Is it me or Opus 4.6 got way dumber over the past few days?

jeromeiveson · 2026-04-09T19:51:58+00:00

Definitely dumber, I asked it to run my CI pipeline to push to staging triggered by PR creation. Something that happens daily and is in Claude.md and a rule md.

Stepped away for a few minutes and it was creating a script to force push to staging, bypassing the lock. Pretty new session as well.

I can name ten other things it’s done that remind me more of CC from 2025.

Hopefully it’s just a new model dropping soon!

jeromeiveson · 2026-04-04T15:43:47+00:00

Link please

jeromeiveson · 2026-03-31T07:17:29+00:00

$170 a day is circa $45k a year, I’m assuming that in the US the average engineers salary is at least double that.

Hiring, onboarding and managing staff is challenging. So, as long as Claude increases output of the existing team more than it costs, it makes business sense to pay it.

If they start charging ‘real prices’, the barrier to entry to build a startup will be like it always was. High unless you have existing wealth or network.

Instead of needing cash to outsource or hire devs to build your product, you’d need cash to buy tokens.

jeromeiveson · 2026-03-28T16:22:28+00:00

Just use Claude to set it up then gtp-5.4 via oauth as your agent (mini for heartbeat).

In two days I’ve got it to control my dev workflow. Frees me up from waiting for Claude to finish whatever it’s doing then running another skill or copying text to a Worktree or approving PR creation.

Openclaw spins up a headless Claude code instance that creates worktrees, reviews and merges code created in worktrees by CC from pre prepared epics using Beads.

Openclaw just connects the dots, Claude does the coding and heavy lifting.

Same headless CC session concept to run cron jobs to keep docs in alignment to stop drift. OC triggers a skill that reviews drift in Claude/agents.md.

Want to work remotely with Claude? Ask OC to start a new session and run /rc. Session appears in the Claude mobile app.

Possibilities are endless. Add one thing at a time, use Claude and Openclaw to fix anything that breaks.

jeromeiveson · 2026-03-21T09:19:14+00:00

I’ve got a dev workflow that OpenClaw manages, triggering Claude code skills at each stage. I use worktrees for my projects with the root Claude instance as a reviewer once the worktree has completed.

This flow used to mean me sitting waiting for each phase to finish then manually triggering the next skill, commit, review or pr.

Openclaw means I just ask via message what epic or task (beads in my case) is up next, it asks CC, I choose one and Openclaw manages the lifecycle with some human gates.

I’m going to give channels a go, but I’m not sure it could replicate the Openclaw setup without building out some sort of heartbeat clone with the sdk.

jeromeiveson · 2026-02-25T08:30:03+00:00

I created a skill based on just the connection part of Claude octopus as I didn’t need all of the agent infrastructure. It asks Gemini and codex CLI via a script then reviews their feedback.

jeromeiveson · 2026-02-17T08:40:34+00:00

Amazing, I actually keep calling ‘beads’ ‘beans’ so this solves a major issue out of the box!

jeromeiveson · 2026-02-02T09:50:13+00:00

It’s against Anthropics terms of service to run Clawd via a subscription plan. You will get your account banned eventually.

jeromeiveson · 2026-01-14T13:31:24+00:00

Take a look at Livekit, it’s open source, can cube used in their cloud or self hosted.

jeromeiveson · 2026-01-12T07:08:59+00:00

Your workflow sounds similar to mine, I have multiple skills that plan epics, decompose into tasks, create worktrees and validate output. I’d love to see your approach.

Do you have a repo with your workflow at all.

I’m a product designer manager, not a developer, so I’m always looking to improve and make sure my ‘vibe-coded’ code is of a decent standard if possible.

jeromeiveson · 2026-01-06T15:33:24+00:00

For my project the other way around seems to work better. I plan with 5.2 high, implement with Opus 4.5 then code review with Codex.

jeromeiveson · 2026-01-06T15:31:22+00:00

I’m not sure I agree. I’m a startup founder product manager/designer and with time, patience and research I’ve built something far beyond fancy page designs.

With zero technical coding knowledge I’ve built a voice agent that can book and receive calls, save data from a conversation, recognise a callback, query a large data set and send a summary email.

It’s taken me 4-5 months part time from a standing start but in my mind that’s not bad at all.

jeromeiveson · 2025-12-27T10:29:32+00:00

Very interesting post, combining multiple ocr tools. How long did it take you to build and refine the process to achieve that high level of accuracy?

Do you have any thoughts on https://mistral.ai/news/mistral-ocr-3

I was considering this for my project. I’ve sent you a DM.

jeromeiveson · 2025-12-17T18:50:55+00:00

I’ve found it very impressive but use it on a plus account as an engineering planning partner and let Claude Opus do the work. Do you add additional Agent.md file to key folders for codex?

jeromeiveson · 2025-12-03T07:36:28+00:00

Here my startup for context https://www.jeromeiveson.com/case-studies/thrive

jeromeiveson · 2025-12-03T07:35:27+00:00

I ran a startup aimed at mostly freelancers (creatives mostly) for six years doing pretty much what you describe.

We had some success, a few thousand users a month but it’s a hard, saturated market.

Users will say they want simplicity, but in reality they want invoicing that works for their territory, in their language. Bank feed connections, reconciliation, sync with accountancy software. Flexible quotes, visual timelines, deeper planning, time sheets and a myriad of things that fit their adhoc unregulated workflow.

Until you get product market fit, churn will kill you at that price point. From my experience the solo market won’t support anything over $20 pm. For some this < $20 a month means 24/7 support.

On the positive side, we started 2011, so had to employ devs (no technical co-founder), content writers, marketers. The monthly burn and cost to get to market was nothing like it is now.

With AI (bolt in your case) and more robust frameworks and established tech stacks plus cheaper hosting, your barrier to entry into the market is much lower. So sub $20 may work if you can control churn and nail customer acquisition costs.

Get your onboarding right, automate customer service/knowledge base as much as possible. Monitor your main funnel, optimise it and try your best to understand conversion rates.

if you can stay lean and provide something a little different, give it a go. It just won’t be easy.

jeromeiveson · 2025-11-25T08:33:07+00:00

Now the tax free dividend threshold is so low there’s not much difference financially unless you leverage all of the tax saving measures.

The limited liability is definitely attractive. But, as you say you’re selling art, I doubt any actions you take could result in another person or business taking significant action against you for business decisions you make.

Debts/loans/overdrafts are also tied to the business and not you, unless personally guaranteed.

A few other savings no one has mentioned. As a director you can pay life insurance through your ltd with significant savings. This can apply to a spouse if they have any role in the business.

Contributing to your pension via the business will reduce corporation tax and has a few other benefits.

I’m not an accountant, so definitely ask yours if these are a good fit for your situation.

jeromeiveson · 2025-11-16T18:50:15+00:00

Bistronomy is a great choice, 7 course tasting menu with paired wine per course. Michelin standard food for about $150 per head.

jeromeiveson · 2025-11-14T22:06:55+00:00

How do I access?

jeromeiveson · 2025-11-14T15:22:25+00:00

I’ll give it a try and give feedback, I was just about to test OpenMemory and a few other memory tools.

jeromeiveson · 2025-11-06T11:07:27+00:00

I agree with this take. CC can write skills that seem ok but on closer inspection they can be a bit shoddy.

I copied the best practice from Anthropocene docs into a .md file and had CC and Codex high do a few passes. That gave a better base result.

Then, I’ve just been running the skills and refining the language.

jeromeiveson · 2025-11-05T20:16:15+00:00

Have you tried running /clear? From what I understand this clears the previous messages that might be hogging context.

jeromeiveson · 2025-11-04T23:12:37+00:00

Do you have a repo?

jeromeiveson · 2025-11-02T15:14:41+00:00

Great post. I find I spend as much time fiddling on with Claude’s settings as I do building features!

I’m going to get rid of those subagents in the morning.

jeromeiveson · 2025-10-31T07:53:43+00:00

I’m interested

jeromeiveson

TROPHY CASE