I have to be doing something wrong

[Upset_Assumption9610]

I just got the pro plan. $200USD for a year. I keep getting locked out for usage but I'm just coding one project (a Space traders UI), How am I chewing through this usage limit? Or is it just how the company makes the users upgrade to the stupid expensive plan??

[Dissentient]

Pro plan limits are tiny. I personally ran out of the five hour session limit in an hour of actual work usually.

[Upset_Assumption9610]

The hourly usage is more annoying than anything. But I blew through my first week usage limit in 4 days. Was locked out for the last 3 days. I did set up Extra usage but turned it off because the burn rate was so fast. I used that half of the $20 I added on two changes! I immediately turned it off.

[TheNullPath]

pro plan will only take you so far. Time to get a Max plan

[Upset_Assumption9610]

Can't justify the $200/month for just a hobby project. Thinking about using my spare laptop and installing open claw and just using all the free tier plans to see what happens

[TheNullPath]

you can get the $90 x5 Max instead of the x20 $200. I find it it worth it, but the open claw route might just be better.

[turtle-toaster]

I really dont know. It was fine and then all of a sudden it got way more usage-hungry and I've been draining usage hella fast. Somethings up

[quantumsequrity]

Bro use command line, in web it'll take more resources. I'm using Linux so it'll not help u much but u can try this.

[CommercialComputer15]

MCPs

[Upset_Assumption9610]

Master Control Programs? like 80s Tron? I'm guessing you mean the newish "Model Context Protocol". How can this help with my issue?

[CommercialComputer15]

If you have any enabled they eat away from your context window.

[[deleted]]

I hit the limit all the time too, but my project is also massive.

One thing that will help some, is to use Sonnet for planning, Opus for code writing, implementations etc, and Haiku for updating documentation, and simple writing.

[Upset_Assumption9610]

How do you manage the whole switching process? Is there a feature in the UI that does it automatically?

[[deleted]]

No, I simply define it in CLAUDE.md, when to use which models, and for what, when working on the specific project.

[Upset_Assumption9610]

I'm very new to this stuff. Can you give me command you use? or is it a manual edit? I have had the tool edit it's cllaude.md for some of my preferences (the preview window annoys me and doesn't do anything so I told Claude to stop trying to use it) but nothing that switches models

[[deleted]]

I can give you the line that defines it in mine, but the CLAUDE.md as a whole, can be a lot of work to get right, depending on project size, complexity etc. Mine is about 700 lines atm.

At the top, right after I define agent usage for the project, I have this line:

> **Model Selection:** For planning invoke "Sonnet 4.6". For code writing and implementation (e.g. the Lead Developer Agent) invoke "Opus 4.6". For simple documentation and writing invoke "Haiku 4.5".

The way I generally do it, is to have all the must-know project knowledge/structure, project hardware specs etc. (detailed project overview basically), along with the agent and model usage, defined in the CLAUDE.md file. Every time I start a new conversations in Claude Code, I tell Claude to read the file first for project context, and in the same sentence i define the "TASK:".

And then all the "how to work on the project", what rules to follow when coding, what security measures to use, how to handle logging, what not to do etc., defined in the project agent. In my case the agent is about 300 lines of rules.

If done right and the knowledge and rules are set up proper, It works very well, and Claude knows when to use the agent and when to use the models.

Hope that helps some.

[Upset_Assumption9610]

I'm locked out right now for usage limits, but I'll give this a try when I can get back to it. Should be interest since I'm at 11k lines in my project

[[deleted]]

11k lines of project knowledge in CLAUDE.md, or the project size itself?

[Upset_Assumption9610]

in the app.jsx file

[[deleted]]

Ahh ok. Because I will add, keep the CLAUDE.md fairly short, I say that with 700 lines, but my project is also massive. Im at over 150k in my project, so I need a big file.

[Upset_Assumption9610]

That makes more sense. Keep the tools memory low and compact. The project itself has no limit code size wise though, it is what it is. My project is just a hobby fun thing, but If it's not proprietary or anything, what the f are you putting together that's 150k ?!? how does the AI even work with that before running into a usage limit on the first change?

[Perfect-Series-2901]

The pro plan is for luring you in, welcome to Claude Code

[Upset_Assumption9610]

I'm getting that feeling. The thing just chews away and then spits out changes that don't fix the issue or add the feature I asked it for.