OpenAI $100 account, Claude $200 account and a Linux desktop with 2 RTX 3090s and 128gb ram. I'm generally working on about 2 projects at a time, sometimes more on the weekends.

Claude code CLI, rotated with codex CLI (monkey patched to be able to message with Claude sessions over the Unix socket thingies).

Local ollama server running qwen and a bunch of other models.

I'm having an absolute blast!

My projects accumulate here: joemattie.com

I use free models in opencode, mainly DeepSeek, but it turns out my laptop can run Qwen3.8 flash next at 60 tok/s via Strata. So I mostly use Qwen now in a customized version of pi. But when I need the GPU to be free, I have to use free models in opencode. I don't use any orchestration - free models don't have high enough limits for that, and local model has only 1 conversation cache slot, more won't fit to my RAM

I'm on a Claude and a GPT plan, with occasional Deepseek, GLM and other models for testing.

I work on cross-platform apps, so need to run things on a PC as well as my Mac. To make it less faff to switch between them, I run Juggler (https://github.com/juggler-ai/juggler) on both. Juggler treats local and remote sessions the same way, so I have both machines set up with the same two windows, one for the PC and one for the Mac. That means I can move seats between them and have the exact same two windows controlling each machine wherever I am..

1. Claude Ultra. I've never had multiple subscriptions from the same provider, though that has looked more attractive lately as I

2. Yes: I often have personal tasks that Claude refuses to do, so I have to use Deepseek-v4.1-flash or GLM-5.3. I typically stay with OpenRouter, but I've found a discount provider that offers a 2/3 discount and have migrated to them. The catch is the data is probably sold, but given that it has saved me $300 this past month for non-sensitive work (game decompilation), the tradeoff is worth it.

3. Claude Code for Claude. I used to use OpenCode for my API usage, but there are too many issues which have gone unfixed and too many weird issues that I became tired of working around, so I switched to Oh my Pi. I'm not a fan of it either, so before my next big run with open weights models, I will probably rewire Claude Code to use these Chinese models.

4. Claude Code's subagent feature and workflow (subagents, but queuing up >200, and running 8 at a time) are sufficient for my needs. I had Claude build some bespoke workflow orchestration tool for managing many OpenCode agent instances, but it is a single shell or Python script that is essentially the equivalent of Claude Code Workflow.

5. I don't have a use case for them, so no.

1. Claude Code (Ultra) + Codex (Plus) 2. Yes, but not for coding. In my experience Opus 5.5 is the only model I'd code with now, but other tasks (especially when not subsidized / part of product) use many other models. Latest deepseek checkpoint is very solid 3. CC + extensive config / hooks 4. Usually supervising myself w/ 5-6 sessions, if orchestrating more than that it's a hand-rolled swarm tool 5. Tried NanoClaw, and I have access to Claude Duet, but between getting on and off the waitlist for Duet, I hand-rolled a personal agent that does what I want.

1) Claude ultra. I ended up using 3 accounts in tandem for some big work I needed to do recently, but the other 2 accounts were only open for a month.

2) I have a cheap OpenAI sub I sometimes use codex on, but just for small tasks when I'm out of tokens on Claude

3) Lab - a frontend I made that let's me run loads of chats in a single UI, I get notified when they need me, if I turn off my PC and load it back up everything picks up where it left off. It'll run compound workflows comprised of multiple prompts+macros, and centrally manages all my agents/skills and MCP servers - they're associated with projects, categories of project etc and rolled out to everyone when changes are made.

4) Hivemind - another one of mine, hivemind's a small self contained binary that acts as a collaboration layer for the agents+me. I send messages to everyone, groups or individuals. They can also ping me and send me desktop notifications if they need me urgently. I get a lot of mileage out of this where file reservations, resource locking etc are concerned. Stops them stepping on each others' toes.

5) No, 100% of my work takes place in Lab (with loads of Claude + Hivemind sessions under the hood)

1. $20 tier for Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google.

2. Use OpenRouter for some agentic work and for using GLM 5.3 for some security reviews.

3. Mostly the model harnesses (desktop apps for business and personal tasks and cli harnesses for coding). Use pi with openrouter.

4. My thesis is that one-time work (creative, coding, etc.) is different than on-going repetitive work--the work of the back office. I've built a platform for the latter specifically around centralizing agents while decentralizing orchestration. (https://sleeperservice.io/)

5. Waiting on a Duet invitation. But Dots is interesting to me. Use Gemini with Gmail to some extent.

1) Only ChatGPT Plus at the moment cause I'm between jobs and couldn't justify all the subs. Grok gave me three months at $30 when I tried to cancel so there's that too.

I wanted to really keep Claude but ChatGPT voice mode is too good tbh and no other comes close. I wish I could use Opus 5.5 for coding.

2) OpenRouter PAYG, mostly for experimenting with Chinese models like Deepseek and GLM, usually for stuff that Codex or Grok refuses to do.

Had been looking into NEAR and Venice for completely private information processing (like emails) but haven't set them up yet.

3) Codex, and OpenCode as harnesses basically.

4) I really wish I could decide on some agent orchestrator without trying them out for weeks. I like my tools highly powerful and trying to find recommendation for this online is hopeless because it's full of opinion from people who never used a terminal before.

5) Grok Bot for running experiments with supplements, calory tracking etc.. Tried to set up Hermes a couple of times but hated it every time. Just gave Rakazo a try yesterday and still hating it.

Gosh, I dream about the time when you could look at a github repo and make a decent guess about the quality of the software.

Claude (top tier), GLM top tier, Kimi top tier, Codex team w/logins for the whole family. On top of that Atlas and OpenRouter pay-as-you-go. I max out the Claude every week and the Kimi most weeks. GLM is my fallback and used for some of my simpler agents.

I'm using Codex, Claude Code, Kimi Code for different things, but most of my interactions now is with claw-like agents hanging off a self-hosted Matrix server in my VPN, and I expect to migrate pretty much all of my use to that setup because it's a lot more flexible. The agents have their own wiki for orchestration and increasingly I feel complex orchestrators are already becoming obsolete because the agents are good enough at self-organising with very little around them.

I don't use any of the agent platforms you list as it took a Kimi agent about half an hour to build something small and auditable that handles what I want it to do and load-balances/fails over between several providers for the backend.

They handle my finances (read-only), acts as a general assistant (and reads my e-mail), plan out my projects, manages my soon-to-launch podcast setup, runs several websites autonomously. The only reason they don't do more yet is that getting security right without kneecapping their usefulness is still a really hard problem.

Ok Grok Bot, what a damn help. It does so much for me, including my scheduling, runs all sorts of reports I wasn't getting before, checks my emails for me, responds for me with my approval, and so so much more. And I think I'm only scratching the surface of it all. It's worth every penny I'm paying.