Opus 4.7 is horrible at writing

Maybe don't use any LLM to do your writing for your Master's thesis?

I see a lot of complaints on X about 4.7. Boris just dropped a post on how to use Opus 4.7 in Claude Code.

I guess they broke continuity with a 0.1 in model version change in some ways.

Opus 4.7 seems to reach ChatGPT levels of verbosity in code and loves to overcomplicate the most simple things.

This is something it spit out just now (trimmed a 9 line comment though):

        let keepSize = 0;
        let overBudget = false;

        await this.items.orderBy('[priority+dateUpdated+size]')
            .reverse()
            .eachPrimaryKey((primaryKey, cursor) => {
                if (overBudget) {
                    evictKeys.push(primaryKey as string);
                    return;
                }

                const key = cursor.key as [number, number, number];
                const itemSize = key[2];
                const contribution = itemSize > 0 ? itemSize : 0;

                if (keepSize + contribution > maxSize) {
                    overBudget = true;
                    evictKeys.push(primaryKey as string);
                    return;
                }

                keepSize += contribution;
            });

Come on now... what? For a start that entire thing with its boolean flag, two branches, and two early returns could be replaced with:

        let totalSize = 0;

        await this.items.orderBy('[priority+dateUpdated+size]')
            .reverse()
            .eachPrimaryKey((primaryKey, cursor) => {
                const key = cursor.key as [number, number, number];
                const itemSize = key[2];
                const contribution = itemSize > 0 ? itemSize : 0;

                totalSize += contribution;

                if (totalSize > maxSize) {
                    evictKeys.push(primaryKey as string);
                }
            });

I'm back to 4.6 for now. Seems to require a lot less manual cleanup.

There were a lot of pitchforks back when Sonnet 4.5 was accidentally down for a few hours: https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1rlz7kw/sonnet_45...

It goes to show that there's a very large and vocal user base using it for writing, and yet it's not part of the benchmark for Anthropic.

Anyway, try Sonnet 4.5 while it's still available?

Suggest you get 4.6 to use the text to generate a writing skill and then give it to 4.7 to align. From their launch docs they do indicate that prompts have to change to get the best out of 4.7

So far, from source code perspective, I see good results. Things that yesterday Opus 4.6 was not able to fix in multiple iterations, today Opus 4.7 fixes immediately.

It is not only the model that affects the end results. Good technical specification, architecture documents, rules, lessons learned, release notes, proper and descriptive prompting are also important.

You can always use `/model claude-opus-4-6` in Claude Code to go back to 4.6.

My experience writing code is that it’s more terse and specific, even in its own voice. I find it catching bugs more often during implementation more too, comparing directly against 4.6. I think I prefer its style because it seems to be way less verbose

I have noticed this as well. It feels like they tuned it so hard for logic and coding that it lost its soul for actual writing. Stick with the previous one for the thesis work if you can.

I’ve noticed this with model upgrades too: sometimes they improve the “thinking” but lose the tightness of the writing.

> Similar experiences?

Regardless of which one. They're too verbose. They repeat information. They lack cohesion. Overly agreeable. The flaws are part of the tool.

4.7 is unusually verbose

It's lovable when people use a wrench to hammer a nail in. Watch your thumb.

Meaning: You managed your ways around the system prompt and usage intention - Congrats! Now it doesn't work any more - Bummer!

Have you tried opus 4.7 in comparison to 4.6 with a general purpose / writing system prompt in the app? Thats where this would make more sense.

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