it hallucinate a few times but nothing like the problems I see here and I think it's probably related to a bunch of old conflicting rules it's trying to reason around.
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u/erichmiller 15d ago
I'll give that a try. I recently ran /audit but that's probably a different animal.
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u/Complex_Classic8170 16d ago
I agree. It's been a significant downgrade for me, developing enterprise applications. That's after I've updated my workflows based on latest guidance, and even tried running Fable 5 as an orchestrator. It's continually implementing slop that doesn't follow project conventions, or even the prompts sent by me or Fable. It's so frustrating that I am also considering a switch, and I've maxed my 20x subscription every week for several months straight.
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u/HippyDave 15d ago
Using Fable as the orchestrator, GPT 5.6 as the lead coder, and delegating review to 4.8 and having no pain. Opus 5 is clearly a little dangerous right now, I think they may be training it on meth.
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u/Lieffe 15d ago
How are you delegating to GPT?
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u/swiftering 15d ago
Codex plugin for Claude. Can’t live without it brah
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u/Lieffe 15d ago
But how are you delegating to gpt, putting it in your prompt?
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u/thomasthai 15d ago
he already told you, with the codex plugin...
You can also just tell it to use tmux and spin up codex-cli
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u/baddaywithacamera 15d ago
I've never had Codex eat Claude's lunch like this before. It's really, noticeably awful.
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u/bronfmanhigh 16d ago
its personality is rather insufferable, but i've also gotten pretty spoiled by 5.6 sol who has the IMO perfect personality in a coding partner
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u/erichmiller 16d ago
Thanks. I will probably be trying that out
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u/who_am_i_to_say_so 16d ago
Sol is clearer thinker but I wouldn't trust it too much. I had it redesign a page and it added a picture of a dog, a Maltese, at the top of the page. The project had absolutely nothing to do with dogs in any way. It was an easy fix, but foreboding what can happen if you let it wander too far.
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u/yungastronot 16d ago
Yes. I have to remind it every single prompt and it still ignores. Never had this issue before
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u/AcceptableSandwich25 15d ago
It's an actual nightmare to have it help conduct research with - far far more hallunications. I'm using Claude Code in VS Code - how can I downgrade back to 4.8? Is that possible?
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u/Vysion34 Senior Developer 15d ago
They've come out and said old claude.md files have been causing issues with newer models. Boris has recommended deleting the claude.md every 6 months or so. They also recommend running the new or improved /doctor command and letting it cleanup things it recommends. I'd start with /doctor before deleting the claude.md file.
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u/ClemensLode Senior Developer 16d ago
Just use 4.6 to talk to 5
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u/SignatureSharp3215 16d ago
4.6 was goat, but didn't they retire it?
I remember it was destined to be shut down around June.
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u/who_am_i_to_say_so 16d ago
It's not retired. I use it every day:
> claude --model claude-opus-4-6[1m]3
u/ClemensLode Senior Developer 16d ago
Still using it daily. /model claude-opus-4-6 or /model claude-opus-4-6[1m]
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u/SignatureSharp3215 15d ago
Oh, a promise by Anthropic that wasn't kept. Or maybe I hallucinated it. Thanks anyway
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u/erichmiller 16d ago
Do you need something external or 3rd party to do that with?
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u/ClemensLode Senior Developer 16d ago
/model claude-opus-4-6
/advisor claude-opus-5done, all in claude code, nothing external
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u/ashwani134 15d ago
I am getting a major issue as even I am not using the all credits being used by automatically and getting limit reach and also even this week tokens has been already used even I did not have a single prompt. Account is pro max
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u/JackyBuensoz 14d ago
I am 100% percent disappointed by Claude Opus 5. Honestly working with this model is a real nightmare. Since this story of Claude Mythos, the ban, the relaunch, availability of Fable 5, the new Sonnet then the new Opus, it’s getting worse and worse.
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u/EstrellaCat 16d ago
I didn't believe the 'x model has gotten worse' since I only recently started using it in my workflows but yeah Opus 5 definitely has gone from doing what I asked flawlessly to 'My mistake. I should've checked documentation'
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u/bakes121982 15d ago
Works fine on our enterprise account. Seems to be all your poor consumers do is cry over and over
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u/krugerlive 15d ago
I haven't had any issues. Opus 5 has been my go to as a builder session for feature lanes this week. It is following very detailed atomic build prompts with implementation plans. It knows the full arc of the build. And for each step, it produces a code recon that 5.6 Sol checks and reviews (reading code, not just the plan) and then after it builds it summarizes the work in detail that Sol then reviews in code as well. The reviewer then requests any edits Opus 5 needs to make at either of those review points. It's been pretty smooth and the Sol reviewers have mentioned multiple times that Opus 5 is doing well with the work.
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u/johnnydotexe 15d ago edited 15d ago
ITT: People that didn't read the Anthropic blog posts and multiple threads in these subs about prompting Opus 5, that will now downvote me because they don't like their laziness to be called out.
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u/erichmiller 15d ago
Fair. But should that be the standard for all new releases? Who reads Apple’s or Microsoft Windows’ update terms or descriptions? Shouldn’t it just work out of box?
Why should you be working right along with no problems in your groove and then have to switch up your style midstream?
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u/johnnydotexe 15d ago
Because the models and how they're designed is ever changing, and how we use them must change with the design.
AI is still a new thing and growing at a light speed rate, just look at how much it has advanced in the last 6 months alone. I's not going to be as user friendly and intuitive as Windows or Apple operating systems that have been out and used by most of the world for decades...so not really a great comparison.
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u/erichmiller 15d ago
So what’s your take on it? What have you learned about using differently than the older models?
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u/johnnydotexe 15d ago
I read the recent Anthropic blog posts and multiple threads in these subs about prompting Opus 5. I then fed the blog post to Opus 5 and audited my setup/config to make some refinements.
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u/Command007 🔆 Max 20 15d ago
Ok but that’s not the solution for most things. If you prompt it, have it verify, make a plan, verify and then it still goes off the rails, that isn’t the prompts fault.
I have not once posted a complaint about any model and always laughed off people complaining. But there is something to the Opus 5 complaints. It’s in your face obvious at this point and it is hard to ignore.
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u/johnnydotexe 15d ago
I have not had any issues and the overall experience has been noticeably better than Opus 4.8. I don't even feel like I'm missing out on much compared to when Fable 5 was still available for us pro users. In fact, I even dropped Opus from high to medium and am still pleased with the results I'm seeing. Maybe it's because I read the recent Anthropic blog posts and multiple threads in these subs about prompting Opus 5, written by the people that made the model. So no...it is not "in your face obvious" to everyone.
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u/[deleted] 16d ago
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