How I code with AI on a budget/cheap

buttons cli my ADHD terminal app

AI Coding Guide Team — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

buttons cli my ADHD terminal app

Published: 2026-07-31

buttonscli.com

first post test

AI Coding Guide Team — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

first post test

Published: 2026-06-30

Hey yall! howdy asl;dkfj;al asdfasdf

i'm just testing this new blog system

Token cost is high — investors want their money

AI Coding Guide Team — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Token cost is high — investors want their money

Published: 2026-06-07

💰 Higher Token Costs, Reduced Credits

Providers are hiking token prices while slashing free credits and allowances—GitHub Copilot being a prime example, where users now burn through entire monthly quotas on single tasks that previously consumed a fraction.

Luckly, there are still plenty left.

Here is some more free APIs and more coding agents (that seem actually good)

✅ FREE Coding Agents, APIs

Poolside

What: Coding agent + API
Link: poolside.ai/get-started
Status: Currently free

I Use their CLI agent to update docs automatically while I worked on other things. Solid so far.

Mistral Vibe CLI

What: CLI coding assistant
Link: mistral.ai - look for the Vibe CLI, it has higher rate limits vs the other stuff

Install:

curl -LsSf https://mistral.ai/vibe/install.sh | bash

Status: Free up to a request/time cap

Common knock on Mistral: "it sucks." My experience: replies instantly, handles terminal commands, automations, and scripting just fine. Perfectly adequate for lightweight tasks.

Nvidia NIM

What: Free hosted models with rate limits
Link: build.nvidia.com/nvidia
Status: Free (rate-limited)

Haven't stress-tested the limits yet.

Tool I built: An endpoint liveness checker — paste an OpenAI-compatible /v1/models URL (optional key), and it pings every model to log which ones respond and when. Useful for figuring out if a "free" resource is actually reliable enough to use. (Buggy right now, fix coming soon — don't use real keys yet.)

🔗 extra.wuu73.org/chu5

Opencode Zen & Go models: Some may work without an API key. If not, one key covers both Zen and Go — free models, zero cost. Opencode Go is a coding plan/subscription for $5/$10, I used up my entire alotment in like one week though.. with lite use

💵 CHEAP - All close to or less than $1/M

Minimax (M3 / 2.7 / 2.5) — API is extremely reliable. When I had a sub, even the lowest tier let me run tons of subagents without hitting limits. Prices may have increased; re-evaluating API vs. subscription.

Deepseek v4 — Free flash models using Opencode Zen's free models and some other ways like thru Cline, Kilo Code endpoints. Cheap pro/flash. Reasonix CLI agent works well! I am using it a lot.

StepFun Flash 3.7 — Inexpensive, strong at tool-use and agentic workflows.

Arcee AI Trinity -- inexpensive models, USA based. All less than a dollar input/output per M tokens. Good with agentic tools.

🗂️ Coding Plan Picks

Minimax → ⭐ Best option (if pricing/limits haven't changed)
Opencode Go → Ran out in ~1 week. Raw API + free models is probably cheaper.

🤖 New Agent Harnesses

Reasonix — specifically for Deepseek v4 — it is good! Been using it a lot
Mistral Vibe — higher rate limits for free, haven't ran into limits yet
Poolside Pool — totally free to use right now! Works good, might not be the most intelligent, but great for creating docs and doing tasks

🧰 Misc Tools

Kilo Code

VS Code extension with plenty of free models available all the time. You can even use its API endpoints in other tools/apps.

CLIProxyAPI

A tool that lets you stack providers for fallbacks and convert between OpenAI and Anthropic style endpoints, so you can use any model in Claude Code. I tried and tested this thing well — no issues with formatting the API correctly, no errors in Claude Code.

Buttons CLI

buttonscli.com — This terminal app can be controlled by AI coding agents via MCP or CLI, letting agents control multiple terminal tabs while you watch what they're doing (which is hard when using them in terminals since it only shows short summaries). Has agent stalling detection and nudging to get back to working.

May 2026: Oh My Pi, Opencode Go, and AI Coding Price Increases

AI Coding Guide Team — Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

May 2026: Oh My Pi, Opencode Go, and AI Coding Price Increases

Published: 2026-05-15

May 2026: Big Changes with AI Coding on a Budget / Current Workflow

All of the top companies are starting to raise prices, limit access. I kept going back to Claude Code but with cheaper chinese models instead of real Claude, which works okay, but every time they release a new Claude Code, it starts annoying me with something. Last time, even when I ran it with dangerously skip permissions, it just kept asking me permission for every single thing it did. It has done that a few times, so I said screw it, i'll make my own agentic coding tool!

But then I found Oh My Pi - its Pi Mono, the agent used in OpenClaw, but its got all the good stuff you typically want. The developer added a lot of stuff I was thinking about in my head that I would have to implement if i tried to make my own (since I couldn't find anything decent!).

When you install it, it'll pick up information from other coding agents, like api keys, etc, that have already been installed/used, so its very easy to just install and use it.

Its doing a lot of things right, Its just an agent that works, and has an efficient hash based file edit mode that seems to work great and is more efficient (and works with all models).

It has been perfect so far, no complaints with Minimax M2.7, Deepseek v4.

Minimax coding plan or whatever they call it, token plan or w/e, is $10, and its a good model for constant use, its fast, mostly accurate but not always. But since, i've found some more better plans that include it. Opencode Go $5 first month, $10 after - has several models, Qwen3.6 models, Minimax, Deepseek, some other ones. I am about to try it, but seems good - someone complained about a model having only 250k context instead of 1m but mostly people seem happy. You can use it with things without using Opencode at all (Opencode sucks, sorry to say, glitchy mess, i would avoid especially if on a Windows machine)

🚀 Github Copilot won't be so great with the tokens coming next month

Github Copilot, Claude Code, Pi this is the last month (May) to get the crazy lenient usage out of it before they switch it to something much worse. I have no idea how that will work out... but I will find out since I have copilot.

Claude Code + Oh My Pi

Some people seem to think that it is only the model intelligence that matters, and the agent harness / coding tool around the models aren't a big deal. This is sooooo wrong.

I recommend Oh My Pi at this point since Claude Code is trying hard to kick everyone off or annoy them if they aren't using 100% Claude models.

Deepseek v4 Flash and Pro

Right now its crazy discounted/cheap Deepseek v4 and/or Minimax M2.7 via Opencode Go and/or GLM 5.1 (GLM seems to have lots of availability issues...), compared to using Claude Opus 4.5 in some tools like Opencode. Qwen3.5/3.6 are very good as well.

I am only paying 28-40 cents per million tokens if I use the official Deepseek Anthropic-compatible API endpoint with Claude Code.

Alibaba Coding Plan: $3/month for Claude Code with Qwen, Kimi, GLM & More

AI Coding Guide Team — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Alibaba Coding Plan: $3/month for Claude Code with Qwen, Kimi, GLM & More

Published: 2026-03-02

Unfortunately they jacked the price up to $50/month :( so this is old information already unfortunately!

I read that if you had bought it when it was at $3, it might still let you pay $10 or something, but this is unconfirmed.
I got rid of mine and am just using CliProxyAPIPlus to route Openrouter models to Claude Code.

But... I found this:

Rust redo of Claude Code, when the src code was leaked

Haven't tried it yet, and it might not have every detail yet from C.C. but it looks good, will try.

Will post new guide more like the older ones soon.

old info starts here

Alibaba Coding Plan: $3/Month for Claude Code

I had to post about this cheap Coding Plan I found — Alibaba Coding Plan, $3/month right now, and you get all these models plus some other ones:

Plan Details

Plan	Intro Price	Requests / 5 hrs	Requests / week	Requests / month
Lite	$3 / first month	1,200	9,000	18,000
Pro	$15 / first month	6,000	45,000	90,000

Supported Models

Recommended:

qwen3.5-plus (vision)
kimi-k2.5 (vision)
glm-5
MiniMax-M2.5

More models:

qwen3-max-2026-01-23
qwen3-coder-next
qwen3-coder-plus
glm-4.7

You can use it directly in Claude Code, OpenClaw, and others.

I still use Claude Code and GitHub Copilot. I tried Goose... on Windows 11... errors and more errors! I don't have time for that so I got rid of it. I have noticed a lot of these things are created by Mac people, and Windows/Linux are 2nd class citizens — more of an afterthought.

Claude Code Setup for Alibaba / Dashscope

🔧 Click to expand: Bash config for Claude Code with Alibaba models (add to your ~/.bashrc)

Copy and paste this at the end of your `~/.bashrc` file if using bash in Linux, or vibe code something similar for easy model switching.

# --- ALIBABA / DASHSCOPE CLAUDE CODE CONFIGURATION ---

# PASTE YOUR API KEY HERE:
export ALIBABA_API_KEY="sk-sp-xxxxxxx"

# Internal helper function to launch Claude with Alibaba settings
_claude_ali_launch() {
    local model_name=$1
    shift
    (
        export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL="https://coding-intl.dashscope.aliyuncs.com/apps/anthropic"
        export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN="$ALIBABA_API_KEY"
        export ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=""  # Clear this to avoid conflicts
        export ANTHROPIC_MODEL="$model_name"
        export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL="$model_name"
        export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL="$model_name"
        export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL="$model_name"
        export ANTHROPIC_REASONING_MODEL="$model_name"

        # Performance/Token settings
        # export CLAUDE_CODE_MAX_OUTPUT_TOKENS=30000
        export API_TIMEOUT_MS=3000000
        export CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC=1
        export CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS=1

        claude --dangerously-skip-permissions --model "$model_name" "$@"
    )
}

# Model Commands
alias claude-qwen='_claude_ali_launch qwen3.5-plus'
alias claude-kimi='_claude_ali_launch kimi-k2.5'
alias claude-glm5='_claude_ali_launch glm-5'
alias claude-mm='_claude_ali_launch MiniMax-M2.5'

# --- MENU DISPLAY ---
claude-menu() {
    echo -e "\n\033[1;36m====================================================\033[0m"
    echo -e "\033[1;32m  CLAUDE CODE - ALIBABA (DASHSCOPE) ENDPOINTS       \033[0m"
    echo -e "\033[1;36m====================================================\033[0m"
    echo -e "  \033[1;33mclaude-qwen\033[0m  - Use Qwen 3.5 Plus"
    echo -e "  \033[1;33mclaude-kimi\033[0m  - Use Kimi K2.5"
    echo -e "  \033[1;33mclaude-glm5\033[0m  - Use GLM-5"
    echo -e "  \033[1;33mclaude-mm\033[0m    - Use MiniMax M2.5"
    echo -e "\033[1;36m----------------------------------------------------\033[0m"
    echo -e "  Keys are pre-configured with skip-permissions."
    echo -e "\033[1;36m====================================================\033[0m\n"
}

# Run the menu automatically on startup
claude-menu

Which Model to Use?

I have found that running Claude Code set to kimi-k2.5 will create very elaborate, complex plans — but it is not as fast as the others. MiniMax M2.5 is quickest, which is often the best just for that reason.

Some tactics you can use:

Run these different model commands, even at the same time, to all create plans simultaneously.
Then have one of the smarter ones like Kimi go over all the plans and give opinions — explain why any one is better than the others.
Generate a best-of-N plan. Use MiniMax to implement.

I haven't used the new Qwen 3.5 models enough yet to have a strong opinion, but they seem good. Same with GLM 5.

The Coding Plan's main page gives instructions for all of the main coding agentic tools, and they include OpenClaw. Save some money! Be careful with security if messing with OpenClaw. 🔐

Gemini 3.1 Pro came out too! It's very very good. The USA AI companies are still the absolute best ones. It still makes sense to use something like my tool, aicodeprep-gui, to plan things out on all the different web chat's (see the older guides from last year... July, Sept etc for how-to's) and just use that tool to go back and forth when bug fixing or in the planning stages of a project.

I use Gemini 3 Flash a lot for bug fixing, the speed is sometimes better than intelligence since a faster model can fail 3 times before fixing something, while the smarter model can figure it out on first pass or two, but it takes longer...

February 2026: Deepseek v3.2 in Claude Code, minor updates about how to stay low cost

AI Coding Guide Team — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

February 2026: Deepseek v3.2 in Claude Code, minor updates about how to stay low cost

Published: 2026-02-04

February 2026: AI Coding on a Budget

AI is moving so fast it's nearly impossible to keep up with it or have enough time in the day! I am having a blast though.

🚀 Current Workflow Lately

Claude Code and Github Copilot most of the time (Copilot is not as good as Claude Code but they do try to catch up fast and they have the most bang for your buck when it comes to access to the best models: Claude Opus 4.5, GPT 5.2, etc).

Claude Code is just the best!!

Some people seem to think that it is only the model intelligence that matters, and the agent harness / coding tool around the models aren't a big deal. This is sooooo wrong.

Why Claude Code + Cheap Models > Expensive Models + Bad Tools

I can get such a better, smoother experience using Claude Code with Deepseek v3.2 and/or Minimax M2.1 and/or GLM 4.7, compared to using Claude Opus 4.5 in some tools like Opencode.

I am only paying 28-40 cents per million tokens if I use the official Deepseek Anthropic-compatible API endpoint with Claude Code.

I use Claude Code in Windows often in WSL (Linux sort of "inside" Windows, a lot of things just work better in WSL) and have my ~/.bashrc file set up with custom commands to run Claude Code with either Deepseek or Minimax. GLM 4.7 is the cheapest option here... $3/month still I believe!

🔧 Click to expand: Add custom bash commands to run Claude Code with Deepseek API, GLM 4.7, Minimax M2.1

Add custom bash commands to run Claude Code with **Deepseek API**, **GLM 4.7**, **Minimax M2.1**, or anything that supports `v1/messages` type API. This makes it simple to switch back and forth when you want normal Claude or Deepseek Claude, M2 Claude, etc. ### Tested in Ubuntu WSL2 You can ask AI to modify it for Mac, Windows Powershell, etc.

## Claude Code Custom Commands
CLAUDE_BIN="$HOME/.local/bin/claude"
CLAUDE_SETTINGS="$HOME/.claude/settings.json"

### Helper function to swap settings temporarily
### There are better/other ways to do it, but I know this works
### I haven't tested other versions but you can

_claude_with_config() {
    local json_content="$1"
    shift

    # Ensure .claude directory exists
    mkdir -p "$HOME/.claude"

    # Backup original settings
    [ -f "$CLAUDE_SETTINGS" ] && cp "$CLAUDE_SETTINGS" "$CLAUDE_SETTINGS.backup"

    # Write JSON directly - no variables to expand
    echo "$json_content" > "$CLAUDE_SETTINGS"

    # Run claude
    "$CLAUDE_BIN" "$@"
    local exit_code=$?

    # Restore original settings
    [ -f "$CLAUDE_SETTINGS.backup" ] && mv "$CLAUDE_SETTINGS.backup" "$CLAUDE_SETTINGS"

    return $exit_code
}

## DeepSeek Configuration
claude-ds() {
    local config='{
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN": "sk-examplekey",
    "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://api.deepseek.com/anthropic",
    "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "",
    "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL": "DeepSeek-V3.2",
    "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL": "DeepSeek-V3.2",
    "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL": "DeepSeek-V3.2",
    "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "DeepSeek-V3.2",
    "ANTHROPIC_REASONING_MODEL": "DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale",
    "API_TIMEOUT_MS": 600000
  },
  "includeCoAuthoredBy": false
}'
    _claude_with_config "$config" "$@"
}

## This version of the Deepseek command adds the skip permissions flag
claude-ds2() {
    local config='{
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN": "sk-examplekey",
    "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://api.deepseek.com/anthropic",
    "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "",
    "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL": "DeepSeek-V3.2",
    "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL": "DeepSeek-V3.2",
    "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL": "DeepSeek-V3.2",
    "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "DeepSeek-V3.2",
    "ANTHROPIC_REASONING_MODEL": "DeepSeek-V3.2-Speciale",
    "API_TIMEOUT_MS": 600000
  },
  "includeCoAuthoredBy": false
}'
    _claude_with_config "$config" --dangerously-skip-permissions "$@"
}

## MiniMax Configuration
claude-mm() {
    local config='{
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN": "eyJexamplekeyFJP5CLrCE1f-sxKKg",
    "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://api.minimax.io/anthropic",
    "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "",
    "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL": "MiniMax-M2.1",
    "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL": "MiniMax-M2.1",
    "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL": "MiniMax-M2.1",
    "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "MiniMax-M2.1",
    "API_TIMEOUT_MS": 3000000,
    "CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC": "1"
  },
  "includeCoAuthoredBy": false
}'
    _claude_with_config "$config" "$@"
}

claude-mm2() {
    local config='{
  "env": {
    "ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN": "eyJhbGcfakeexamplekeyNpfWyandBFJP5CLr9999CE1f-sxKKg",
    "ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL": "https://api.minimax.io/anthropic",
    "ANTHROPIC_API_KEY": "",
    "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL": "MiniMax-M2.1",
    "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_OPUS_MODEL": "MiniMax-M2.1",
    "ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_SONNET_MODEL": "MiniMax-M2.1",
    "ANTHROPIC_MODEL": "MiniMax-M2.1",
    "API_TIMEOUT_MS": 3000000,
    "CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC": "1"
  },
  "includeCoAuthoredBy": false
}'
    _claude_with_config "$config" --dangerously-skip-permissions "$@"
}

## Claude Menu Command
claude-menu() {
    echo "Available Claude Custom Commands:"
    echo "  claude-ds    - Run Claude with DeepSeek"
    echo "  claude-ds2   - Run Claude with DeepSeek (skip permissions)"
    echo "  claude-mm    - Run Claude with MiniMax"
    echo "  claude-mm2   - Run Claude with MiniMax (skip permissions)"
}

🎯 Why Claude Code Stays Ahead

All of those coding tools are lagging behind Claude Code, and it seems like the main developer on that is just way smarter (and faster) so it's unlikely to change anytime soon. He's the one coming up with all the novel methods to save context or split context, he knows how to delegate tasks with the right context to subagents, etc.

For example, the Skills feature is genius. Most people thought it was a gimmick - not me! It's immediately obvious how smart it is with the ability to not shove the entire amount of text at the model. It can choose to load more progressively.

I can see a lot of other things that could possibly use a similar feature/addition like context pruning... with a dedicated model that does that in the background. Might be a good thing.

### 💡 Key Insight: Skills Feature The **Skills feature** in Claude Code allows: - Progressive context loading (not dumping everything at once) - Smart selection of relevant information - Reduced token usage - Better model performance This is what separates amateur tools from professional ones.

💰 Use Smartest Models for Planning, Cheap Models for Doing

You don't have to use the pricey Claude 4.5 Opus and Sonnet the entire time - I see that the internet is still full of angry people when they can't do much with a $20 Claude subscription. Do they upgrade to MAX for $200? People tend to use Opus for everything or think they need at least Sonnet.

### My Philosophy (Still True After All This Time) **You don't need superintelligent models to use tools and MCP servers.** I think the best coding tool could be one that always uses at least two models: 1. **One for planning** (the smart one) 2. **One for execution** (well, more like one main smart one, and many smaller/less intelligent models that run subagents to do things) One model for tool use (multiple instances of it at the same time usually) that just hand back the information to the smart model when it needs to do smart stuff like fix bugs or plan out a whole app at a high level.

The Strategy:

Planning Stage: Use Claude Opus 4.5, GPT 5.2, Deepseek v3.2, or Gemini 3 Pro
Execution Stage: Use GLM 4.7, Minimax M2.1, or Deepseek v3.2
Tool Usage: Cheap models work just fine for file operations, searches, etc.

📝 Spend Longest Time in the Planning Stages

Figure out details so it won't guess

If you pay for Claude, use it for planning stages, spend much more time here than feels comfortable. Or just use Deepseek v3.2 here (it is so good, I am not sure why I ignored it for a while!).

Look up SPEC.md methods or different PLAN approaches. I like this plugin called Superpowers. Github has some spec command you can download that is probably good although it seemed too time consuming. I am still trying to find the perfect plan tool or workflow to plan really good to where it can one-shot a complex project.

### 🧪 Experimental Multi-Model Planning Workflow A workflow I have been thinking about but haven't tried yet: 1. Let **Minimax/GLM 4.7** plan with Superpowers plan plugin 2. Run it through **GPT 5.2**, **Claude Opus 4.5**, **Gemini 3 Pro**, and a couple Chinese models 3. Have them look it over and make suggestions 4. Synthesize the best ideas from all models You can use this tool to help send prompts to many models at the same time (I'm working on making that part a separate thing, and making it into an Agent Skill/plugin): **[AI Code Prep GUI](https://wuu73.org/aicp)** Then switch to a faster model (Deepseek is a bit slow!) like **GLM 4.7** - I believe it is still $3/month, for execution.

There are easy ways around this, even better than what I had discovered before... read on!

⚡ GLM 4.7

It's a good "do-er" model, not as smart as Claude or Deepseek v3.2, but it is fast and cheap. Only $3/month!

🏆 Claude Code Is Always Several Steps Ahead of the Rest

I am currently using Claude Code with Deepseek v3.2 which only costs:

Token Type	Cost
1M INPUT TOKENS (CACHE HIT)	$0.028
1M INPUT TOKENS (CACHE MISS)	$0.28
1M OUTPUT TOKENS	$0.42

I also use it a TON with Minimax M2.

My Current Workflow:

Plan with aicodeprep-gui using multiple models (and the new Flow Studio)
Get everything fine-tuned
Get a good plan and possibly a speckit going (if it's a big enough software project)
Load Claude Code up
Give it the markdown plan and just let it run
Give it some MCP servers to help automate testing

Works so well.

🤖 Gemini CLI

It is getting better! I have not used it that much but I am going to see what it can do vs Claude Code. It is still free!

I use Gemini 3 Flash and Pro in Copilot for debugging... its great, better than Claude usually for that.

You can get the 3-month $300 Google Cloud credit, which allows you to use Nano Banana Pro (REALLY amazing) in the CLI/API.

🌌 Google Anti Gravity IDE

It's good! It's free to use (rate limited but usable) and you can use Opus 4.5 + Gemini 3 Pro free.

It is a VS Code Clone.

Link: https://antigravity.google

🌍 Updates to aicodeprep-gui: Now Multilingual!

I made it multilingual as some people asked about it - originally I made it for myself which is why I didn't bother with any of that before. Now you can switch language.

I noticed a lot of visitors to this site from China, Korea, India... so this should help!

💡 Quick Tips & Best Practices

### Model Selection Matrix **When to use EXPENSIVE models (Claude Opus 4.5, GPT 5.2):** - Initial project architecture decisions - Complex debugging that cheaper models can't solve - Novel algorithm design - Critical security reviews **When to use CHEAP models (GLM 4.7, Deepseek v3.2):** - File operations - Repetitive code generation - Following established patterns - MCP server tool usage - Test writing **When to use FREE models (Gemini 3 Pro on Antigravity):** - Free doesn't mean bad, its good for everything - Experiments - Learning new technologies - Debugging

🎓 Lessons Learned So Far in 2026

The tool matters MORE than the model - Claude Code with Deepseek > Bad tool with Claude Opus
Planning is worth the investment - Spend 3x longer planning vs coding
Multi-model workflows work - Different models excel at different things
Context curation is king - Don't dump everything, be strategic
Cheap models are getting REALLY good - GLM 4.7 and Deepseek v3.2 rival expensive models for many tasks

📊 Cost Comparison: February 2026

Here's what I'm actually spending monthly for unlimited AI coding:

Service	Cost	What I Use It For
Github Copilot Pro	$10/month	Claude 4.5, GPT 5.2 access
GLM 4.7 Coding Plan	$3/month	Main execution model
Deepseek v3.2 API	~$5-10/month	Planning & complex logic
Google Cloud Credits	FREE	Gemini experiments
Antigravity IDE	FREE	Testing & prototyping
Total	~$20-25/month	Unlimited AI coding!

Compare this to:

Claude Pro MAX: $200/month (and you still hit limits!)
Cursor Pro: $40/month
Other premium IDEs: $30-100/month

🚀 What's Next?

I'm experimenting with:

Multi-model review workflows
Automated spec generation
Context pruning with dedicated models
MCP server automation strategies

Check back next month for updates!

## Final Thoughts **AI coding in 2026 is not about having the most expensive subscription.** It's about understanding which model to use for which task, how to structure your prompts, and leveraging the right tools. Claude Code + cheap models + good planning = infinite coding at 5% the cost.

Last updated: February 4, 2026

November 2025: Cost / Lean AI Coding Updates

AI Coding Guide Team — Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

November 2025: Cost / Lean AI Coding Updates

Published: 2025-12-09

It's hard to keep up with all the new things and all the progress, but here are some cost / price / lean AI coding updates.

Current Workflow

I am currently using Claude Code a TON with Minimax M2. Usually I plan with aicodeprep-gui using multiple models (and the new Flow Studio), get everything fine tuned, get a good plan and possibly a speckit going (if it's a big enough software project) and then load Claude Code up, give it the markdown plan and just let it run. Give it some MCP servers to help automate testing.. works so well.

Model Updates

Minimax M2

Was free for a period of time in November, works with Claude Code (as well as GLM 4.5/4.6) very very good!! Works in Cline, etc. Better/smarter vs GLM models. Also, I got $50 API credits free just by signing up for the developer deal - their API is very cheap, I hope the model quality stays great! They have a coding plan similar to the GLM / Z.ai coding plan (but $10/mo vs $3).

I just noticed Cline is giving away free usage of Minimax M2 right now.

🔥 Claude Code + Chinese Models = Less Hallucinations!

Both Minimax M2 and GLM 4.5/4.6 work exceptionally well with Claude Code. Here's the surprising thing: they hallucinate LESS than real Claude 4.5 Opus! Opus tends to stray off into its own ideas a lot, going on tangents or "improving" things you didn't ask it to improve. These Chinese models stay focused on the task, follow instructions better, and just get the job done. Especially when you let Claude Code run without user input - M2 and GLM just keep chugging along reliably.

Get 10% off Z.AI's coding plan: https://z.ai/subscribe?ic=RV42B8COHB

Worth Looking Into

Have not used these enough to have an opinion but looks possibly good:

Ling 1T
Ring 1T

Longcat.chat

Has some new models, with 0.5-5.0 mil tokens free daily on the website. Also looks like it might work in Claude Code.

Kimi K2 Thinking

I am sure this is excellent, have not tried, but heard good things. Non-thinking Kimi K2 is already excellent for writing.

Grok 4

I tried using it for something (one of the 5 LLMs I will sometimes use for brainstorming or fixing a bug - 5 models, each from a different AI company, then a 6th model to analyze all 5 results to generate a best of all of them result usually provides a superior response to just one model Learn more here - and it hallucinated pretty bad. It was actually funny, is this what people see when they claim AI is always hallucinating? I don't usually get much of that. I don't trust people claiming these models are always the best - some people (not mentioning names) will lie a ton, and i'm supposed to just believe them when they claim their models are always the best. Everytime I try to use it, its meh, not terrible but not great. Its free though - but I don't trust that it will always tell me the truth and is not programmed to say something different.

Interesting Finds

These are currently (either totally or partial) free, and interesting enough to use:

Google's Antigravity IDE / Code Editor

https://antigravity.google/?ref=wuu73.org

VS Code clone with Gemini 3 Pro, Claude Sonnet 4.5... FREE! Its got a multi-agent system that can do many things at the same time. I am using it today and so far it is okay but NOT as good as Claude Code or Github Copilot in VS Code (which is actually very good now compared to how it used to be!). I also got rate limited, but its free and i'm sure they will improve it with regular updates. Can't beat free usage of both those models!

When it started rate limiting Gemini 3, I could switch to Claude 4.5 and get plenty of use, so it appears the limits to free are for each model rather than combined.

https://www.kimi.com

Besides normal AI web chat, there are things on here for:

Generating slides automatically
A Manus-like thing that has AI agents (powered by Kimi K2) inside a virtual machine that can code and create apps or do things, research etc for you

https://agent.minimax.io

Looks interesting, Minimax M2 model is fantastic so I'm sure this is good, and appears to be free as of the time I am typing this.

cc-switch

https://github.com/farion1231/cc-switch

Looks useful for switching config/MCP servers on/off between Claude Code and Codex. I downloaded the repo and scanned it through several LLMs for a security check, looks good. It's very small size due to using Rust and Tauri.

GitHub Spec-Kit from Microsoft

https://github.com/github/spec-kit

This is free and will keep your AI coding agent on task. It seems good but I have not experimented enough to know how good it works. It seems a bit overkill for smaller projects but for super important, larger software, it seems like it would be very helpful.

Async / Web Based Tools

Google Jules

Currently free and seems reliable. You give it permission to work with your repos on GitHub, it will make changes, work inside a VM where it is able to test in a loop.

GitHub Spark & Copilot Agent

https://github.com/features/spark?ref=wuu73.org

Both similar and work great! The copilot agent only uses one premium request for the whole task.

**About GitHub Copilot:** It used to suck, but now it is good. I pay the $10/month and then use the unlimited GPT 4.1 and limited Claude 4.5. It has come a long way, and the **copilot agent mode is fantastic**. So I currently pay $10 for Copilot (and the Claude credits go a long way.. you can just keep on going in the same chat as long as you don't keep opening fresh ones, it barely uses any premium credits even after many hours).

My Current Subscriptions

$10 for Github Copilot Pro
$3 for Chutes.ai
$3 for Z.AI GLM Coding Plan - Get 10% off with that link! (but.. I think Minimax M2 is also excellent! Very cheap API, both work amazingly in Claude Code)

I have used both of these more than once, to run async jobs (you send it off, and it gets to work without you interacting much or needing to, then you come to look at it later).

🤝 A Note About "Deals" on This Guide

I am not going to 'sell out' ever and start going down the enshittification road to crappyness. I will never put crap on this guide. So when you see a 'deal' like 10% off Z.AI's coding plan, it's because it's genuinely great! It's pocket change credit they would give me that I don't really care about.

2025-2026 is the era of no shame where people will try to sell you the crappiest crap, snake oil, etc. because they get a dollar. NOT ME! Promise!

These Chinese models (GLM, Minimax M2) are GREAT in Claude Code, especially when letting it run without user input. They hallucinate less than real Claude Opus 4.5 which tends to stray off into its own ideas constantly.

Random study I found

https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.01489

@@@ make this section stand out with a yellow background, with dark black text. Try to make it a rounded box with soft edges or a fade to yellow then fade back to normal. The yellow shouldn't be full brightness.. more like 30-40% grey still.

Agentless: Demystifying LLM-based Software Engineering Agents

Recent advancements in large language models (LLMs) have significantly advanced the automation of software development tasks, including code synthesis, program repair, and test generation. More recently, researchers and industry practitioners have developed various autonomous LLM agents to perform end-to-end software development tasks. These agents are equipped with the ability to use tools, run commands, observe feedback from the environment, and plan for future actions. However, the complexity of these agent-based approaches, together with the limited abilities of current LLMs, raises the following question: Do we really have to employ complex autonomous software agents? To attempt to answer this question, we build Agentless -- an agentless approach to automatically solve software development problems. Compared to the verbose and complex setup of agent-based approaches, Agentless employs a simplistic three-phase process of localization, repair, and patch validation, without letting the LLM decide future actions or operate with complex tools. Our results on the popular SWE-bench Lite benchmark show that surprisingly the simplistic Agentless is able to achieve both the highest performance (32.00%, 96 correct fixes) and low cost ($0.70) compared with all existing open-source software agents! Furthermore, we manually classified the problems in SWE-bench Lite and found problems with exact ground truth patch or insufficient/misleading issue descriptions. As such, we construct SWE-bench Lite-S by excluding such problematic issues to perform more rigorous evaluation and comparison. Our work highlights the current overlooked potential of a simple, interpretable technique in autonomous software development. We hope Agentless will help reset the baseline, starting point, and horizon for autonomous software agents, and inspire future work along this crucial direction.
@@@@

Testing New Feature: Flow Studio

Testing new feature in aicodeprep-gui/pro - Has a Flow Studio now where you can have it auto-send your context/code/project, send your problems or tasks etc (prompt) to as many LLMs as you want at the same time. You can design complex logic. See more by going here: https://wuu73.org/aicp/flowc/flow_studio_help.html

I am currently splitting that so it is a separate app and MCP server, so any app or model can directly call for help (if you use 5 different companies AI models... GPT 5.. Claude 4.5.. Gemini.. Kimi.. etc and maybe 3 instances each of those... compare all outputs or have AI do it.. and design a best of N or better than all solution - that's the idea and it works well on harder problems or big planning stages.

How I Code with AI on a Budget/Free – September 2025 Edition

AI Coding Guide Team — Mon, 01 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

How I Code with AI on a Budget/Free – September 2025 Edition

Published: 2025-09-01

How I Code with AI on a budget/free

My Browser Setup: The Free AI Buffet

First things first, I have a browser open loaded with tabs pointing to the free tiers of powerful AI models. Why stick to one when you can get multiple perspectives for free? My typical lineup includes:

At least 2-3 tabs of z.ai's GLM 4.5 – free on web, and seems as good or better than Claude 4! no joke. Get 10% off Z.AI's coding plan if you want API access for Claude Code (works amazingly well, less hallucinations than real Claude Opus!).
At least one tab but more like three of Google Gemini AI Studio (Gemini 2.5 Pro/Flash are often free and unlimited here).
Also, try Google Gemini 2.5 Pro (different than AI Studio, has better image generation and deep research; I always have a couple tabs of this along with a couple tabs of AI Studio).
Couple tabs of Poe.com usually set to Claude 4 or o4-mini for its free daily credits on premium models.
Several tabs of OpenRouter, set to several models, some free models, some not.
At least one tab for ChatGPT (the free version is still useful).
At least one tab for Perplexity AI, especially good for research-heavy questions.
At least one tab for Deepseek (v3 and r1 are free on their web interface, though watch the context limit).
One tab for Grok.com. Good, free and seemingly unlimited for general use and deep research/image editing. I mainly use the deep research feature, similar to perplexity.
Phind is another free one, it tries to show you flowcharts/diagram visuals.
lmarena.ai offers free access to Claude Opus 4 and Sonnet 4 and others. Free Opus 4 is so good.

Claude.ai - Free but sometimes so limited it's annoying to use, so I use other sites/ways to access Claude like Cody extension, Copilot, etc.

### ⚠️ Important Disclaimer about Grok Grok offers free compute and uncensored image generation, which can be useful when other models' safety systems interfere with legitimate tasks. However, reports indicate that Grok has been instructed to lie about about some things. While the misinformation appears to be mostly on X, if you keep in mind to restrict usage to coding or be cautious knowing it might be programmed with questionable motives, it can occasionally be useful. It was never that great though but its sometimes okay.

A smarter, cheaper workflow: Focused Context

When you use AI in web chat's (the chat interfaces like AI Studio, ChatGPT, Openrouter, instead of thru an IDE or agent framework) are almost always better at solving problems, and coming up with solutions compared to the agents like Cline, Trae, Copilot.. Not always, but usually.

When you use things like Cursor, Cline, Roo Code for everything, they are sending tons of text to the AI about how to use their tools, how to use or activate MCP server stuff, edit files, etc it "dumbs it down" too much. It gets confused. People end up paying for the most expensive best models to do everything and even that isn't enough to get over the dumbing down effect from the AIs getting tons of unneeded information unrelated to your problem.

So when that happens, I use my tool to generate the right context to solve my problem. Then I paste it into one of the many AI web chat's (sometimes more than one, since they sometimes give different answers) and just ask it questions or ask it to code review, to try to figure out why x is happening when y is happening...etc then when it figures out a solution.. i have it write a prompt for Cline or another agent type thing to do the actual file edits. GPT 4.1 can handle this just fine and I have unlimited. No reason to be wasting Claude credits to edit files. No reason to be sending Claude a bunch of crap it doesn't need making it dumb. I can use Claude to plan out anything or fix really hard problems, cheap, using Openrouter web chat then just paste it back in Cline and let it run.

After doing this for a while, you really get a feel for which models excel at which types of tasks.

**How AI Code Prep Helps (Example Prompt Structure):** _Can you help me figure out why my program does x instead of y?_ Then, [AI Code Prep GUI](https://wuu73.org/aicp) (for Windows, Mac, Linux, and web) steps in. It recursively scans your project folder (subfolders, sub-subfolders, you name it) and grabs the code, formatting it nicely for AI like this: The context block generated by AI Code Prep looks like this:

Can you help me figure out why my program does x instead of y?

fileName.js:
<code>
... the contents of the file..
</code>

nextFile.py:
<code>
import example
...etc
</code>

Can you help me figure out why my program does x instead of y?

It writes it twice if you have that option enabled, which helps get the AI to focus better on your question/prompt. You can choose to have it on top, bottom, or both. OpenAI claims this helps, I haven't really tested to see if that's true but it seems logical. On Windows, you just right-click somewhere inside your project folder (or on the folder itself) and select "AI Code Prep GUI" from the context menu (look at the screenshots on the site). A GUI window pops up, usually with the right code files pre-selected. It smartly tries to skip things you likely don't need, like `node_modules`, `.git`, etc. If its guess isn't perfect, you can easily check or uncheck files. This is super useful when your project is huge and blows past an AI's context limit. You can manually curate exactly what the AI needs to see. The problem with many coding agents like [Cline](https://cline.bot/), Github Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, etc., is that they often send either WAY too much context or WAY too little. This is why they can seem dumb or ineffective sometimes. Sometimes, you just gotta do things yourself, use a tool like mine to select the files yourself, but it helps auto-select the code files while skipping the stuff you probably don't need (but still have the option to add what you want with the checkboxes) and then dump that curated context into several AIs (especially the free web ones!). There are other context-generating tools, but many are command-line only, or need a public GitHub repo link. What if your code is private? What if you want to keep it local? What if you prefer checkboxes on a GUI? For something like this a GUI makes sense. It has some other things I haven't seen anywhere else like the preset buttons, dual placement of problem/prompt, per-project saves. ![AI Code Prep Explanation](https://wuu73.org/aicp/scrs/ar.png)

My AI Code Prep & Cline Workflow for Budget Coding/Debugging

AI Coding Guide Team — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My AI Code Prep & Cline Workflow for Budget Coding/Debugging

Published: 2025-07-01

How I Code with AI on a budget/free

My Browser Setup: The Free AI Buffet

At least one tab of OpenAI Playground. If you set your account's data settings to allow OpenAI to use your data for model training, you get free tokens to use on GPT-4.5, o3, and other models.
At least one tab but more like three of Google Gemini AI Studio (Gemini 2.5 Pro/Flash are often free and unlimited here).
Also, try Google Gemini 2.5 Pro (different than AI Studio, has better image generation and deep research; I always have a couple tabs of this along with a couple tabs of AI Studio).
Couple tabs of Poe.com usually set to Claude 4 or o4-mini for its free daily credits on premium models.
Several tabs of OpenRouter, set to several models, some free models, some not.
At least one tab for ChatGPT (the free version is still useful).
At least one tab for Perplexity AI, especially good for research-heavy questions.
At least one tab for Deepseek (v3 and r1 are free on their web interface, though watch the context limit).
One tab for Grok.com. Good, free and seemingly unlimited for general use and deep research/image editing. I mainly use the deep research feature, similar to perplexity.
Phind is another free one, it tries to show you flowcharts/diagram visuals.
lmarena.ai offers free access to Claude Opus 4 and Sonnet 4 and others. Free Opus 4 is so good.

[Claude.ai](https://claude.ai/new) - Free but sometimes so limited it's annoying to use, so I use other sites/ways to access Claude like Cody extension, Copilot, etc.

A smarter, cheaper workflow: Focused Context

After doing this for a while, you really get a feel for which models excel at which types of tasks.

Can you help me figure out why my program does x instead of y?

fileName.js:
<code>
... the contents of the file..
</code>

nextFile.py:
<code>
import example
...etc
</code>

Can you help me figure out why my program does x instead of y?

Note: This page isn't updated with all the latest AI Code Prep GUI features, check wuu73.org/aicp for latest major upgrade

Model Strategy: Picking the Right Brain for the Job

Since many great models are free to use via web interfaces (like Gemini in AI Studio, Grok, Deepseek), I prioritize these. Poe.com also gives free daily credits for top models like Claude and the new o4 series.

Gemini 2.5 Pro/Preview (via AI Studio) is great for debugging, great for planning, and also finding it the best at lots of things now. For really thorny issues, I might try the new o4-mini (available via OpenRouter or Poe). It surprisingly fixed a persistent bug for me right away, though I'm still figuring out its best use cases. It's notably cheaper via API than the previous top dogs like Claude 3.5/3.7/4.

I usually try Claude 3.7 or 4 at some point, via Poe or API (OpenRouter makes this easy), or github Copilot chat (you can get some free usage from that if you don't pay) but it's pricier for frequent use. Think of Claude 3.7 and 4 as Claude on Adderall – brilliant, sometimes verbose, maybe a bit 'psychotic' like Hunter S. Thompson. Lots of great output, but you might need a calmer model like Claude 3.5 to refine it or do the actual coding.

My Workflow is something like this when starting a new project:

Plan & Brainstorm: Use the smarter/free web models (Gemini 2.5, o4-mini, Claude 3.7, 4, o3, etc) to figure out the approach, plan the steps, identify libraries, etc.
Generate Agent Prompt: Ask one of these smart models: "Write a detailed-enough prompt for Cline, my AI coding agent, to complete the following tasks: [describe tasks]". Sometimes, I'll copy this generated prompt and paste it into another free AI good at rewriting (like ChatGPT) to refine it further.
Execute with Cline: Paste the step-by-step task list into Cline, configured to use a stable and efficient model like GPT 4.1 or Claude 3.5 (or Claude 4 if it is doing really complicated things). The 4.1's have been trained to follow instructions well.
Fallback: If GPT 4.1 struggles, switch Cline to use Claude 3.5 via API. It seems to be the next best for reliable execution. Deepseek v3 or R1 is really great at following instructions as well.

Essentially: Use expensive/smart models (and the excellent free Gemini 2.5 Pro) to strategize and plan. Validate the plan by pasting it into 2-3 other free models (Deepseek R1, Claude on Poe if context allows) and ask "Is this good? Can you improve it or find flaws?". Then, use a stable workhorse like GPT 4.1 or Claude 3.5 within Cline to do the heavy lifting (coding).

o4-mini seems particularly adept at untangling complex code logic or figuring out high-level implementation strategies (like choosing frameworks or libraries). I'll often throw my initial idea at Gemini 2.5, o4-mini, GPT 4.1, ChatGPT, maybe o3-mini (try duck.ai - often free), and Phind to get a range of ideas. If the free/cheap options don't crack it, I'll escalate to pricier models via API.

Alternative Agents & Setups

Trae.ai (from Bytedance, makers of TikTok) is a free VS Code compatible IDE with free AI usage, including Claude 4, Claude 3.7, Claude 3.5, and GPT 4.1. Their agents aren't as good as Cline (nothing is as good, to be honest!) but it's free and gives access to the best models. Sometimes, I find its built-in agent isn't as robust as Cline. However, since Trae seems to be a VS Code clone, you can likely install the Cline extension within it! However... it is too overloaded to get any free usage from it, its too slow. I'll still mention it though.. but meh.

So, you could have two setups:

VS Code + Cline extension + Copilot extension (get the $10/mo subscription for cheap API access via Cline, though the free tier might offer some basic use).
Trae.ai + Cline extension (potentially leveraging Trae's free model access if Cline can use it, or using your own API keys).

Try both! Sometimes the native Copilot agent solves things Cline struggles with, and vice-versa. I suspect Cline sometimes sends overly large prompts which might hinder performance on certain tasks compared to the more integrated Copilot agent.

Roo Code: Cline's Clone

Roo Code is a clone of Cline, very similar but with some different features that are worth trying out. Sometimes Cline might work better for your workflow, and sometimes Roo Code will. It's a good idea to try both and see which fits your needs for a given project or coding style.

Cline for VS Code is free, but remember you pay for the API calls unless you're leveraging the Copilot subscription trick. Using the VS Code LM API setting in Cline with a $10/month Copilot sub is currently the most cost-effective way to get near-unlimited access to powerful models within the agent.

TL;DR: Quickstart Guide

Models & Roles:
Planning & Brainstorming: Gemini 2.5 Pro (AI Studio), o4-mini (OpenRouter), Claude 3.7 (Poe), if you have OpenAI Playground configured for the 250k free daily tokens, I recommend using those up with o3 and GPT 4.5... VERY good
Problem Solving & Debugging: GPT-4.5 (free tokens in Playground), Claude 4 (free daily on Poe)
Actual Coding: GPT-4.1 via Cline; fallback to Claude 3.5 if needed
Key Tools:
VS Code and Trae for editing/running
AI Code Prep GUI – locally scan & curate only the files you need, saves so much time
Cline (VS Code agent) for step-by-step code execution
Free web chats for multi-perspective advice: Poe.com, ChatGPT, Grok, Deepseek, Perplexity, OpenAI Playground, AI Studio w/Gemini 2.5 Pro, Openrouter, duck.ai
Quick Workflow:
Run AI Code Prep GUI to bundle your (if already existing) project's relevant files.
Paste that context into your favorite web chat models for planning & debugging.
Ask one model to "Write me a detailed Cline prompt for these tasks," then refine it (e.g. in ChatGPT).
Copy/paste into Cline set to GPT-4.1 to generate or fix code; if it stalls, switch to Claude 3.5.
Cost-Saving Hacks:
Enable "share data" in OpenAI Playground for 250k free GPT-4.5, o3, (both genius expensive models) & 2.5 MILLION free tokens/day for o4-mini, o3-mini!!
$10/mo GitHub Copilot subscription gives you rate-limited access to Claude models via Cline
Pay-as-you-go on OpenRouter for o4-mini, Claude 3.7, and other new models

## Some Thoughts AI is an incredible force multiplier, but it's not a magic wand. The real magic happens when you combine your curiosity, persistence, and willingness to experiment with these powerful tools. Don't get discouraged by bugs or setbacks—every challenge is a chance to learn something new. Mix and match models, try wild ideas, and don't be afraid to break things and rebuild. The best coders aren't the ones who never get stuck—they're the ones who keep moving forward, using every tool and trick at their disposal. Embrace the chaos, enjoy the process, and let your creativity lead the way!

Latest Model Updates (2025)

Claude Sonnet 4 & Opus 4

Status: Just released and proving to be the best models for everything
Performance: Fixed some bugs today that were hard for most other models to handle
Cost: More expensive, but accessible through GitHub Copilot $10/month (rate limited)
GitHub Copilot Value: The cheap $10/mo GitHub Copilot subscription seems to be giving me a very generous amount of Claude 4 uses through the VS Code LM API. I keep using it as my main model in Cline/Roo Code, and it has not run out yet. I either use GPT 4.1 or Claude 4, been waiting for it to limit me but it hasn't yet (they say that GPT 4.1 is unlimited). I always hate subscriptions for anything, but this particular one is insanely good value.
Strategy: Save Claude 4 for tough problems, use GPT 4.1 for regular coding

GPT 4.5

Performance: Excellent for bug fixing and complex problem solving
Token Limits: 250k tokens daily if you allow data for model training
Cost Hack: Free under the 250k token limit when you enable data sharing in settings
Use Case: Great for using AI Code Prep tool to analyze entire codebases

Current Coding Workflow (2025)

For New Projects:

Planning Phase: Type all details in notepad (languages, libraries, servers, etc.)
Multi-Model Consultation: Paste into multiple models for different "doctor's opinions":
Gemini 2.5 Pro (free)
GPT 4.1
o4-mini
Claude 4 on Poe.com (free daily credits)
Refinement: Go back and forth to fine-tune details
Task Generation: Have model write step-by-step task list for Cline AI coding agent
Execution: Copy/paste into Cline (or Roo Code) set to GPT 4.1 for 'act' mode

For Problem Solving:

Use GPT 4.5 with AI Code Prep tool for complex codebase analysis
Ask GPT 4.5 to "write me a prompt for Cline" to complete tasks
Choose models based on problem complexity
Use multiple models for different perspectives

Task List & Test Driven Development (Coming Soon)

Test Driven Development & Task Lists:

Coming to this guide soon (these other topics)Have the AIs create a detailed task list for Cline, Roo Code, Trae agent, to execute. You can also instruct Cline or Roo Code to use a markdown file to keep track of everything it does, checking things off as it completes them. This will make it easier to track and ensure nothing gets missed.

For now, you can experiment by having a model generate a checklist in markdown, and then ask Cline or Roo Code to update the file as tasks are completed.

Money-Saving Hacks

GPT 4.5 & o3: 250k tokens free daily by enabling data sharing for model training
Cheaper Models: 2.5 million tokens on o4-mini (excellent model), 4.1-mini/nano
GitHub Copilot: $10/month gives access to new Claude models (rate limited)
Trae IDE currently has free (not limited either, from what I can tell) Claude 4 and GPT 4.1 no subscription required
Poe.com: Free daily credits for every type of model
Web Interfaces: Use free web chat interfaces for planning and consultation

Coming Soon: Live Reddit Data & Insights

Live Reddit Data Scraping & Daily Insights:

A new feature is coming soon: live scraping of Reddit data and daily updated info about how people are using AI models. This will include detailed usage breakdowns, data visualizations, and new insights into real-world coding workflows and trends.

📚 How Agent Harnesses Edit Files

AI Coding Guide Team — Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

📝 How Agent Harnesses Edit Files

Deep Dive

Published: 2026-05-29

A field guide to how agent harnesses — Cline, Codex, OpenCode, ADK-Rust, Reasonix, CodeWhale, CheetahClaws, Oh My Pi, Crush, DeerFlow, Dirac, Goose, OpenHands, Pi, Pochi, Qwen Code, Wintermolt, Zaica, and more — actually edit files in your codebase.

Read the full Deep Dive →

📚 Agent Harness Field Guide

AI Coding Guide Team — Fri, 29 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

🤖 Agent Harness Field Guide

Deep Dive

Published: 2026-05-29

A deep dive into how Pochi, Neovate Code, Mux, Crush, Kimi Code CLI, Qwen Code, OpenHands, Claude Code, DeerFlow, Hermes Agent, Pi Mono, OpenCode, Codex CLI, Wintermolt, Zaica, Goose, Dirac, Open Claude Code, Reasonix, CodeWhale, and CheetahClaws are built: tool systems, model plumbing, prompt caching, context compaction, web research, shell execution, MCP handling, and architectural tradeoffs.

Read the full Deep Dive →

📚 Purpose Driven Development

AI Coding Guide Team — Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

🧭 Purpose Driven Development

Idea

Published: 2026-02-12

Notes on using short purpose sentences to keep coding agents on track.

Read the full Idea →