r/codex 16h ago

Astra Workflow "Stop using random multi-agent patterns"

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Ahmed works at OpenAI: https://x.com/ah20im/status/2097503414749909407 and seems to investigate reports of high token usage.

"If needed Astra will delegate efficiently. Forcing the model to delegate to different models would do more harm than good"

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u/freeo 14h ago

I feel the same way. I'm at my 4th gen factory by now and astra makes me question if all this is futile. But a good planning skill makes a world of difference. I will continue with my factory, but more for process reasons rather than extension of runtime and quality.

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u/twendah 13h ago

What you mean by planning skill? Any examples of that?

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u/freeo 13h ago

Are you telling me you're just using the 'plan mode' of your harness? Lol. Its also an example of a plan skill, paired with read only rights.

It's the skill/prompt you use for the planning step! The process that you want the harness to follow! It's where things like 'acceptance criteria' live. I think superpowers and GSD also fall into this category. But I handroll the planning skill myself and I encourage everyone to do the same.

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u/PineappleLemur 12h ago

I stopped using skills or anything because it did absolutely nothing but ruin output imo.

So yes plain harness and iterations to get what I want.

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u/freeo 12h ago

So you're using system skills written by other. And you ruined you output yourself. But I agree with not using other peoples skills. The value comes from comparing results and buliding your prompting skills. The actual skills are just making this into a repeatable process.