Dax Reed: Optimizing marginal LLM efficiency yields plateauing returns.
Dax Reed · ⚡️OpenCode: Claude Code but Open Source, with Any Model, and frontier TUI - with Dax Reed (@thdxr) · Aug 5, 2025 · at 4:06
Dax Reed, creator of OpenCode and co-founder of SST, discusses the product engineering philosophy behind OpenCode compared to other AI coding tools.
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“I think the clarity we have is we're not trying to get the next three percent of efficiency out of the LLM. I think that's kind of like an infinite rabbit hole you can dive down that has like plateauing results. So for us, we're more focused on Product experience and like how to package it and what stuff needs to go around it.”
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More from Dax Reed
OpenCode exactly replicated Claude Code by dumping its system prompts and schemas.
“We look at cloud code. We dump all their system prompts. We dump all their tool descriptions. We dump all their tool schemas. We re-implement the tools. And when you're using an anthropic model, we basically have the exact same implementation.”
Dax Reed says complex optimizations on top of LLMs quickly become obsolete.
“Any kind of fancy optimization you're doing on top of the LM eventually gets, like, you kind of lose the need to do it given how fast things are moving.”
Dax Reed claims the Gemini CLI codebase is rushed and corrupts edits.
“And Gemini ones were not good. It was initially it looked good, but then I noticed it was getting caught in these crazy loops and it was like editing my files in these totally messed up ways. And I should have known because you can tell when you're looking thr…”
Dax Reed predicts Claude's $200/month pricing is an unsustainable growth strategy.
“I think it's pretty easy to, like, use more than 200 dollars worth, even by accident. So I would also lean towards that the Claude Max plans are a growth strategy, not like any long term pricing thing that can work, at least at the current, given the current s…”
Dax Reed argues open-source products are usually worse due to committee design.
“We don't think a product is good because it's open source. Usually a product is bad because it's open source. It tends to be like designed by committee and like just a smash of like a bunch of different competing priorities.”
Dax Reed predicts OpenCode will dominate when a competitor beats Claude Sonnet.
“What would change things is if there's a day where either another LM lab or like, you know, an open source model drops that is competitive with Sonnet, maybe even better than Sonnet on that day, open code is going to be the only way to do this kind of thing. C…”