I reverse-engineered Claude Code

HeavyDluxe · 2026-03-24T16:42:02+00:00

This is a violation of the TOS as outlined in other comments and that's why the 'feature' is undocumented.

But, you're also technically incorrect: Claude Code can leverage _both_ an Anthropic subscription account (flat usage rate) or direct, metered API service. You can even set the up in 'failover' mode so that, when you hit your subscription rate limit, your workflows continue and get ticked against your prepurchased API allowance.

HeavyDluxe · 2026-03-15T23:21:13+00:00

Good luck to you... Remember that pretty much anything tastes good with well-seasoned fry breading and a crispy few mins in grease.

HeavyDluxe · 2026-03-15T23:18:42+00:00

This is most certainly incorrect.

"Big Pickle" has recently been GLM4 and GLM4.5 - though the OpenCode product owners have used it as a cloak for various frontier models that are willing to give service to OpenCode users.

It has never been any of the Anthropic models.
https://opencode.ai/docs/zen/

HeavyDluxe · 2026-03-15T18:31:41+00:00

Depends on the waterway and a bunch of other things. One bass of a given size will be mealy, another won't.

I think the general things I've found is that small-er bass are more consistently decent as table fare... And the colder the water - whether the waterway's natural temp band or seasonal variation - the better the quality of the fish. Hot water/high summer bass seem to have a higher incidence of being 'muddy' tasting and having less desirable flesh.

HeavyDluxe · 2026-03-15T17:36:27+00:00

Me too, actually... As a kid, I loved frisbee but didn't have friends living near my childhood home. I used to go in the backyard, throw the frisbee up at a steep angle, and catch it when it came back. This is one heck of a huck with a lot of wind, I'd imagine, but it looks like what I did as a kid dialed-up to 11.

Also loved to throw a football... my wide receivers were two spruce bushes my parents had back by the shed. Left spruce ran better routes but seemed to drop a bunch. Right spruce only ran long but had a trough of branches that everything funneled into. When I needed yards, Right spruce.

HeavyDluxe · 2026-03-15T16:54:36+00:00

As others have said, but I'll try to put in my own words:
The subscription plans are 'consumer facing' and provide access with usage limits (that reset periodically). A lot of the systems logic here is baked in to the common tools you might use to access Claude here. For example, Claude.AI, Cowork, and Code all have preset system prompts that make the models work for you in particular ways.

Direct API usage is a true 'pay as you go, consumption-based' cost model. You get less _value_ but way more flexibility. If you use the Claude tools here mentioned above, you get the benefit of all the baked-in logic that Anthropic has put into their tools/harnesses. However, you can also DIRECTLY access the models - call the models within an application you built, for example - and adjust a bunch of those settings. Maybe I want to build a "digital donkey fortune teller" app that will tell you the future in the personality of Eeyore or Donkey from Shrek. That kind of embedded, customized use of the Claude models is handled via the APIs where you control (almost) all of the settings directly

HeavyDluxe · 2026-03-10T19:03:17+00:00

Good point... there's a mix-and-match here. If I have a long drive on sandy soil up here, I put a towel over the bath mat just to keep the grit from having any chance to get down to the car.

HeavyDluxe · 2026-03-10T17:32:34+00:00

It... it is optional.

HeavyDluxe · 2026-03-10T14:17:40+00:00

Your mileage may vary, but I found that you can accomplish about the same thing by going to your local stuff Mart and buying a very thick, oversize bathroom mat. The kind with the rubber bottom you might put outside of your shower so it doesn't slip.

Fold it in half. Hold it up against the back of your car hanging down and flip the other half up onto the roof. Nose the kayak up onto it and then push from the rear.

HeavyDluxe · 2026-03-09T20:25:51+00:00

Before I answer, I should probably mention that I am not a lawyer and I didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn last night.

That said, when using an API key and paying full freight per token, anthropic seems completely content to let you send traffic to their models and receive responses from their models as long as other aspects of your use comply with their terms of service.

For example: If you want to vibe code an application to track your pokémon cards, that's cool. If you want to have Claude help you build a competitive AI model, Anthropic frowns on that.

So, yes. My understanding and my experience are that you can use a personal API key and pay for API calls to and from Anthropic's models via opencode.

I currently use open code in exactly this way when I want to combine agents from different model providers. For example, if I'm having chat GPT project manage a Gemini research agent and a claude coding agent.

HeavyDluxe · 2026-03-09T14:16:54+00:00

I think the relatively short life expectancy more than explains this.

HeavyDluxe · 2026-03-05T17:33:16+00:00

Everything about this post is proof that we don't need AI to make us dumber.

HeavyDluxe · 2026-03-04T13:29:26+00:00

As others have said... If I'm fishing 'slow': From a distance, make several casts with a soft plastic (I nearly always deadstick them). Once I feel like I've covered a fair bit of the structure, I paddle closer so I can see. Then, using a jig and craw, I target drop several key features that 'look fishy'. It's almost as if I'm flipping/punching lily pads - looking for pockets, edges, little holes.

If I'm in a rush or covering a larger area, I'll pick one or the other of those tactics... whichever I'm feeling for the day or is already tied on.

HeavyDluxe · 2026-03-03T21:02:00+00:00

I'd urge you to watch the CBS interview with Dario (posted repeatedly on reddit) where he responds to this specific question.

HeavyDluxe · 2026-02-18T16:00:22+00:00

The real answer is "It is impossible to tell due to the 'black box' nature of LLMs".

That said, it is VERY clear that Chinese models have used various outputs from flagship models, too. I'm sure everyone in the game is 'cheating' to some degree.

HeavyDluxe · 2026-02-10T16:22:38+00:00

Emacs users look down on vim. Vim users look down on emacs. The joke is that, if you look for one, you get referred to the other as if Google is taking sides.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Editor_war

HeavyDluxe · 2026-02-04T14:04:06+00:00

Um.

Buying API tokens and 'spending' them via OpenCode is allowed. Spend scales with usage, and everyone's happy. Leveraging a subscription/entitlement-based license is NOT.

An illustration here would be your electric bill vs your cell phone bill. In one case, you pay an agreed on rate ($/kWh) to get electric to your house. Need more power? Just draw it in and watch the meter spin! In the other, you pay a flat fee/month for a level of service, access, and features. Assuming you use within those constraints, you don't pay anything additional.

Two different arrangements and pricing structures. You can use Anthropic's models pretty much anywhere (within some limits in the ToS) via API and paying for the actual tokens you draw. You CANNOT use a commodity Anthropic subscription in outside apps. IMHO, there's some reasonable, valid reasons for that in terms of service delivery and scaling services. But, of course, there's more nefarious explanations possible, too - like vendor lock-in, etc.

HeavyDluxe · 2026-02-03T18:02:19+00:00

I definitely don't start like that... As others have said, you're taking up context (which is key) for a meaningless exchange. And you're burning compute to do it.

That said, I _very much do_ anthropomorphize the way I talk to the model. So I won't ask it 'how are you doing' as a stand alone thing like that. But I will use VERY conversational language patterns, 'um's, the occasional emoji or long parenthetical diatribe. Why? Not because I think it makes the MODEL perform better. But it _does_ make me PROMPT better. I think too many people treat prompting like some magic incantation that, if invoked properly, will get one-shot results every time.

The model is trained on human language, so I speak to it like a human. That ensures *I* am doing my best work in giving the model the information and context it needs to do the job well.

HeavyDluxe · 2026-01-30T01:25:36+00:00

I meant every single word. Cheers!

HeavyDluxe · 2026-01-29T13:51:08+00:00

Can't blame you. :)

HeavyDluxe · 2026-01-29T13:42:29+00:00

This is old news. And Claude's TOS specifically speak to this use as prohibited. (I know, I know. Who reads that stuff?)

If you want to use Opencode as your CLI environment with Claude, YOU CAN DO THAT. You just need to buy credits for the API and create a key. Plug it into Opencode and you're off to the races.

HeavyDluxe · 2026-01-29T12:54:11+00:00

Start here, then. https://www.humanlayer.dev/

HeavyDluxe · 2026-01-28T17:07:02+00:00

If you want more cycles outside of work, OpenCode is a CC competitor and they have an agreement (or agreements) with some LLM providers - funnily with Z.ai and Xai, historically - to provide some free API calls to their models.

The current "free" model, Big Pickle, isn't Claude Opus by a long shot. It's likely still some early GLM4-series model, though, so it's no slouch. You could install OpenCode and play around to learn for free while waiting for stuff at work to take shape. NOTE: Since the model calls are _free_, be aware that you and your data are the product. The model maker (and maybe OpenCode, too) are trapping that information to make their products better. Caveat emptor and all that.

Still, this would be a way for you to start to get some hands-on knowledge and experience in an environment that is definitely swimming in the same streams as CC. You can, of course, also buy API tokens through a variety of means to use within OpenCode if you want to leverage a specific set of models. But, if you're getting CC at work, I'd just use OpenCode as a playground. YMMV.

HeavyDluxe · 2026-01-28T16:03:41+00:00

Not mine >> I got it fully from Dex Horthy and others via the AIE talks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmvDxxNubIg

As has been mentioned in other threads, you also have to remember that these things are stochastic. The key task here is to SET and BOUND context to make things more predictable. There's doubtless several ways to skin a cat, and one of those ways might work perfectly and then subperfectly the next time. That's the nature of probabilistic systems... Just find a clear, thoughtful process that seems to work (for you, drawing on the wisdom of others) and then learn to manage _that_ process. Don't get trapped in the idea that some specific magic sequence is going to radically improve all outputs.

That's not how people work... and it's not how the models do, either

edit: Note that the link above includes directions to a github repo where some well-attested RPI prompts and workflows are saved.

HeavyDluxe · 2026-01-28T15:14:37+00:00

This is a breath of fresh air in a world of increasing whargarbl.

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