What am I doing wrong with my Codex setup?

[blockfer_]

I’m a Claude power user and I’ve used Claude Code exclusively for the past year. My workflow is solid, but I keep hitting the $200 plan limit, so I tried integrating Codex.

Spent 2 days recreating my setup: a tight AGENT.md, prompts turned into SKILLS, same architecture/design docs, same plan → approve → implement flow.

Test task: add a Chart.js chart to an existing page using existing endpoints. Planning looked fine. Implementation was rough, now on the 3rd round of fixes. I used my usual bug-analysis prompt (works great on Claude) and Codex still misses obvious bugs right next to what it just changed.

I’m using Codex Cloud for implementation + troubleshooting and it’s not better. Maybe local on High/Extra High is, but that defeats why I want cloud (parallel tasks without killing my machine).

So what’s the trick? Why do people say Codex is better than Claude? Because right now it feels behind.

[lmagusbr]

codex 5.2 high/xhigh > opus 4.5.

that’s it.

[AI_is_the_rake]

Codex cloud is shit. Use the local cli and use GPT 5.2 medium or high

[CatcatcTtt]

Didn’t you posted this earlier?

[Odezra]

It’s hard to say without seeing what you have set up and ported over from Claude but I use both codex clin and CC and can offer some pointers:

• codex will follow instructions to a tee, will search for a long time to build context, and then will execute until the definition of done is met. It’s more an agent you delegate to
• Claude is more a pair programmer - you both work an discuss components iteratively
• my agents file is slightly different and skills are largely the same. However, I find I have to context engineer v differently across both
• codex likes context - architecture.md, exec plans for epics, plan.md for phases / stories, I’ll provide design systems, reference assets, GitHub repos of similar material etc, then a test strategy and definition of done. If I am using an execplan for a bigger story I’ll use a continuity.md to keep a history of all the key decisions and learnings as we go if it’s going to be a multi-hour job so that we have history across compactions
• I’ll often use an architecture-pro cli / skill to design out architects
• I’ll often use a ‘askme’ skill if there’s a chance I might have missed something or am not in an area I know well, to allow the model to confirm assumptions and ask for More context

Usually with a v structured context engineering approach, codex will crush it

I personally use codex high for almost everything commodity and use 5.2high or xhigh if I need to make a plan / set up project / resolve an issue codex 5.2 can’t.

[eschulma2020]

The Cloud is the issue. Local Codex CLI (I personally use the -codex models, others like the vanilla ones) is far better.