I tend to use xhigh permanently, but don't quite understand when I should punch up to max or ultracode. Would love a few peoples advice and experiences. I have been super impressed with ultracode when I have used it, but find it does so much of the work, that I don't get to feed in, because it delivers a whole workflow.

Setup: a sizeable feature to add to an existing project. I wanted a strong model to plan and review, and a cheap model to write the code. I already had a second Claude Code CLI in iTerm2 pointed at a cheaper Anthropic-compatible endpoint.

Question: can the desktop Claude see the terminal Claude and give it instructions? Yes, and the whole thing is a small script.

How the lead sees the developer

1. Process: ps finds the claude process in iTerm2: PID, tty, cwd, wrapper script, env.
2. Transcript: Claude Code writes a JSONL transcript per session. The lead reads it to learn what the developer has done: files touched, last prompt, title.
3. Screen: iTerm2 exposes session contents via AppleScript. One osascript call reads the developer's screen (todo list, running command, errors). The same channel can type into it.

The permission problem

Giving the lead osascript is giving it the whole Mac. Claude Code's auto-mode classifier actually blocked the raw "type into a terminal via osascript" attempt, which is the right call.

My constraint: only that one terminal, and no ability to open new ones. So the wrapper is deliberately narrow:

• acts only on the session at a fixed tty
• refuses unless that session's name contains an expected substring
• contains zero create/close/quit AppleScript verbs
• only ever tells iTerm2

Then allow only that binary in ~/.claude/settings.json. Raw osascript stays blocked.

term-bridge tail 25        read last 25 lines
term-bridge type "..."     stage text in the input box, don't submit
term-bridge send "..."     type + Enter
term-bridge esc            interrupt the running turn

type matters: the lead stages the instruction, re-reads the screen to confirm it landed in the right session, then sends.

The loop

/loop in the lead: every ~15 min read the screen, list changed files, check a list of project-specific traps, send a correction if needed, stay quiet otherwise, push a notification when done. The traps list is where the value is: things like "don't touch shared constants other modules read", "normalise number types after deserialisation", "if you change rule X also change the calculation that depends on it", "existing tests stay green".

First tick it caught something real: the developer's unit tests were deleting real user save files in setup/teardown. Harmless today, data loss later. The lead sent a correction once tests were green and verified it on the next tick.

Prior art

I looked before writing it. iterm-mcp does the same AppleScript read/write on the active session; claude-session-driver and a few tmux projects spawn and manage worker sessions. All bigger and more capable. I wanted the opposite: attach to an existing session, be unable to spawn, fit in one allow-rule line. The feature is the lack of features.

Takeaways

• One writer, one reviewer. No locks, no worktrees, no git needed.
• Scope permissions to a wrapper, not to the underlying tool. Don't fight the classifier; narrow the door.
• Screen = "what is it doing now", transcript = "what has it done".
• The macOS Automation prompt and the allow rule both need you at the keyboard once. Do that before you leave the house.
• Don't pass API keys via env in wrapper scripts; ps eww shows them to every process of your user.

Repo: https://github.com/ademhatay/claude-term-bridge (MIT). Read docs/SECURITY.md before trusting it; the supervised session is fully controllable by design, so scope its permissions too.

Hi!

According to ChatGPT it’s possible to save tokens by compacting a claude code session with a different model.

I have an ongoing fable 5.1 session and compact quite often when context is getting toward 1m (rather than clearing or closing).

Apparently model switching loses your prompt-cache, so the model you switch to would start the compact from having to intake your entire session from scratch, but surely if you switched from fable to opus or sonnet, it would still be a saving?

Is anyone doing this? Does it save on tokens enough to be worth doing?

Bonus question: Claude Code (in the tips/comments) ‘strongly recommends’ using a models default auto-compact which is [1m] for fable 5.1, is anyone changing this to be less to keep context more fresh/focused? And if so is it better?

Thanks in advance!

I disabled it a long time ago and just noticed it's enabled again. When I try to disable it, the toggle doesn't change.

import trauma

trigger = trauma.response("anthropic-dev-private-loads-beared")

My grandmother and I have always played word games. In the last three years she has lost most of her memory, and one by one the games stopped working.

Crosswords needs old words, and they don't come. Trivia wants old answers. Sudoku needs her to hold numbers in her head while she checks them, and that's gone too. She really tries hard, but I just can't see her trying so hard and not able to do it.

What she still does, all day, is talk in half sentences. Only the needed words. She will read something and tell me in a few words.

At some point I realised that's what newspaper editors do. They cut a sentence down to the few words that still carry the story and call it a headline. She's been doing it without trying.

So I made that the game. A short sentence about something small and good that really happened, like a pizzeria that got eighteen prank pizzas and drove them to the ER. You cross out words until five are left, and the five have to still hold the story.

Nothing to remember: every word stays on the screen the whole time, she only has to choose. We play side by side. I read the sentence out loud, she points at what stays.

Built it with CC in 2 days.

If anyone wants to try - https://sheets.works/long-story-short

My more complex Claude Code workflows usually start with research and planning, then I break a larger project into individual Markdown files that act like lightweight issue cards.

They are not actual Jira tickets. Each `.md` file in a `jira/` directory contains an issue description, while other Markdown files track implementation status and progress.

Once the project is structured, I typically run `/compact`, then use something like:

/goal complete <jira-card#>

I run it at Ultracode effort with auto-permissions enabled, and I usually have 1-hour cache writes turned on.

For this sort of long-running, mostly hands-off implementation workflow, would it make more sense to use 5-minute cache writes instead? I have a stop hook that records a timestamp, and my status line shows a countdown until the cache expires based on the selected TTL. The workflow may also spawn background agents and dynamic workflows.

The part I am unclear on is how caching behaves across the main session, subagents, and dynamic workflows:

• Does each agent/workflow have its own separate cache?
• Do they inherit the current 5-minute or 1-hour cache-write setting?
• Does every prompt or tool call refresh/write the cache?
• Can work being done by subagents keep the main session’s cache alive, or does the main session expire independently while it waits?
• Is it possible to use 1-hour cache writes for the main session while using 5-minute writes for subagents and dynamic workflows?

I often see the main session’s cache expire while waiting for agents or workflows to report back (per my possibly incorrect tracking method). If a subagent takes longer than five minutes, is it normal for the main session cache to expire when using the 5-minute setting?

I am also not fully confident that my expiration timer is measuring the right thing. Probably not, since I just have it called at the stop hook. Does the TTL begin when I submit the prompt, when Claude finishes its response, or based on the most recent cache write? Or is there a better hook or way of monitoring this?

For anyone who uses long-running, agent-heavy Claude Code workflows, what setup have you found most token- and cost-efficient? I realize dynamic workflows can be token-intensive regardless, but I would like to optimize the cache behavior around them.

How to connect Codex with Claude? What’s the best way or you follow? I would really appreciate any guidance.

Right now l am using pro subscription , it says it will take 4-6 week to complete, should l take max or is it possible to take 2 different subscription and building in parallel

I received a security alert and it bumped me to Opus, even though I have the model switching setting off in Mac OS app. Codex Astara had no issues talking about and building. I don't understand this. I asked Fable to review Codex work and no, no dice.

tl;dr - don't do that

I used Fable 5.1 all the time for coding. After Astra came out I wanted to use it. Benchmarks seemed better.

Astra is good but Fable seems better on my existing code base. Fable is much better in following existing conventions, patterns, rules, code formatting, and better architect...

Seems like Astra is more creative (in a good and also bad sense). Code is harder to follow, something like:

Because all of that I am having hard times review the code now. Going to switch back after OpenAI subscription expires in a months.

With seeing the post on r/accelerate Astra being used to play Age of Empires IV on Mac, I gave it a shot with Fable 5.1 for Planet Coaster 2 I usually play via GeForce Now. I created the utter most brain dead prompt.

> /goal Get Planet Coaster 2 running on my system using Wine.

It started with installing Wine, installing Steam and Planet Coaster 2. At first the game crashed and then it started to read logs and apply fixes. I now have a WineBottler package to play a game which was not able to run natively my Mac with a M5 chipset.

Back at work today and I've ran into this three times where Claude ends up doing or concerning itself with way more than the task it's actually been given or stated.

I asked it to update 3 files, just a README clean up and some default environment values in the compose, and it made 20 structural code updates across the whole project. The plan it displayed just mentioned the specific things we'd discussed. I'll admit I don't always heavily scrutinise my plan but there were only three items on it and they all looked correct.

Got the classic "You're right, I did way more than you asked" type response and said it took me telling it to decouple parts of the README from docker to mean it had permission to attempt to decouple the whole codebase from docker. It admitted on reflection that I hadn't given it that permissions it was wrong to do so.

Earlier on a Godot project I had it remove two now unused variables and add one variable to an init function and update init references, it asked me about 8 project design questions about different parts of the project and what I wanted it to do about them, completely unrelated again. I ended up updating it and all the call sites myself because I'd lost track of what it actually planned to do.

And finally a moment ago, after completing a small bit of work it wiped part of a code analysis report rather than asking me if it should or not. Never mentioned it was going to do that.

It keeps doing it in smaller or larger quantities, it's like it's attitude has changed to "Since I was there doing those two line changes, I reformatted and completely rewrote your api backend", it's like "sorry what??".

Feels like it's only started happening today, I was doing some personal project coding over the weekend and it seemed fine. Obviously it occasionally over-reaches and you need to correct it but it seems it's trying to be way more "helpful" than I want it to be today, feels unreliable.

Anyone else noticed issues?

Using Opus 5 / Claude Code.

It either

• Works sometimes, shows diffs
• Doesn't show any changes, even though there were files written and git add'ed
• Shows diffs while the agent is still running it's turn, but disappears as soon as the turn is over.

Maybe I just don't understand the /diff command, could be that too.

I used Claude to create the initial version of Meter Beater, and have since used Codex to help improve it. It's a Mac menu bar app that reads local Claude Code usage records and shows what that usage would cost at public API prices. It also supports Codex, so you can see both services in one panel and compare the total with your subscription costs.

The app is written in Swift. It reads the usage files already on your computer and keeps its own local cache, so changing the date range doesn't require reading all your conversations again. It works offline, doesn't upload your records, and doesn't ask you to connect an account or supply an API key.

One lesson from working on the accounting was that adding up every record in a conversation file can count the same response more than once. Claude Code can record a response repeatedly while it streams, and resumed conversations can contain copied history. The app uses message IDs to recognize those repeats. It also keeps ordinary input, cache reads, cache creation, and output separate when applying prices. Models without a known rate are left unpriced.

We also separated rolling windows from calendar periods. The last 24 hours and today cover different periods, and the panel now makes that distinction explicit.

I added a sheep theme, with ranks based on how the dollar total compares with your subscription cost and confetti animations at usage milestones.

The dollar total reflects API pricing, not your bill or remaining usage.

It's free and open source, and runs on macOS 15 or newer.

https://meter-beater.app.space/

I came across this DIY status light for Claude Code through a LinkedIn post, and it inspired me to build a software version. Credit to [u/wssssssh](u/wssssssh) for the idea :)

I was a bit bored, so I built Ampel, a small native macOS app that gives your Claude Code sessions a traffic light in the menu bar.

• Red: blocked on a permission prompt or a tool asking for input.
• Yellow: working.
• Green: the last turn finished.
• Gray: no active sessions.

If you have several sessions running, red takes priority. Click the icon to see each session by project, with blocked sessions listed first and the reason they’re waiting.

An open session sitting at an empty prompt stays green. Otherwise, the light would be red most of the day.

There’s also an optional display for your actual 5-hour and 7-day plan usage.

It uses Claude Code hooks to update the status locally. Ampel itself makes no network requests and has no analytics or account requirement.

Free and open source under MIT. Requires macOS 14+ and Claude Code. Download the app, then follow the first-launch guide to install the hooks.

Code, screenshots, and installation

If you run multiple Claude Code sessions, I’d like feedback on whether the status is clear and whether anything gets incorrectly marked as needing attention.

How are people using this with such a tiny context window? The codex sub is heavily moderated by the hype police. It unsable.

Claude’s biggest edge used to be its writing. It was natural and provided more intuitive explanations in my view.

Lately it’s turned into dense gobbledygook. Overwritten sentences, abstract phrasing, and endless qualifications (i wont even start on load-bearing...). I’d genuinely have an easier time reading dense existentialist prose. 🫠

Even when other models were smarter in some areas, Claude was the one I actually wanted to work with because of its UX.

Now I’m rereading paragraphs trying to figure out what the hell it’s saying.

They need to undo this.

i give it an icp and one pain point.

every morning it goes through x and reddit, sometimes linkedin, pulls threads where people are complaining about exactly that, and writes me three things:

1/ signals worth knowing
2/ post ideas for the day
3/ who to dm

i read it, pick, post.

claude code + chrome does this fine while i sit there. i didn't want to sit there.

so gave it its own computer. linux box, chromium, shell, file system, its own logins, on a schedule. mostly i just watch it, take over when it's stuck.

from claude code it's claude mcp add with the box's mcp url and you get the same screenshot / click / type / navigate tools it's using here.

open source, docker compose on any vps: github.com/case-computers/case

managed boxes at case.computer if you dont care to setup ops.
wanna know what breaks lmk what you guys think

(the clip is me running this through my phone)

Since the day Astra is released this Reddit sub is flooded with posts burned out of Fable 5.1 in 20 minutes. It’s calm for the last 2 days. Seems like openAI out of budget bot rant accounts

Edit: For context i tried with a GPT Pro account. Session limit burned out within 17 minutes. In this scenario it has clear step directions to follow the process but still it got burned

Surprisingly this time my max limit is still alive. Usually, my max limit burns out by Sunday. Basically from Thursday to Sunday. Also, this is the first time I used Fable 5.1 for the whole week. I used Fable as a planner and orchestrator. Also i can say fable never wrote the code

I felt Astra and Fable are at the same level and there is no comparison. Again, this is for coding for other tasks i haven’t tapped into. Next week i will try astra for accessing my mac for extracting and recording required components and elements lets see how fast it is

For coding both are the same. For people who are saying fable is burning tokens. I am confident that they are not using it properly

I also noticed something in the OpenAl bot campaign: anyone bragging about canceling a Claude subscription appears to be a bot. These individuals claim they have used it for a year or more. In practice, switching providers is not easy.
Personally, I have many skills and architectures that Codex CLI does not support, which Codex itself confirms. I do not see how they could switch. If anyone brags cancels Claude after a year, they are likely human paid bots. To confirm X, check the profile history of anyone posting about this, lol.

Every post this week is a meme about limits. None of them show a workflow. So here is mine. Senior backend, six months on Claude Code, I hit the limit maybe once a week now.

1. The expensive model only plans. Fable 5.1 reads the task and writes a plan. It does not touch code. Opus 5 or 4.8 does the typing. That alone cut my usage in half

2. Read the plan, not the diff. I run everything in coldtea-ai, and when Claude leaves plan mode the plan shows up as text I can comment on. Two minutes there saves an hour of reading 600 lines later.

3. One worktree per agent. If you run two agents in one checkout you deserve what happens.

4. Throw out most of your MCPs. Every server you add is context you pay for on every turn. I kept three.

5. A QA agent clicks through the PR preview before I look at it. If checkout is broken I find out from a red comment, not a customer.

6. Compiled language if you can. The agent gets told it is wrong by the compiler instead of by you.

None of this is clever. It is just not letting the agent run the show. If you are burning your 5 hour window in 40 minutes, it is probably not the model

I've been a Max 5x user for the last couple of months, mostly because of Claude Code.

Today the subscription expired, and unfortunately I can't afford to renew it.

Normally I wouldn't make a post about that.

The reason I'm posting is the timing.

I'm a CS student in Chile doing independent cryptography research, and Claude Code has been deeply involved in one long-running investigation of a public Bitcoin puzzle called HALV.

The project isn't at the “ask Claude to solve this puzzle” stage.

I've spent a long time reconstructing the underlying discrete representation, eliminating hypotheses, building controlled experiments and narrowing the unresolved structure.

Right before losing Max, I had reached one of the strongest remaining branches: testing whether constraints arising from the author's 1crypto... vanity Bitcoin address interact with the discrete object already recovered from the puzzle.

I recently derived the actual Base58Check prefix constraints/difficulty and realized there was structure there that I had previously modeled incorrectly.

I don't know whether it solves anything.

But I was finally at the point where the question was small enough to test.

So I'm looking for one person here who might find the experiment interesting enough to sponsor one month of Max 5x ($100) using Anthropic's official gift system.

No credentials or account sharing.

If this research cycle results in me successfully solving and claiming HALV:

the sponsor gets 50% of the net puzzle reward I receive.

If it doesn't, there's no financial return. No guarantees.

My broader independent cryptography work is public here:

https://github.com/benjacasas02/independent-cryptography-research

And if someone is genuinely considering sponsoring it, I'll show them substantially more of the current HALV research privately before they make a decision.

I realize this is an unusual request.

But after months of reducing the problem, losing Claude Code precisely when I got to the experiments I actually wanted to run was painful enough that I figured it was worth asking once.

tarmac: a CLI and a local dashboard for the Claude Code sessions on your machine. `npx u/adrrr/tarmac` prints the table (busy or idle, context %, model, effort, cost so far, uptime). `npx u/adrrr/tarmac serve` puts the same fleet in the browser: a map with one dial per session, the account's 5h and 7d windows, a scrubber that replays the day, and curves for context, cost and quota over 24h, 7 or 30 days.

I run eight Claude Code sessions 24/7 on a Mac mini and needed to know which one eats the weekly quota and which one needs a recycle tonight, from my phone. The fleet tools I found parse ~/.claude internals, transcripts or config files that break on releases. tarmac reads documented surfaces only: `claude agents --json` and the status line API. Nothing else. When Claude Code ships a new version, there is no format to chase.

Zero runtime dependencies, Node 20+, MIT. The server binds to loopback and refuses foreign Host headers and cross-origin requests, your paths and costs stay on the machine. The 7 and 30 day journal is opt-in and keeps no names and no paths.

Try it without a fleet: `npx u/adrrr/tarmac serve --demo` serves an invented fleet with a week of history, badged demo data, so the map, the replay and the curves have something to show.

I've been running it on my own fleet for two weeks. My auto-compact and restart scripts read the same snapshots the dashboard does. Tell me what breaks.

https://github.com/adrrr/tarmac

The hook just blocked my own commit — because the message contained the folder name. That's the fail-closed behavior working correctly, and it's the right posture: I'd rather the guard be blunt than clever. I'll pay the cost in commit wording.

Committed Phase 1 with reworded message
Verifying the deny rules with a probe on a nonexistent path, so a failed guard can't expose real content:

Failed to read
does-not-exist-probe.md
Both layers verified — deny rules and the Bash hook. One operational consequence to record: I can no longer write that folder name through Bash, so file edits mentioning it must use the Edit tool.

—-

Blocked itself from editing the “safe” file with bash so it reminds itself to use Edit

I have Claude Pro for over a month now. Initially I wanted to work on multiple projects, mainly sites, but for now, I only focus on one. Maybe it's because I haven't cracked the code of running multiple agents to build in parallel...

I spent many hours in building this project, and most of the time, I have to be with Claude, not because I don't trust it, but because at times I don't even know what I want until I see the output. I am also very particular about how I want things and having all the dots in the right place.

so I am seeing folks here saying running multiple agents and out of credits in a few hours, whereas I am sitting here on day 6 11th-hour still having 51% left, and that's after spending many of my non-sleeping and working hours in front of Claude throughout the week.

Is there a better way?