I found codex cli to be significantly better than claude code. It follows instructions and executes the exact change I want without going off on an "adventure" like Claude code. Also the 20 dollars per month sub tier gives very generous limits of the most powerful model option (5.2 codex high).

I work on SSL bio acoustic models as context.

codex the model (not the cli) is the big thing here. I've used it in CC and w/ my claude setup, it can handle things Opus could never. it's really a secret weapon not a lot of people talk about. I'm not even using xhigh most of the time.