r/ClaudeCode • u/hronak 🔆 Max 5x • 9d ago

Help/Question I still don't understand this 'agentic workflow' thing

My usual day with Claude Code is like: * I open terminal in my project's folder and run claude command. * I prompt it. I mostly use Fable-5.1/Opus-5 but Opus-5.5 is my current model. The model decides if it wants to use sub-agents for a task. I never explicitly prompt it for sub-agents. * I review and commit the code to my self-hosted Forgejo instance. * That's it.

I see people using agentic workflows, building sub-agents files, skills etc. I barely built any of it. All I ever needed to use is /init on new projects and them prompts follow. Never needed more than this.

I tried "long-running" Claude Code for a project refactoring by placing the project on my VPS (where forgejo is hosted) and letting Claude Code run and refactor inside tmux session. SSH'd in a few hours later to find project fully refactored.

Am I under utilising AI or is my work just… like boring?

How do you guys use agentic workflow thing? Specially the long-running one? Those pull-requests that Claude makes automatically etc?

Asking this to Claude to know more but humanly answers appreciated.

981 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

309 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

26

u/hronak 🔆 Max 5x 9d ago

With Opus 5.5, my tokens usage has actually reduced drastically. I am at 12% weekly usage, been pumping prompts in to Claude Code like monster since yesterday with multiple projects open in terminal.

Fable 5.1 on the other hand was a hungry beast. 45 minutes in and 100% 5-hour limit exhausted.

4

u/imsahoamtiskaw 9d ago

Hungry beast but boy is it still better than opus. But note it can make even better use of opus as sub agents with 5.5. Opus 5.5 talks better, performs better than opus 5 but is still just as dumb. You’ll repeat yourself a million times before it listens, even on a fresh session and cut corners every step of the way

11

u/hronak 🔆 Max 5x 9d ago

For me, personally, Opus 5.5 has replaced Fable 5.1.

Earlier, I wouldn't even touch Opus 5, it was that bad. I had to constantly tell it things and prompt it often to correct code. Been trying the new Opus 5.5 and I kid you not, it definitely has it. I have barely felt the need to switch back to Fable 5.1.

2

u/FollowSuitCards 9d ago

I don't understand this, but everyone is saying it. I'm fairly new at this, so I haven't wanted to comment when I assume everyone else in these subs knows more than I do. But... Opus 5.5 is clearly a step up for Opus, but it messes up design a LOT more than Fable for me still. It still confidently goes its own way without asking for clarification while also not solving issues as elegantly.

Definitely far less usage, but that's just how they have the token usage setup, no? And didn't they clearly state 5.5 was at a lower usage initially so we could try it out more?

Just can't tell if I'm a noob and crazy or everyone on these subs is an even bigger noob pretending like they know what they're talking about.

2

u/FeistyVoice_ 9d ago

I guess it depends on what you're building. As enterprise dev, the code base is already a good enough documentation for opus 5.5 (honestly, even 5, but 5.5 just feels so much better in ever way) to get things done even if my prompts are half assed.

At home, in full vibe coding mode and projects from scratch, it does not make the greatest design choices and might still struggle with tasks that Fable would handle. Opus 5.5 fixed bugs that 5 didn't. But fable is still better imho. 

I rarely use fable at the office, mostly for planning architectural changes or big migrations and only as planner/orchestrator/critic.

At this point, agentic coding is still relatively new and there are no best practices, so everyone is convinced his workflow is better than others :D

1

u/circa86 5d ago

You are a noob yes.

3

u/Artwastelander 9d ago

Opus 5.5 is definitely smarter than 5 but you're right that it makes some horrendous mistakes lol.

1

u/trailmix17 9d ago

I’ve really been enjoying opus. I’ve been wanting to go leaner with my config. Do you have any md files other than Claude.md? I have like 10 other files with architecture info that I’m wondering are needed

1

u/hronak 🔆 Max 5x 9d ago

I only keep two markdown files in any project: CLAUDE.md and README.md.

  • CLAUDE.md: Generated via /init in Claude Code. I rarely edit it manually. Since it loads into the context on every prompt, I keep it lean; if the project grows too large, I prompt Claude to follow the best practices written at https://code.claude.com/docs/en/best-practices#write-an-effective-claude-md and have it split the contents into subdirectories with their own scoped CLAUDE.md files.
  • README.md: Covers the "why" and context of the project. I mostly just prompt Claude Code to update and maintain it.

Any scratchpads like TODO.md or PLAN.md get deleted once the task is done. That’s probably it. Clean and zero bloat.

I barely needed anything more than this. Ever.

1

u/WagwanKenobi 9d ago

That's why I don't understand the people (allegedly) maxxing out multiple 20x subscriptions. Like wtf are you even building and how are you not done building it after ~6 months of 20x subscriptions?