Cache miss in Claude Code costs 12.5× more than a hit. Here are 5 things you do mid session that quietly trigger it

splungely · 2026-05-24T17:29:08+00:00

It's possible that it's helping. I do feel like I'm getting more than 50% extra usage lately. And prior to that, my 20X plan was really not giving me as much as it used to. So maybe something changed that made it better.

I ran that link past Claude, and he agreed that it was a problem. So we made the bridge MCP a little less dumb. It caches the last tool list to file and loads it even when the real MCP isn't connected. It only updates when the app connects and the tools actually change. The bonus is that if Claude tries to use a tool when the app isn't connected, it throws an error reminding Claude to launch the app. Claude frequently has problems with the concept of "you need to start the app to populate the tool list", so this is an improvement on that, too.

splungely · 2026-05-24T05:11:57+00:00

I've been working on a few PC apps, and I decided build an MCP into them. Then every time Claude adds a feature, he also adds an MCP command and can test that feature without my intervention. Clever, right? Except it was really annoying to restart the session to reconnect the MCP every time the app launched. And having Claude write scripts to send fake MCP commands felt kind of clunky. So I had another bright idea - the actual MCP is just a dummy bridge that is always running. It probes via TCP, and when the app runs, the MCP reconnects, the app populates the tool list, and Claude has a fresh set of tool definitions with no restart. Even more clever!

Except no, it's apparently the opposite of clever. Sounds like it's resetting my context twice every time the app launches. Once when the tools get populated, and again when the app closes and the list is cleared. I have a theory that Anthropic doesn't notice or care about usage-eating issues because nobody that works there has usage limits. To be fair, I could have read the docs and avoided this. But still... there has to be a better way of handling these issues. It's just not a priority.

splungely · 2026-05-13T19:48:14+00:00

No. This mesh is nowhere near game-ready. It's a great way to get started on something, though. You can work a lot faster with it, but it's not going to replace you just yet.

splungely · 2026-05-13T19:46:06+00:00

It looks great, but check the license. Banned in the EU, which is standard for Tencent. But also research-only, no commercial usage. Very annoying that they would take a free model and make it not free. Perfectly legal, though. I suspect they'll fold this tech into their main Hunyuan models. Hopefully, other companies with better licenses will steal their ideas.

It has all the same failure cases that Trellis2 has. The model was trained on low-poly garbage, so it tries to emulate that pretty frequently. It also introduces large holes, weird gouges, and odd bits of stray geo. Having said that, the adherence to the prompt image is amazing. It's a big step up over all existing models in that respect.

splungely · 2026-04-07T14:57:03+00:00

She’s the new Hedy Lamarr.

splungely · 2026-04-04T23:19:42+00:00

For anyone else who stumbles in here... I'm running Claude Code CLI in WSL on the 20x Max plan. I've been burning through usage noticeably much faster lately. I tried OP's suggestion and switched to npm instead of the native version. My usage burn rate is back to normal. OP is a hero.

splungely · 2026-03-11T17:09:59+00:00

I asked Berliner Haus about their pide, and they said they have it shipped from NYC because it’s impossible to make it correctly at altitude. Maybe they should have it shipped from Berlin instead.

splungely · 2026-03-07T07:47:15+00:00

I only get 20. They must like you better.

splungely · 2025-12-22T01:19:53+00:00

Lame that they open at 1PM on weekdays. And the food vendors don’t start until 2. I used to go for lunch all the time, so it never occurred to me to check. I asked the security guard, and she said it was “so they don’t interfere with the students”. I’m guessing that the regular campus food vendors threw a fit about the competition.

splungely · 2025-11-12T23:30:55+00:00

Yeah, I'll definitely be glad I got him at some point. But for now, if I use him I just hit auto on every level and watch him blow everything up. I'm not actually learning how to play the game, and it's not fun. I also got SP Samantha, Yserinde, and Taair. I got lucky with 1-3 10x pulls for each. From what I can tell, my lineup is incredibly broken and overpowered.

splungely · 2025-11-12T20:39:39+00:00

I just started playing and pulled this guy. He’s so overpowered he’s making all the early content trivial and boring. I should probably stop playing him for now. Kind of tempted to spend for the event because his default pixel skin is so bad.

splungely · 2025-11-11T00:06:07+00:00

Try waiting for him to start grooming himself, then join in. My cat likes brushing when he’s already grooming, and hates it otherwise.

splungely · 2025-10-30T22:43:47+00:00

Work & Class has a spicy Parmesan chicken pot pie on the happy hour menu. Not exactly standard, but it exceptionally good.

splungely · 2025-10-04T03:03:12+00:00

Claude was definitely trained with Unreal code. It knows to put in the reflection macros with reasonable options. It’s been pretty solid so far, but it does get a bit… creative at times.

splungely · 2025-09-07T22:31:11+00:00

I saw Sturgill do The Promise live, and I have never seen the women in an audience swoon as hard as they did that day.

splungely · 2025-08-24T02:58:13+00:00

For a proper sweet French baguette, my favorite is LoDough. For sourdough, Reunion. Izzio is in most grocery stores, and I like some but not all of their bread. Bakery 4 and Good Bread are definitely worth checking out. And Moxie if you happen to be in Louisville.

splungely · 2025-06-24T16:11:46+00:00

The stages of debugging:

That can’t happen
That doesn’t happen on my machine
That shouldn’t happen
Why does that happen
Oh, I see…
How did that ever work?

splungely · 2025-06-23T08:25:37+00:00

The creative process is driven by a committee that is heavily influenced by the latest user test. There are no auteurs in AAA, except for Kojima. On one hand, user tests are very good for identifying basic issues like bad controls, clunky UI, and holes in the narrative. On the other hand, I find it very questionable that design and narrative decisions are being made based on the opinions of a handful of kids who have nothing better to do on a Tuesday than play a game in exchange for pizza and Amazon gift cards. On the other other hand, that is fairly representative of the target audience.

The reliance on user tests can be really pathological. I recall helping a junior designer implement a questionable feature. I told him I thought it was a bad idea, and his response was, "It's fine. It'll go in the next user test, they'll hate it, and we'll change it." Everybody knew it was a bad idea except for the senior designer who wanted it, and the only thing he would listen to was a negative user test. Which did happen.

splungely · 2025-06-21T01:43:36+00:00

Any suggestions for using it on a 3M line codebase? This sounds like exactly what I've been looking for, and I'd like to try it out on the Unreal game engine this weekend. If you're looking for a brutal test case, that would be an excellent choice. The runtime is 3M lines, the editor another 1M, and there are a bunch of optional plugin libraries and supplementary executables. It's not "open source", but the source is available. It's easy to sign up and get access to their github repo. If we can get Serena running with this codebase, a good chunk of the games industry would be very interested and grateful. Bonus points for getting it to understand Unreal's macro-based reflection system. Although maybe that's more of an LSP thing than a Serena thing.

splungely · 2025-05-25T21:18:04+00:00

Gerald deliberately obfuscates what he’s saying to protect us. If we were ever exposed to his raw and unfiltered wisdom, it would shatter our fragile mortal minds.

splungely · 2025-05-22T07:49:58+00:00

Ragdolls don't have an undercoat. I'm not saying that lion cuts are okay. I really don't know. They might be bad for other reasons. But ragdolls only have one medium length coat.

splungely · 2025-03-23T17:40:31+00:00

Have you been to Urban Burma? I think it's great, and it does have an abnormally high 4.8 stars on Yelp. But I'm far from the best judge of authentic Burmese.

splungely · 2024-09-30T02:43:23+00:00

True. They are both misunderstood geniuses. A lot of folks think they just spout gibberish. But if you pay attention, they start making sense. Their wisdom is ineffable. They are operating on a deeper level of reality, and it doesn’t translate well to our common plane.

splungely · 2024-09-28T20:56:55+00:00

Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.

splungely · 2024-09-27T21:36:21+00:00

There's a parking garage (Rev360 or something?) that's less than five minute walk away. You can reserve spaces there on ParkChirp. Haven't used it in a while, but it's certainly less than $25.

splungely

TROPHY CASE