Given how quickly things evolve, it’s easy to get lost in the numerous offerings and hard to get the best deal. So, what do you use? Both clients/harnesses and LLM providers or local setups would be interesting.
Personally, I’ve been using opencode with Github copilot for work. I’m currently looking for cost-effective provider for personal work. Maybe openrouter with one of the cheap models?
A mix of gpt-5.5 and claude opus 4.7, wrapped in my own mobile web UI that doubles as planning software and document editor.
The reason for the mobile focus is I’ve been trying to detach from my home office as much as possible, meaning I do a lot of up-front planning via ADRs and task/story writing, then I spawn agents to actually work on coding tasks. The only part that really requires sitting at a desk is code review, manual testing, and deeper human-in-the-loop coding or debugging sessions.
If you are able to max out the $100/mo plans from either OpenAI or Anthropic, then that is already a very cost-effective option.