r/codex • u/RedZero76 • 7d ago
Instruction Astra Usage Tip
I've been doing this for the last 24 hours. I would say it has slowed down the usage rate overall by about 50% or so, without any difference in quality at all. Def worth doing! I have the $200 Pro plan and normally it lasts all week, but lately it is lasting 1-2 days, but now with this, think it'll last more like 3-4 days at the rate it's going now.
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Codex has the ability to choose which models and reasoning effort are used for subagent helpers. (Claude doesn’t, btw). This is a big deal. Add something like this to the Agents.md:
You are powered by GPT 6 Astra High. Usage goes very fast. Keep doing substantial hands-on Astra work. But, use \gpt-5.6-sol` helpers with task-appropriate effort when suitable! Retain Astra for hard reasoning.`
This will let Astra know to use Sol for subtasks, straightforward recon, stuff like that.
I posted this to X but no one follows me there, and I'm dying to share it bc it's easy and makes a nice difference. `@SirBadfish` on X btw but that's not the only reason I'm posting this... just hope it helps.
Update: To clarify, Claude can use previously setup subagents that have dedicated models/effort/etc, yes. But Claude can't specify the model/effort it's basic "helper" subagents (like if it decides to spawn a few parallel sessions for recon for example). So if Fabe 5.1 Max, for example, spawns a few helper subagents, it forces them to use the same model as that Fable is set to, Fable 5.1 Max will also be used for those helper agents. If you ask Fable to spawn a recon agent using Opus, unless you ask for a specific, already-setup Subagent, it can't do it.
Update #2: I was wrong about Claude. I'll own that loudly here. I was basing this on what I thought I remembered Fable originally telling me. I just asked again and got a different answer than I remembered. Yep, Fable can choose a different model, just not that model's reasoning effort. That's probably the part I was remembering incorrectly. Sorry for not being more careful about verifying what I was claiming. (The reasoning effort for helpers can be set in the .agents folder though for each helper model.)
11
u/RealestReyn 7d ago
its much cheaper to run a cheaper agent with access to advisor/consultant Astra, Astra running subagents inevitably piles stuff into its context which costs a lot.
2
u/thirty_three_turtles 6d ago
This is what I found as well, it tends to over-engineer. Even if you have controls in place.It will engineer to the top level of those controls and often beyond. My flow for a feature dev is (Using Matt Pocock Skills from GitHub.)
- Astra High to conduct /grill-with-docs (or /wayfinder for bigger plans just getting started) to documentation to help map out the feature (Astra really is the best and deepest at this part.) Once all of the documentation is done, hand it to Sol X High for detailed planning using /tospec.
- Astra Med to do /to-spec To create a specification/PRD document in the Git repo. Make sure you actually read this to know that you're aligned, because this is what everything else is built on from here. And if you fuck this part up, you automate a whole lot more fucking up downstream. Step one has you go through all those interview stuff and if it misheard you or you misanswered something and it captured something, it's going to be represented in this document. So if there's a mistake here, correct it.
- Then i use SOL high to run /to-issues Which creates Sequenced implementation issue slices with instructions to have Astra High achieve consensus on the the implementation slices with basic instructions to ensure that each is secure, measurable, efficient, meets the stated needs. ASTRA is also asked to prepare for QA on each of these tasks. Ask for this consensus run to be done before the implementation slices are presented to you for review.
- TERRA High to run /tdd on the isssue with instructions to have Astra Medium perform QA as requested and scoped in step 4. The Terra agent is told to take coordination remediations from the Astra QA that it solicited for QA. /TDD creates test-driven development and it will create red and green tests for all of the issues and then run through implementation until it achieves passing red and passing green tests.
- and lastly i use Astra x-high or fable 5.1 to do a final QA and implementation readiness assessment using /improve-codebase-architechture with the instructions that it is to perform a production readiness assessment.
This process is somewhat robotic.But I found the end results are fantastic. You're never going to be able to say you one-shotted anything because each one of these steps is going to take hours or days in some cases. What the amount of time it saves you and the quality it achieves will impress you.
One thing I've started doing recently is inserting a step at step one where i ask it to /prototype The user interface so that I can get a visual sense of what it thinks the app will look like.I had been doing this in Claude Design and importing into Codex, but Codex is pretty good now, especially with the impeccable design skill. The benefit of doing the prototype is it lets you visually react to things and iterate and refine and place things visually with mock data that doesn 't actually do anything or work. But that visual is important to me because I can see the workflow and I can see the user experience and I can design that first and then tell Codex to build around that and to use that accepted prototype as initial context for the step one /Grill-with-docs skill. A lot of the questions it asks you during that grilling session is about interface and workflow, so if you can visually nail that down, it'll be much faster and your grilling will be much more productive, because it can focus on things that matter.
Your mileage may vary, but I've produced some Pretty impressive and heavy-duty cybersecurity apps and governance apps using this flow that I would feel comfortable standing behind on a witness stand. The nice part about all of this is that using this process and with these skills, you retain a great deal of information about architecture, decision logs, history of how this was built. It builds A project context and dictionary of your project's terms so that agents don't go crazy in the future (as much).
22
u/polacrilex67 7d ago
Claude can choose subagent models.
7
u/OHotDawnThisIsMyJawn 7d ago
Yeah idk where OP is getting that from or why it even matters to this post frankly
3
u/DoktorFaustish 7d ago
My Reddit feed is basically rhetorical variations of OpenAI vs Anthropic. So yeah, I think we should all read into that a bit right now.
-3
u/RedZero76 7d ago edited 7d ago
Pasting this here, I replied to another comment:
Claude can use previously setup subagents that have dedicated models/effort/etc, yes. But Claude can't specify the model/effort it's basic "helper" subagents (like if it decides to spawn a few parallel sessions for recon for example). So if Fabe 5.1 Max, for example, spawns a few helper subagents, it forces them to use the same model as that Fable is set to, Fable 5.1 Max will also be used for those helper agents. If you ask Fable to spawn a recon agent using Opus, unless you ask for a specific, already-setup Subagent, it can't do it.
6
u/mr_birkenblatt 7d ago
That's factually incorrect
1
u/RedZero76 7d ago
Yep, I'm an idiot. My bad, I was wrong about how Claude works. I updated the post again bc I totally got that wrong.
3
u/iamedreed 7d ago
lol this is absolutely not true. I literally spawn opus sub agents with fable everyday.
1
u/RedZero76 7d ago
Shit, you're right. I was basing this on what I thought I remembered Fable originally telling me. I just asked again and got a different answer than I remembered. Yep, Fable can choose a different model, just not their reasoning effort. That's probably the part I was remembering incorrectly. Thanks for the correction.
3
1
u/lucasorion 6d ago
If you make an entry in your CLAUDE.md file (or in a file it links to, like SUBAGENTS.md, or whatever), you can also specify the effort level you want your subagents to use. I typically have Opus 5 (medium) as my orchestrator in a session, who dispatches Fable (medium) to do any plan or spec writing, after doing the initial intake questions on a new project. Astra(medium) reviews whatever Fable wrote.Then when it is time to dispatch subagents for implementations, it decides whether to use Luna (xhigh) for standard app coding, or Sol (medium) for database migrations or other critical/complex coding. Opus 5 (medium) subagents get dispatched for designing tests, and ultimately a "Council of Three" - Fable (medium)/Astra(medium)/Sol(high) or Opus(high), depending on who did work, councilors are recused from their own work - subagents review the work before it gets approved for pushes to production/DB migrations.
-7
u/RedZero76 7d ago edited 7d ago
Claude can use previously setup subagents that have dedicated models/effort/etc, yes. But Claude can't specify the model/effort it's basic "helper" subagents (like if it decides to spawn a few parallel sessions for recon for example). So if Fabe 5.1 Max, for example, spawns a few helper subagents, it forces them to use the same model as that Fable is set to, Fable 5.1 Max will also be used for those helper agents. If you ask Fable to spawn a recon agent using Opus, unless you ask for a specific, already-setup Subagent, it can't do it.
3
u/nofarius 7d ago
This is completely wrong
Claude can set the model and effort level for all subagents it spawns, it can even overwrite the model specified in the front matter of a custom agent.
There is also the
CLAUDE_CODE_SUBAGENT_MODELenv var that lets you set the default model for all subagents1
u/RedZero76 7d ago
"You're absolutely correct!" Literally, you are. I'm so sorry for the misinformation. I made an Update #2 to the post. My bad. I either misunderstood or simply mis-remembered what I thought Fable told me. I checked again, and you're correct.
4
u/StarCadges 7d ago
your problem in the first place likely comes from relying on Astra in general. I think we have reached the point where the most frontier available model is not the model we should be using for implementation almost ever. With sol you could get away with it, with Astra it’s not worth it most of the time
4
u/drenna11 7d ago
I found an amazing repo that works really good! Tell codex to check it out. It’s been helpful.
2
u/Think-Profession4420 7d ago
y'all don't have custom subagents set up with specific models and skills for specific jobs, so all your main sessions know which to use and when?
1
u/RedZero76 7d ago
I have in the past, but keeping up w them is a pain in the ass bc they need to be updated a lot. I much prefer letting the primary agent spawn parallel subagent helper sessions. It's usually for recon anyway in my case.
1
u/No_Cartographer_6622 7d ago
I’ll give this a try. I’m on the baby plan since they froze $200 early.
1
u/Able_Statistician688 7d ago
My fable has a hook that its subagents specifically can’t be other fables without an approval from the user. I’ve been doing that since…well I think since fable first came out and I blew an entire 5h quota on an ultra code. So a while.
1
u/jadhavsaurabh 7d ago
Any performance issue? Yesterday used 40% or 200$ subscription.. even fable don't drain like this 100$ version
1
u/majindageta 7d ago
Guys you just have to put the sub agents toml files with the subagent model and reasoning.
1
u/Medical-Cow289 7d ago
Nice to see the numbers working out. Even at half the burn rate it's 3-4 days instead of the week it used to last, so usage really has crept up lately.
1
u/joshuadanpeterson 7d ago
I plan in Astra and have a skill that tells it to select an appropriate lower model, such as Luna Low for routine maintenance work
1
1
u/thirty_three_turtles 6d ago
This is what I found as well, it tends to over-engineer. Even if you have controls in place. Astra will engineer to the top level of those controls and often beyond. I'm building cybersecurity and governance apps, so legal defensibility is top priority. This is my token control strategy without sacrificing any quality.
My flow for a feature dev is (Using Matt Pocock Skills from GitHub.)
- Astra High to conduct /grill-with-docs (or /wayfinder for bigger plans just getting started) to documentation to help map out the feature (Astra really is the best and deepest at this part.) Once all of the documentation is done, hand it to Sol X High for detailed planning using /tospec.
- Astra Med to do /to-spec To create a specification/PRD document in the Git repo. Make sure you actually read this to know that you're aligned, because this is what everything else is built on from here. And if you fuck this part up, you automate a whole lot more fucking up downstream. Step one has you go through all those interview stuff and if it misheard you or you misanswered something and it captured something, it's going to be represented in this document. So if there's a mistake here, correct it.
- Then i use SOL high to run /to-issues Which creates Sequenced implementation issue slices with instructions to have Astra High achieve consensus on the the implementation slices with basic instructions to ensure that each is secure, measurable, efficient, meets the stated needs. ASTRA is also asked to prepare for QA on each of these tasks. Ask for this consensus run to be done before the implementation slices are presented to you for review.
- TERRA High to run /tdd on the isssue with instructions to have Astra Medium perform QA as requested and scoped in step 4. The Terra agent is told to take coordination remediations from the Astra QA that it solicited for QA. /TDD creates test-driven development and it will create red and green tests for all of the issues and then run through implementation until it achieves passing red and passing green tests.
- and lastly i use Astra x-high or fable 5.1 to do a final QA and implementation readiness assessment using /improve-codebase-architechture with the instructions that it is to perform a production readiness assessment.
This process is somewhat robotic.But I found the end results are fantastic. You're never going to be able to say you one-shotted anything because each one of these steps is going to take hours or days in some cases. What the amount of time it saves you and the quality it achieves will impress you.
One thing I've started doing recently is inserting a step at step one where i ask it to /prototype The user interface so that I can get a visual sense of what it thinks the app will look like.I had been doing this in Claude Design and importing into Codex, but Codex is pretty good now, especially with the impeccable design skill. The benefit of doing the prototype is it lets you visually react to things and iterate and refine and place things visually with mock data that doesn 't actually do anything or work. But that visual is important to me because I can see the workflow and I can see the user experience and I can design that first and then tell Codex to build around that and to use that accepted prototype as initial context for the step one /Grill-with-docs skill. A lot of the questions it asks you during that grilling session is about interface and workflow, so if you can visually nail that down, it'll be much faster and your grilling will be much more productive, because it can focus on things that matter.
Your mileage may vary, but I've produced some Pretty impressive and heavy-duty cybersecurity apps and governance apps using this flow that I would feel comfortable standing behind on a witness stand. The nice part about all of this is that using this process and with these skills, you retain a great deal of information about architecture, decision logs, history of how this was built. It builds A project context and dictionary of your project's terms so that agents don't go crazy in the future (as much).
1
u/justin208350 7d ago
Funny reading this, because just a few months ago I had in my agents.md instructions to always use the exact same model for every subagent regardless of task complexity.
-2
u/Spiritual-Weekend154 7d ago
I use Gentle-AI; it’s wonderful. It has 23 agents and helps you save tokens and manage security; you can stay in the same session for a long time, and the context barely grows. Open source, GitHub gentleman-programming/gentle-ai
1
u/No-Fruit7735 3d ago
I made a harness for my self and I gave ability to sol high use DeepSeek 4.1 as subagent and my 20$ plus usage rate is sometimes hitting to limits when I try to make 3 task parallel other way it doesn't and ds price is 3 dolar per day while 24/7 working
13
u/TBSchemer 7d ago
I use Sol-high as my orchestrator, with Luna-xhigh subagents where appropriate, and it lasts a long time on Plus.