So this is just delegating certain work to dumber models? I certainly wouldn't use Gemini 2.5 Flash (!!?) for code writing as suggested.
I've never had an issue with Codex or Claude reading massive files, they're really good at precise greps.
So this is just delegating certain work to dumber models? I certainly wouldn't use Gemini 2.5 Flash (!!?) for code writing as suggested.
I've never had an issue with Codex or Claude reading massive files, they're really good at precise greps.
> I've never had an issue with Codex or Claude reading massive files
Reading files isn't a problem they want to solve. The idea seems to be using a cheaper model to "scout" for the intended code, instead of an expensive one that reads all the things (and spends more tokens / thinks about them).
I think this might be useful because Opus 5 especially tends to over-read. So this looks like an "LLM Bloom filter", telling "hey this is the code you might want to read".
> "LLM Bloom filter"
very good way to put it.
Pretty sure claude code already delegates reading a large codebase to haiku subagents.
As of July, the explore agent inherits the parent model, capped at opus.
So fable and opus use opus to explore. Sonnet uses sonnet.
I replaced my built in explore agent with one hardcoded to sonnet low effort.
https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/72940
> So this is just delegating certain work to dumber models? I certainly wouldn't use Gemini 2.5 Flash (!!?) for code writing as suggested.
Why not, though? I started using OpenCode + GitHub Copilot, but I burned through my Claude Sonnet quota in just three days. I switched to GPT-5.4-mini, which uses far fewer tokens, and it’s often just as good as Sonnet. I think optimizing token usage is a good exercise. We often assume a model will be terrible, when it really isn’t.
> and it’s often just as good as Sonnet. I think optimizing token usage is a good exercise. We often assume a model will be terrible, when it really isn’t.
“Often” doesn’t sound great. If the smaller model fails then I just wasted a lot of time and tokens.
Yes, this makes little sense. It looks like it's a way to avoid having Claude read or write your code.
And why stop at 90%? I have this one weird trick to reduce Claude Code token use by 100%: use a different harness and model!
This does seem to just be a subagents implementation.