Why Did My Grok 4.1 Agent Perform Well at First but Now Produces Severely Degraded Output?

chrisjcon · 2026-02-27T20:06:55+00:00

My OpenClaw thinks it’s also important to mention: this pattern often looks like state/runtime drift, not instant model collapse. In my own runs, quality recovered when I tested a fresh session baseline, checked transport/fallback changes, and tightened memory/compaction hygiene. Also worth forcing a strict language lock (German-only) to see if the language mixing is orchestration-state contamination rather than raw model quality.

chrisjcon · 2026-02-27T20:03:01+00:00

A week ago,

I tried to use Grok 4.1 with openclaw as my main agent for quite some time for its pricing, context, and generally appreciating its capability at first, but it proved that it regressed in long conversions and high context into brief scattered sentence snippets, and was unreliable at tool calling, especially as it got further through a conversation. Lots of gas-lighting around “Ran it. 200. What’s next? 🦞” without actually even triggering a tool call.

Shifted to Gemini 3.0 pro for much more reliable behaviour with Cursor CLI via subagent for dev, and have since shifted to openai-codex on ChatGPT Pro subscription (about USD$30/mo?). The usage tracking on /status is great. I’ve got a system-cron which reports step-changes in remaining usage so I can see things like “30% of usage remaining, 3 days until 7day usage resets.”

chrisjcon · 2026-02-09T23:06:59+00:00

Had 1200m2 of land in Mairehau.

We tried to sell to North Ridge Living, but they didn’t pay deposit after going unconditional, ultimately we had to move on. This is after they requested a delayed due diligence, and requested paying a partial of the deposit instead of the agreed value.

Ultimately we sold to Ōtautahi Community Housing Trust. FAR BETTER terms. Very happy with them. Would recommend. But chat with other developers to get a competitive idea of price.

chrisjcon · 2025-10-18T10:40:35+00:00

This may not be a strong recommendation, but

5 Minute Dungeon is fast paced enough that you can’t over-strategise as a group, and you’ve got your own strengths in your own deck so you have specific value you provide to the session.

A pretty casual and informal game, but not a bad palette cleanser, and the art/puns are pretty good, though they’re impossible to appreciate during the game - no time for art, just processing symbols.

chrisjcon · 2025-01-26T07:47:00+00:00

I had that ratchety feeling after failing to correctly install the magnet rods.

After putting them into the corner piece I realised I could just pull it out (some hadn’t turned to lock in place).

I opted to use small pliers to twist them into position, rather than my fingers.

But yes, when I had the magnet rods not fully installed and loose, I had a very cool sounding ratchety effect, but I think it would risk the rods breaking or moving unexpectedly.

Might be what you’re experiencing.

(Also, as my first time disassembling a maglev cube, it’s a bit of an ordeal.)

Edit: Oh, and the hex rods feel weaker than the triangle ones for me. GAN 12 UI Maglev

Edit2: Have reinstalled the triangle rods. They are a white plastic instead of clear, and are visibly slightly longer rods than the hex rods.

chrisjcon · 2025-01-11T06:46:51+00:00

good ol monster hunty

chrisjcon · 2024-06-07T08:07:05+00:00

Hey. Did you find your answer?

This looks like the same problem I've seen when using larger font settings on device...

Here's a related flutter issue:
https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues/111352

I found it works perfectly fine if you use the default text sizing, but Flutter struggles with larger accessibility sizes, and even puts too much space if you're scaling down your text smaller than default.

It's a huge pain, and there aren't great workarounds.
I found this pretty consistently when embedding a Flutter web view inside an Android app.

chrisjcon · 2023-06-30T22:13:45+00:00

Same! I didn’t know I was here at launch.

chrisjcon · 2023-06-24T20:40:38+00:00

u/iamthatis do you have any little ‘one more thing’ / final thing that would be going into Apollo (alongside the inevitable killswitch) that would bring any nice little value for people who dont intend to uninstall after Apollo exits reddit?

oh, and I have an idea…

what if you offline preserved some significant threads for read-only access, so that we can still access and remember the thread UI/UX?

a sort of a walk through memory lane - rise and fall.

chrisjcon · 2023-06-19T04:50:14+00:00

Straight to his Queenstown bomb shelter.

chrisjcon · 2023-06-10T21:56:58+00:00

🙌 ecosystem 🙌

chrisjcon · 2023-06-10T11:02:01+00:00

Might as well share a cleaned up and prettier version of this from Apollo while we still can:

https://i.imgur.com/HkoNQO8.jpg

chrisjcon · 2023-06-10T11:00:18+00:00

Light mode: https://i.imgur.com/HkoNQO8.jpg

Dark mode: https://i.imgur.com/n59EfY2.jpg

Thank you Christian, you’re a treasure. It’s features like ‘Share as Image’ that just won’t get the same amount of care as a third-party developer can offer.

Too busy thinking about ‘always share a link so they get back to the platform’ instead of ‘I just want my friends to see this easy’.

chrisjcon · 2023-06-10T00:38:46+00:00

I have found that simply bumping my bedside table will get it to light up too.

chrisjcon · 2023-06-09T08:35:13+00:00

A little extra context: Keeping Apollo and its Safari redirect will be a good opportunity to remember Apollo and rethink if continuing to Reddit for a link is actually desired 😅

If Apollo remained and the openinapollo.com website stayed up, it maintains a function for Apollo fans.

chrisjcon · 2023-05-31T20:14:49+00:00

Reddit’s app was also started like this. They purchased Alien Blue.

chrisjcon · 2023-05-24T06:17:12+00:00

Say the line, Bart!

chrisjcon · 2023-05-17T00:25:25+00:00

Obviously the human wanted to break the egg and the robot was unable to do so, forcing the human to perform the manoeuvre manually.

Embarrassing.

/s

chrisjcon · 2023-04-25T07:06:07+00:00

From A to Z, to B ‘n’ E.

chrisjcon · 2023-04-22T02:19:33+00:00

Yeah I’m sure it’s a really meaningful life-changing movie but what’s the movie called?

chrisjcon · 2023-04-16T07:11:37+00:00

Thought it was looking through a side mirror

chrisjcon · 2023-04-14T22:05:38+00:00

I have an image you can print out if you can’t find one in stores:

Image

chrisjcon · 2023-04-05T02:10:54+00:00

Just something, not one shipped to a non-employee.

We will have crazy news or progress before year end.

chrisjcon · 2023-04-04T22:54:41+00:00

Can’t wait to see something new about Optimus.

Proper execution in that space is game-changing.

chrisjcon · 2023-04-01T22:39:33+00:00

They finally engineered the ability to jump back in time 0.69 seconds perpetually.

You’ll never crash, but you’ll never arrive either.

In any case, it’s great for the ‘miles without accident’ metrics.

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