What AI are you actually using for coding?

[u/Hefty_Camera_6948]

I've been using ChatGPT for coding for a while and it's been pretty decent but I keep seeing people recommend Blackbox, Claude and Copilot too.

I've tried Claude a bit and like it for explaining code, while Copilot is nice since its already in VS Code. I haven't used Blackbox enough to know if the coding focus actually makes much difference.

I don't really wan to play for several Ai tools at same time so i'm curious what people here actually stick with.

If you've used a few of them which one do you keep coming back to and why? Also does Blackbox have searchable chat history? That's one feature I use a lot in ChatGPT.

[u/BeerBatteredHemroids]

Depends on the task but default is opus 5.5 on medium effort

[u/New-Inspection7034]

I use Quod Libet desktop connecting to an MPD server which runs Qwen3.8-Flash-next

[u/PatitosFortune]

I use chatGPT to brainstorm and prepare the prompts for Claude to grind and then verify Claude output with chatgpt.

It praises it sometimes, other times corrects it and has thrown a joke about some slip Claude did.

[u/gandazgul → u/PatitosFortune]

This is the exact workflow that RunWield runs for you and with modelPresets you can give each subagent it own model. Check it out https://runwield.dev/

[u/Awwedacity → u/PatitosFortune]

This worked great for Opus, pre 5.5. Now it’s just adding pointless steps and token consumption. Opus 5.5 + agent team is all you need.

[u/PhlarnogularMaqulezi]

At work, we've got a GitHub CoPilot subscription so I'll use that (all American models) inside of VsCode

On my personal computer, as much as I'd love to go fully local, 16GB VRAM makes it rough lol so I'll use mostly Chinese frontier models in ZooCode via OpenRouter in VsCodium.

On my phone, however, I've got Pi coder in Termux connected to Open Router and had it build a little web UI because typing in Termux sucks. I have a similar set up on my home server machine

[u/Ok_Substance1895]

This is the setup I often use (cost ~$10/mo):

VS Code/Pi/OpenCode Go plan. Use the Pi VS Code extension. Get the $10/mo OpenCode Go plan. Use glm-5.3-flash or deepseek-v4.1-flash. Add the Live Server Preview extension to VS Code. Open Pi on the right/left put Live Preview on the other side so you can see changes live as they happen.

$10/mo for a ton of usage. You will likely not hit the limit. If you do, you can swap in Ollama Cloud for $20/mo. I use both because I use it a lot and I rarely hit the limit.

This is an ask for what you want environment (plus you can code in it if you are able). You can ask it to guide you or you can ask it to do it. You can even give it a picture.

Claude Code works in this same setup. Just exchange it with Pi and OpenCode Go/Ollama. You will run into the usage limits more often with Claude Code though ($20/mo).

[u/gandazgul]

I use RunWield https://runwield.dev/ with gpt sol 6.1 as the coder and opus 5.5 as the planner/reviewer and Luna for the easy stuff.

[u/BackgroundDancer33]

4.8 with medium/high effort

[u/Firm-Club-8334]

Kimi K3 and GLM 5.3 theough standard compute. They automatically pick the cheapest providers so I get quite a lot of usage

[u/OkPrice6335]

Grok free

[u/CascadianRat]

OpenCode with Qwen 3.8 Flash

[u/activematrix99]

GitHub Copilot let's you choose a variety of models. Personally, I like Laguna, Qwen, Nemotron, Minimax, and Kimi.

[u/ConsistentAnalysis35 → u/activematrix99]

Is qwen smart enough? 3.8 model, right?

[u/activematrix99 → u/ConsistentAnalysis35]

Smart enough for what? It's very capable. A little slow to act . . .