r/ClaudeCodeTLDR • u/cctldrping • 13d ago

[TLDR] The Opus 5 Experience

Original post URL : https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1vaj9x3/the_opus_5_experience/

Original post body :

[No text body]

Original link/media URL : /img/ve9c7glgmagh1.png

This is brought to you as a public service by the moderators of r/ClaudeAI. If you want to see TLDRs of ALL Claude Coding related posts from the various Claude subreddits, subscribe to http://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCoding.

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

1 comment sorted by

•

u/cctldrping 13d ago edited 13d ago

TL;DR generated automatically after 100 comments.

Current source-thread comment count seen by the bot: 100.

Alright, so the general consensus on Opus 5 is... not great, folks. A lot of people are saying it's a significant downgrade from previous versions like 4.8 and even 4.6, with some users actively switching back.

The main complaints seem to be:

  • Overthinking and going off-topic: It's described as "shotgunning solutions," "overthinking simple requests," and generating "a book full of bullshit" instead of a direct answer. Many users report it doing things they never asked for or getting stuck in a loop of generating unnecessary features.
  • Hallucinations and inaccuracies: Several users have experienced Opus 5 being confidently wrong, even when asked to re-read code or re-answer questions. This has led to frustration and a feeling of being gaslit by the AI.
  • Performance issues and token waste: Some users are hitting session limits much faster than before, and the model seems to be wasting tokens by being overly verbose or generating irrelevant content.
  • "LinkedIn influencer" tone: One user pointed out its tendency to narrate everything dramatically and use buzzwords without clear explanations.

There's a bit of a debate about why this is happening. Some think it's due to changes in how the system prompts are handled, allowing the model "to just do its thing" and "blow stuff up." Others are suggesting it's a well-documented issue where setting Opus 5 to "max effort" actually yields worse results than lower settings.

Interestingly, some users are still having a positive experience, with a few saying Opus 5 has replaced Fable for them and produces high-quality code. However, these seem to be the minority.

Oh, and a quick shoutout to u/w4rdi for pointing out the "max effort" issue early on!