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Posted by eggbrain 1 day ago

Ask HN: What's your current AI agentic setup?

I'm curious how people on HN are using AI day to day, and came up with a list of questions I thought could be interesting to know. No need to answer every question of course, just wanted to get a gut feel how people are using AI.

1) What AI subscriptions are you personally paying for? (Claude, ChatGPT/Codex, Cursor, etc)

- Which tiers?

- Have you purchased multiple subscriptions from the same provider (eg two Claude accounts)?

2) Are you using models outside (or instead) of those subscriptions? For example, pay-as-you-go APIs, OpenRouter, or locally hosted models.

- Which models and providers?

3) What coding harnesses and interfaces are you using? Are you sticking with the default CLIs or IDE integrations, or using alternatives like OpenCode, Pi, Aider, Muse Code, or custom-built harnesses?

- What made you switch harnesses (if you switched)?

4) Are you using any agent orchestration or swarm tools?

- For example, Munder Difflin, Gas Town, Ruflo, or something custom.

5) Are you using broader agent platforms like OpenClaw / Hermes Agent / Grok bot / Dots / Muse?

- If you are using them, what are your main use cases?

-----

I know my workflow has differed significantly from a year ago, and so it would be interesting to capture a snapshot today of what people are using and why.

520 points | 645 commentspage 19
dirkc 20 hours ago|
The amount of times I hear people running without a sandbox is just crazy!

I'm just looking into setting up a separate GitHub user to let claude act as a contributor, and so much of the docs are about how to prevent your github auth info from your main account accidentally being used. That implies no sandboxing!!

jefferfelizardo 22 hours ago||
I run Claude Code, Codex, Pi and Kimi Code across my desktop, laptop and a server, in tmux sessions I also follow from my phone. I got tired of juggling that, so I built Hangar, open source and self-hosted: https://github.com/jeffer1312/hangar
mazone 1 day ago||
1. Z.ai coding pro plan that i got last christmas for $14 a month. Will not renew in jan.

2. Locally hosted qwen 3.8 flash next on a wake on lan machine rtx5090

3. Currently orca as front end orchestrator to a mini pc with pi for coding and hermes for general purpose

spilist 1 day ago||
1) Codex $200 * 2, Claude Code $200, Muse Code $50, OpenCode $40. I run them in 6 machines (2 Linux, 2 MacOS, 2 Windows)

2) No. I try my best to use oauth

3) Claude Code + Custom Harness(set of skills) + Mod. This orchestrator (I call her as "Team Leader") orchestrates other machines with Tailscale. - I've used Claude Code (Opus 5.5) by model satisfaction and mod.

4) None

5) Dots and Instinct. Main use case is research, code search and raise issue, PR reviews.

peter1125 20 hours ago||
1) ChatGPT Pro ($200) 2) APIs for Bivia (previously used Jev) 3) Oh My Opencode - sometimes, not as much. 4) Herdr 5) Hermes, Openclaw, Dots, Instinct, Pickle. Hermes and openclaw for most routines. Dots and Pickle to call while driving. Instinct because imessage makes it easy on the go.
mjrbrennan 7 hours ago||
1) Not paying for anything personally, except for whatever the ChatGPT casual plan is for the family to use. All my work usage is on the $100/month OpenAI plan.

I had the free Claude Max for Open Source plan, but haven't paid for it again now that it lapsed. I haven't used Claude for ages anyway, the way it talks really annoys the hell out of me, Codex App & models are far nicer IME.

2) No

3) I'm happy with the Codex/ChatGPT desktop app, works super well. Also use the Codex VSCode plugin a bit, and started recently experimenting with herdr. Used to use Cursor but I switched when Musk bought it. Very very occasionally I use some other thing like opencode or pi for targeted situations, or Codex in the CLI

4) No

5) No

I don't have the bizarre need to have dozens of agents going at once in my work or personal time, already feel flat out at work just using Codex w/ worktrees for a few concurrent projects at a time. I feel more productive than ever, I don't see how I could add more without being overwhelmed

asixicle 1 day ago||
Rolled my own for a Claude Max sub, basically tmux and an elaborate MCP for persistent semantic memory, Forgejo, etc. (https://github.com/ASIXicle/Coterie)

I sense more people will do so as you can fairly easily tailor any harness and MCP/LXC combo to suit the way you work. It's a bespoke future.

npc99 1 day ago||
Mostly Pi, using a variety of models, but mostly GPT 5.6 line of models.

I try to use open weight and cheap models as much as possible.

furyofantares 1 day ago|
For my side quests at any given time I am subscribed to one or the other of Claude $200 or Codex $200 or both. I was briefly on 200+500. Getting to be a real expensive hobby.

At my day job I spend about $1000/mo at API prices. So like 5-10% of my hobby usage.

Hobby setup is I have a single "personal assistant" session which spawns sessions for each project or major job on a project and messages with them. I talk to the personal assistant over Signal exclusively.

Work setup is just a wrapper around Claude Code.

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