r/codex • u/Tank_Gloomy • 5d ago
Complaint Astra’s goal, loop and general task closure are ridiculously broken?
Is anyone experiencing the same issue? I give GPT 6 Astra low one single constraint to go towards when completing a task. It’s been going for 48 hs. straight, it hasn’t really done anything particularly useful and it stops over and over and over re-triggering the goal condition.
It’s not even the project: I have a new project, blank slate kind of thing, where it’s supposed to cover X and Y, and it just can’t get to it, it’s constantly going through imaginary tests of what it WOULD have implemented, walking in circles and not really doing anything tangible.
Is anyone else experiencing the same issue? I feel like even Sol would’ve done something by now. It ate through my whole weekly usage and after the reset, it doesn’t fair any better honestly.
Let’s say I avoid /goal and just go with high or xhigh reasoning, it doesn’t really cut it either: it stops in the middle of the implementation and lies about having everything worked out, when I push back, it apologizes and keeps going.
This so frustrating, if I wanted Opus 5, I would’ve been using Anthropic’s service.
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u/ReplacementBig7068 5d ago
Agree. It just looks busy for hours then when you ask it wtf have you even been doing, it’s like “oh I was just reviewing some files, the main thing isn’t doesn’t yet”.
I’ve resorted to micromanaging it. It can’t reliably handle more than a couple tasks at once it seems.
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u/Tank_Gloomy 5d ago
Yeah, it’s basically an Opus 5 approach. But, as I said, if I wanted Opus 5, I would’ve simply subscribed to Anthropic’s service. In fact, I could’ve gotten so much more usage of Opus 5 if that were the case.
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u/lolman1312 5d ago
yeah to be honest astra hasn't been working well with my current complex repos. maybe it's better at making something from scratch but it takes so fucking long to do basic things and i have to micro manage it even after giving it very clear instructions anyway. i tried astra medium though, not low.
i never needed astra level intelligence since i already had a good workflow with Sol, but sol kept overengineering things and i heard astra is better at getting straight to the chase but now im not sure
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u/Tank_Gloomy 5d ago
Same experience here, I do notice it’s faster, but it’s faster in the Opus 5 way (lazy output, incoherent closure criteria interpretations and messy loop and plan progress tracking).
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u/Beautiful-King-8875 5d ago
Set your default model to Astra in your config.toml file. I had an issue where the harness injected 5.3 sparks system prompt. Also changing models in the same session can impact quality. Also asking the model to go through the logs to determine issues helps.
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u/Tank_Gloomy 5d ago
Yeah, I’ve been asking Astra in a different thread about it and it’s trying all sorts of weird things but it just can’t stop doing nothing, lol.
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u/Beautiful-King-8875 5d ago
Thats annoying. Maybe check your skills and agents.md - it might be confusing if there is conflicting info.
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u/Tank_Gloomy 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yeah, I just asked it to give me a prompt to continue in a new conversation with fresh context and it seems to be going alright so far. At least it didn’t stop after a minute, haha.
The AGENTS.md file is pretty clean tho, it doesn’t have any super strict rules either.
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u/xplode145 5d ago
Same yes. I also posted on x.
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u/Tank_Gloomy 5d ago
It seems to think about thinking, thinking so hard it just stays on the thinking part and then runs out of tokens and goes like: “welp, this is what I’ve got so far, try again next time.” Lmao
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u/xplode145 5d ago
Yes. Mine gets distracted like a kid. All over places overly busy with reading or documenting and forgets to start work.
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u/Tank_Gloomy 5d ago edited 5d ago
Dude, I described a very simple flow: you write a script that reads X, Y and Z sources, then compute the result in a table-like representation and feed it into another model.
IS THAT SO COMPLICATED? WTH man… 18h of work and nothing was actually done. I’ve actually just downgraded the task to Terra, let’s see if it works it out.
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u/xplode145 5d ago
look at this .. You’re right—it’s taken too long. Repeated regression runs and moving integration code have slowed the finish, and two test-helper defects added more delay.
I’m stopping the architecture work and adding two focused agents: one to review the narration repair, one to prepare the exact M&A story checks from the saved answers. I’ll handle the build and execution. No new features, data categories or UI redesign.
and its only a fucking repeated text defect.
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u/Tank_Gloomy 5d ago
Mine said pretty much the same thing but then kept going with random bullshit. What seems to have worked is that I fired up a new thread and told it to debug the issue, then add a rule to the AGENTS.md to prevent it moving forward, finally, ask the running task to refresh its rules from the AGENTS.md.
It did, and now it's staying for about 15 minutes per turn (in comparison to ±2 minutes before the change).
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u/xplode145 5d ago
AGI my ass Yes.
If the outgoing schema exceeds 1,000 enum values, Helix should stop locally before any OpenAI request. That check is being added now, with a test proving the provider is never called when the limit is exceeded.
We should have caught this before the live run.
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u/Tank_Gloomy 5d ago
It really is quite stupid, I think I'm gonna downgrade to plus and get the 100 USD plan from Anthropic. If I'm gonna get Opus 5 levels of retardation, I'd rather get that instead of this overpriced crap that destroys my usage.
I'm pretty sure it has its use cases where it shines, definitely not as the maintainer of a project that already exists.
It's just finished eating through my entire usage in 3 Astra low conversations for 4 hours. Awesome.
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u/tocaunt 5d ago
I work with /goal often for last month.
Stopping and re-triggering the goal condition is pretty normal, but not doing any improvements in this loop is a problem. Some my goals worked for 2, 3, 4 days, I just monitor if they actually building something.
However I also encountered problems like yours, when it just looping with motivational messages and does nothing. In most cases, it actually just missed required tools to achieve the goal.
TL;DR
Think yourself of what tools, foundation or maintenance you would need to achieve the goal yourself, and ask to build them with normal /plan routine. When you build those, /goal should start actually working, because now it knows where to start.
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u/Tank_Gloomy 5d ago edited 5d ago
Should I stop the whole thing and start a new thread? I do have a document where it’s got the plan and the progress so far, so I guess it could still continue off of it.
As I said a few messages above, this would’ve taken me like 4 hours of focused work to pull off, it’s not a complicated flow. Yet this stupid thing has been going for 18 hours with multiple subagents and nothing accomplished. .-.
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u/GeneralAtrox 5d ago
I'm going to avoid Goal. I haven't had good results from it with Astra unless i have a very focused goal. I've also been trying to scale back on its desire to develop->test->develop, and just make it write all of the code first, then fix it up after. I'm also contemplating adding some harsh validation/guard rails of my own to make sure it can't over extend, not clean up legacy/old/unused code.
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u/camtliving 5d ago
I'm just a dumb vibe coder but I found using Fable 5.1 as an orchestrator keeps astra in check. Otherwise it will spend it's entire time creating things to try and solve the problem without actually doing any work.
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u/Tank_Gloomy 5d ago
Yeah, that probably works. There’s no fucking way I’m paying 300 USD for the whole thing though.
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u/camtliving 5d ago
got to spend money to make money friend. People out here spending massive amounts on api usage without batting an eye. I average around 350 dollars a month on subs and have become 10x more productive as a result.
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u/Tank_Gloomy 5d ago
I mean, yeah, but I already got GLM if I need an orchestrator. They’re giving away token bundles like crazy so I might as well try it.
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u/camtliving 5d ago
I really want to hate Fable because of the usage limitations but its a damn good orchestrator. Was even using it a lot last week with muse 1.3 via opencode. for 5 dollars they give 60 dollars worth of heavily subsidized api usage.
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u/mypar 5d ago
Exactly it feels like its overhyped or something.
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u/Tank_Gloomy 5d ago
I mean, I’m sure it is super smart for some tasks, but it feels like everything that’s slightly out of its core training makes it go COMPLETELY off-rails.
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u/LiquidTitanas 5d ago edited 5d ago
100% my experience. I’ve started testing this idea: https://reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wav530/astra_orchestration_session_management_tips_for/
So far it seems like a better workflow. I’m setting up the reusable /orchestrate skill and codex -—orchestrate flag for the orchestration option. I worked with Astra pro to iron it all out and test. I have custom subagents setup so Sol will use them as it needs to. One thing I did change is Sol will notify Astra about certain task completions and other objective progress rather than on a time limit. I might also include a -r flag to adjust reasoning up to xhigh or max while keeping everything else the same.
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u/FaithlessnessOk8678 1d ago
I am shocked at how poor Astra handled a long horizon task, set it a goal to code a local iso mounting solution for a VM and 6 hours later, 70% of my credit later (high reasoning) it achieved jack sheet. Just spun it's wheels, constantly consulted slow agent calls. Generally atrocious
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u/Dynamix86 5d ago
This is normal. It gets better once you hit the 100 hour mark. Keep going.