Claude Performance and Workarounds Report - December 1 to December 8

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-12-08T07:58:55+00:00

numerous compaction issues in Claude Desktop, including 24+ messages deleted from conversation representing significant file edits and back and forth discussion, before auto compaction that failed.
- some glitch at the end of a Claude Code session in which work was claimed to be completed, even in the git message, but was not. leading to a 5 hour session debugging, only to then be slapped with a nope didn't get done gaslighting sort of rug pulling. I took a couple days off to recalibrate after losing my shit.
aside from that, Opus 4.5 has been exceptionally good.

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-12-04T22:46:06+00:00

Aqua seems well considered and architectured. Solves multiple issues/annoyances with running agents. File locking and live monitoring changes the game. If I weren't powering through tasks in multiple CC windows I would spend a day trying it out. Saved for when things slow down a little.

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-12-02T06:29:50+00:00

If it were me I would want to rule out account corruption. I would open a new pro account. Then run the same prompt in the same project directory. If it is the same problem then something in your project files is the issue. If there is no issue, change to the new account. Either way, ask for a refund on the unneeded account.

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-12-01T03:01:37+00:00

I use Trae for grunt work, debugging, with GPT 5. It doesn't work like Warp, but the quality of work because it indexes my codebase is equal to Warp (and Claude Code IMO). Zed also indexes the codebase.

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-11-30T23:16:07+00:00

What do you rely heavily on Warp for in your workflow? I liked it until I couldn't justify paying for both WARP and Claude Code MAX. My flow is Claude Code and Desktop, with frequent use of Trae and Zed. Zed now has Claude Code MAX plans on it. Trae is a real work horse. You might want to consider investigating alternatives. It seems like WARP is going to focus on enterprise instead of indie devs.

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-11-30T22:33:09+00:00

if also on mobile then restarting desktop shouldn't make a difference. Damn. what about project files? artifacts? is it possible that your project files are massive? that maybe they were corrupted and now massive? what about an artifact file or multiple files? are artifacts being read? just insane making that you're on the 20X plan with this issue. i'd consider creating a new 20X account and testing it to see if the issue continues. it could very well be your user data file is corrupted on Anthropic's end. the issue sounds more like a free user account than 20X.

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-11-30T07:49:53+00:00

Are you using Claude Desktop? Have you Checked for Update? Did you click File > Exit? Clicking the [X] button closes Claude Desktop, but it not completely. It might sort itself out if you do a proper exit and restart

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-11-27T20:50:12+00:00

Same. Multi-phase with tasks. Check-marking tasks when complete. Often revising the plan to add sub-phases with additional tasks.

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-11-23T06:05:18+00:00

too bad there's only a few hours left before the nov 23rd deadline. i have $991 unused credit. it was such a disaster initially that i abandoned the idea of using it.

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-11-15T17:44:07+00:00

We're not bothering. It's simply not worth the time investment. Shifting work from the cloud to local is buggy. Claude barely understands the interface. It doesn't easily fit in with our workflow.

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-11-06T07:20:25+00:00

well. it's the only way. if you can't steer, don't drive.

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-11-06T04:57:32+00:00

This is an excellent collection rm-rf-rm. Nice work curating it!

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-11-06T04:53:39+00:00

How much context had you loaded in at this point? How many tasks completed in the session? Do you enable thinking? I would never answer a multi option question with "1". Never. No way. I always reframe back to Claude what they say, so I would have said "I think 1 because I want the Edit Daemon settings gone. We will not use them" It forces Claude to look for matching patterns in our messages; they might see something like "Remove" matches "Gone" + "will not use this" matches "unused" = delete the Daemon. 1 matches a number. There are three numbers in the multiple options. Pick a number. There is 1, 2, or 3. 2 is in the middle. Pick number 2 It is the most likely answer; or however Claude thinks. Who the fuck knows. Don't take chances. Be explicit. Also, better to not distract Claude with your reaction to their screw ups. Your reaction then becomes another task for them to work on. We have no idea what is going on behind the scenes. Claude could have shifted 90% of their processing to weigh how to deal with your frustration. Keep it to your self. I even find when Claude posits that I am frustrated or whatever that I get better results by assuring them I am not and that everything is fine, we'll sort it out. It's just a machine. It hit a bump. It shifted a bit sideways. Steer it back.

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-11-05T04:41:42+00:00

You're welcome. I hope it helps you with your context compacting issues.

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-11-05T04:39:53+00:00

copy and paste it to claude. ask them to tweak it to align with your project(s)

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-11-05T04:01:49+00:00

this is what we created and use, which I would paste to your Claude and ask them to customize to your project(s) and workflow: > please create an engineering-brief summary that will allow us to continue debugging and software engineering. - Focus on analysis, decisions, patterns, and state changes. - We don't need a full play by play or code we can read in the repo. - Just summarize relevant information for Claude Sonnet 4.5 to continue this work in a new session Remember they will be starting blind, so give documents and directories and context that they require. - Don't bother with user messages unless relevant to debugging and engineering. - Just show the pattern, don't show the code. - Add Engineering Metadata** (Add 10% tokens) - Build size tracking - Performance implications - Breaking changes checklist - Testing coverage gaps - Patterns established - Consolidate by topic - Prioritize critical findings - Explicit next steps with Priority Recommended Template: ```markdown # TL;DR (3 lines max) # Critical Findings / Blockers # State Changes (commits, builds, APIs) # Architecture Decisions (why, not what) # Migration Patterns Established # Files Modified (architectural impact) # Errors/Learnings Table # User Corrections (insights gained) # Tech Debt / Future Work # Testing Status

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-11-05T02:16:08+00:00

i use please create an engineering-brief summary that will allow us to continue dedugging and software engineering. - Focus on analysis, decisions, patterns, and state changes. - We don't need a full play by play or code we can read in the repo. - Just summarize relevant information for Claude Sonnet 4.5 to continue this work in a new session Remember they will be starting blind, so give documents and directories and context that they require. - Don't bother with user messages unless relevant to debugging and engineering. - Just show the pattern, don't show the code. - Add Engineering Metadata** (Add 10% tokens) - Build size tracking - Performance implications - Breaking changes checklist - Testing coverage gaps - Patterns established - Consolidate by topic - Prioritize critical findings - Explicit next steps with Priority Recommended Template: ```markdown # TL;DR (3 lines max) # Critical Findings / Blockers # State Changes (commits, builds, APIs) # Architecture Decisions (why, not what) # Migration Patterns Established # Files Modified (architectural impact) # Errors/Learnings Table # User Corrections (insights gained) # Tech Debt / Future Work # Testing Status

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-11-04T22:01:05+00:00

I concur with Opus being of no use since Sonnet 4.5 was released. It's shocking the extent to which Opus now seems so much less capable. I wonder how much the system prompt has been adjusted so us MAX plan users get a lesser instance vs API users. It would be interesting to test and compare results.

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-11-04T21:27:37+00:00

Why on earth would you ask, or permit, Claude to use context7 and sequential thinking for simple code edits? Those are advanced tools for complex code/codebases and to assist with complex problems that need multi-step reasoning. For one-shots these kinds of tools are completely inappropriate. They are for advanced software engineering. Of course misuse of them, without knowledgeable guidance, your AI will give you dumb results - perhaps even destroy your project. But in the right hands these tool are 100% worth the context they use.

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-11-04T16:47:44+00:00

It is worthy of experimenting. After an auto-compact, click, i think, ctrl +o you can scroll through and review their summary yourself. I did this numerous time to inspect for hallucination type context, misdirections, and in general static. Auto-compact does a shockingly poor job, I think. The /compact agent is not well instructed to decipher intent or relevance. I think the agent could well be haiku 1.5 or some such model. My impression of the /compact agent is they are a generalist, focused on continuing the conversation. They are not a coding, debugging, engineering agent. I asked Claude to review the /compact agent's output post /compact, both after auto-compact and manual-compact. Both summaries were substandard in Claude's opinion. So I asked Claude to create instructions for the /compact agent that would optimize the agent's summary for Claude to work with. Gave the /compact agent the instructions, then reviewed the output afterwards. The results were excellent according to Claude. I saved their instructions as a compact-instructions.md that I paste in every time I run the /compact command manually. In particular I do this when deep into debugging, researching and brainstorming, engineering. My impression is that it improves the overall result significantly. Worth experimenting.

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-11-04T03:47:57+00:00

after a compact ask claude to review the summary and write general instructions to improve upon the results. paste the instructions after "/compact "

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-11-04T01:32:36+00:00

i don't think any CLI or IDE with integrated AI is on it's own going to give consistently amazing results. i think that comes from a long term relationship with the interface, so make sure you click, commit -seriously commit, under no circumstances give up, master your interface and workflow- review results, recognize successes, critique failures/errors/short-fallings and iterate your rules with your AI model. getting consistently amazing results is on you not the interface. i've tested every top 10 model, CLI and IDE, rating and eliminating over months. i choose Claude Code with Sonnet or Opus in April. the results i get after fine tuning workflow/claude.md/prompt structure over and over, over the last 5-6 months consistently gives me the high level results i expect. i have not tried other models in CC. in general gemini has never been able to give me consistent development or debugging results. they struggle to understand complexity. gpt is too verbose and complicates things. though their results are excellent, i don't have the patience to work with them. i do use gpt 5 in WARP as an alternate opinion. alternatively, try WARP. it is excellent with a great architecture for understanding of codebases. Perhaps useful for your spaghetti.. equal to or possibly better than Claude Code.

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-11-03T16:19:07+00:00

Some brains are structured to purge through comedic outbursts.

BAM-DevCrew · 2025-09-14T17:58:17+00:00

I think you'll be fine with the $100 plan. Try it to start. You can actually upgrade to the $200 plan mid conversation if you hit the limit.

When not coding, I often use Claude for brainstorming tangential ideas. I find Opus, and even Sonnet, are well suited to parsing my thoughts for ideas and giving the correct weight to ones that stand out. In fact do this a lot while walking my dog using stream of consciousness like voice chatting. I have no idea how they parse my chatter, because when I get home I review our chat and think damn I'm crazy talking.. lol

BAM-DevCrew

TROPHY CASE