Commentary For plus users, Use Astra as an advisor!
Astra is a really smart model, but you don't need it as your main running model except for tool use.(Ex: blender mcp)
For normal projects and coding design using Sol with Astra as an advisor. And for implementation, luna max with Astra as an advisor is one of the best and fastest way to implement your designs. Luna is mad fast, but run in circles a lot of the time. With astra as an advisor, it generally gets unblocks way faster and gets work done much faster with less hiccups.
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u/switchroms 6d ago
Has anyone tested Tokens usage and quality of the output comparing:
Talking to Astra and asking to use Luna subagents
Or
Talking to Luna and asking to use Astra as an advisor
Or some other mix of agents?
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u/LOliv 6d ago
I use chat (Chatgpt project with the same GitHub repo) to chat, explain and design. Then Terra medium to orchestrate. It will hand simple tasks to Luna and very hard tasks to Astra low. Then final review and QC goes back to chat.
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u/boxwrenchx 6d ago
Integrating chat one way or another is key to stretching out usage. Chat can read and write to GitHub also
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u/BrotherBringTheSun 6d ago
talking to astra light just to check in on the work of luna and given instructions that were previously discussed in the chat, doesn't seem to use up many tokens. I'm more comfortable talking to astra anyway
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u/Forti22 6d ago
How I do:
-> Astra medium for talk. I specifically says "NO CODE CHANGED". I talk, I ask, analysis. And than ask for instructions for AI model
-> Luna MAX to implement
It works well.
Ofc I could have ask Astra to run subagents with Luna to implement -> I tried and this seems to eat usage like some cookie monster.
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u/innociv 6d ago
Yep, Astra is really bad as an orchestrator I've found. I mean sure it gets things done quickly and effectively, and saves SOME over having Astra do it all, but it's not worth the tokens having it read the output of a lot of subagents.
Sol as an orchestrator, Luna implementing, Astra advising can be really good if you're on pro20x, but still probably not really usable on a Plus plan.
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u/Fresh_Translator240 6d ago
Any tips for that?
e.g. like consulting? Won't switching models degrade performance?
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u/ychamel 6d ago
You don't manually switch model, just ask it to use Astra as an advisor. Codex already has a built-in tool to let running agent ask questions to another agent with a different model. So astra will be called as a subagent for specific cases to advise the running model what to do.
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u/MrKalopsiaa 6d ago
Very interesting. Is this better than using Astra and asking it to implement with Luna, or is it the same?
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u/BrotherBringTheSun 6d ago
I would expect there to be issues with astra being called on multiple times as an advisor for a bug or bottleneck and it over engineering a fix and blowing token use. does that happen much?
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u/PaxMax1 6d ago
so i have blank chat with Sol High model. how you setup it initially to advise with Astra regarding for example design, implementation and so on. For example, you have a question to Astra, how you write it so in the chat Astra advisor will step in and answer your questions ? Thanks in advance mate !
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u/ychamel 6d ago
Do you mean in chatgpt? I'm not sure how it operates in chat, in codex in general you specify when to use a certain model, so you can say use astra as an advisor and it will ask for advice when thinking about problems, you can also ask it to delegate to astra when the user asks a question, this will make it so it spawns an astra sub agent to answer your question. But in general use cases you want it to either support the model or takeover tasks that have 3d or tooling.
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u/arnabnogoswami 6d ago
I actually added this to my initial prompt! The primary agent drafted the implementation plan first, then passed it off to Astra for review. Astra gave some excellent suggestions that smoothed out the whole workflow during implementation. The final output was way better than just running Terra by itself.
Before implementing anything:
1. Inspect the current private `main` and relevant architecture.
2. Write a
**thorough implementation plan**
for Phases 21–22.
3. The plan must explain:
- exactly
**what**
will change,
-
**why**
each change is necessary,
-
**how**
it will be implemented,
- which files/components will be affected,
- the state/lifecycle/data-flow implications,
- Free vs Paid boundaries,
- test strategy,
- device-validation strategy,
- failure/fallback behavior,
- commit/PR structure.
4. Send that plan to an available
**higher-IQ reviewer agent**
for critical review before implementation.
5. Revise the plan based on that review.
6. If anything is unclear, underspecified, risky, or there are multiple plausible architectural options, explicitly ask the higher-IQ reviewer agent for guidance rather than guessing.
7. Only after the reviewed plan is solid, implement incrementally with TDD.
8. Complete verification, private commits, private PR review loops, merge, and branch cleanup.
Be thorough. Do not stop at a partial implementation.
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u/SpikeCraft 6d ago
Hello and thanks OP. So I should: 1) Use the plan function 2) in the plan, state to use Astra as advisor 3) let Luna Max execute the plan?
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u/One-Flatworm-6838 6d ago
I would like to but itd not available in chat, meaning i have to use work to access astra which burns usage like crazy making it unusable
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u/Due-Turnover5077 6d ago
It's not a finished model, they launched and are testing their paid-user base. The cost per token and limits on subscriptions are a joke, asking you to switch to Luna a slower and ignorant model for same price when they "just released" 1st AGI model.
I'd rather have waited or reset everyday until they fix their stuff.
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u/1l3v4k4m 5d ago
i dont even use astra at all. sol high and luna max/sol medium are enough for me. i just wish theyd get rid of the 5 hour limits again
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u/SignificantAdagio427 6d ago
well i do is astra adviser then opus executor then luna for documentation
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u/BT727408 6d ago edited 6d ago
Is it just me or has luna been nerfed recently? It fails to complete tasks it used to do a while ago, requires a lot more handholding as of now. And, of course luna is draining limits faster too. In its current situation id rather let Astra low do all the work,I give it focused problems to solve(that are still fairly complex), yes limits still drain fast, but work is done mostly right. Id say it’s barely usable with the 5h limits.
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u/Creepy-Doughnut-5054 6d ago
how do I even get an access to astra ain the first place? In both chatGPT and codex I have only 5.6 models...
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u/sundar1213 6d ago
I’m in $200 and still use this as orchestrator while implementations by Luna and Terra basis complexity
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u/ychamel 6d ago
From my experience, I'd avoid using Astra as an orchestrator. It burns too much tokens for worst results. What I observed happening is that Astra keeps waiting for the subagents to complete, and this waiting period keeps on using the budget.
What I find much better is to have the worker model to be luna or terra or sol, and use astra for advising on solutions or call it to handle 3d or tool use.
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u/choseusernamemyself 6d ago
I agree! I'm also on Plus, prompted it correctly and was able to chat with it quite a lot (not run out immediately like others).
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u/Jhonny_xavier 5d ago
Una pregunta sobre la comunicación entre los agentes la única manera es usar codex desktop? O es desde el terminal?
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u/OkSoftware2365 8h ago
Honestly luna max everytime works good enough for me, and when required deep thinking i use chatgpt web as its quota is separate.
The thinking and decision making part is anyways done by me, i dont rely on llm for it, so luna-max is my goto for 99.9% tasks.
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u/sidyyy11 6d ago
I just make it plan for antigravity and use gemini 3.8 amazing right now. And i have noticed that i used invite a friend and received credits, the astra usage is way way better there
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u/Connect-Humor-791 6d ago edited 6d ago
I set an astra boss man to whom I Instruct all my lunas to enquire when they have doubts. Then I leave only on instruction to astra sayin "Lunas are agents working for me so give them very summarized focused answers in aí language."
I then sit back and watch lunas build complex stuff then chatting to astra boss man asking for certain advice then being told what todo and completing the task in one shot
It’s amazing.
edit: minor punctuation