I’ve gradually moved toward a split workflow instead of asking one model to own the whole loop. For me, the split looks roughly like this: Sonnet for filesystem-heavy execution: editing files, running tests, fixing failures, iterating on implementation. Opus for architecture, design decisions, difficult debugging, and independent review. The obvious problem is context. Opus can reason better about the project if it has the actual repo structure and current session state, but I don’t want to make it rediscover a large codebase from scratch every time. That’s where I use AI Badger . Badger runs locally and prepares focused repository context: topology, relevant source, Git state, task/session metadata, and changes. The flow is two-phase: Give Opus enough repo/task context to understand the problem. If it needs more, let it ask for specific files, symbols, prefixes, or nearby code. That works better for me on larger repos than trying to dump everything into context upfront. If the work already started inside Claude Code, I also use a handoff Agent Skill that carries over the useful session state: current goal, decisions, constraints, completed work, and verification. So the loop becomes something like: Claude Code/Sonnet → Badger handoff → Opus → compact implementation plan → Sonnet I usually split plans into phases with explicit checkpoints. After each phase: implement → inspect visual diff → independent review → continue or correct course I let Sonnet improvise on local implementation details. If it discovers that a design assumption or architecture decision is wrong, I bounce that back to the reasoning/review step rather than letting the execution agent redesign everything mid-flight. There are exceptions. If the question depends heavily on Git history or other repo-local evidence, the coding agent can be the better place to investigate first. The mental model that has worked best for me is: Separate thinking from editing. Let the filesystem-aware agent execute, but periodically give a stronger reasoning/review model focused repo context and let it challenge the direction. AI Badger: https://github.com/PVRLabs/aibadger Curious if anyone else is using Sonnet/Opus this way instead of keeping the entire loop inside one Claude Code session. submitted by /u/fykup
Originally posted by u/fykup on r/ClaudeCode