I think if codex can fill in some functional gaps that shouldn’t be that huge - like having defined agents in plugins like Claude code - it’s actually a preferable product. It’s faster in every way, seems to manage context a lot better - compaction isn’t a completely end of world event to be avoided at all costs. With the addition of defined thinking and the fact it actually seems to follow tool calling instructions, it’s handler for permissions, and other features it’s frankly a better tool overall. 5.5 seems to be a reasonable model.

Anthropic seems to have really killed their advantage by squandering the immense good will they built up by blundering over and over again the last few months with the developer community.

Tonight, for instance, after the incident had recovered, I restarted my work. On my Max account my usage period completely exhausted in 4 minutes of sonnet subagent work. This was long after prime time, and the workload was a fraction what I normally do.

These days I run codex concurrently and have gotten my marketplaces and plugins and MCPs adapted to it - other than the agents which I do lean heavily on - and generally find it a capable replacement. Anthropic needs to take notice and get their house in order.