The context · May 2025
Anthropic released Claude Opus 4 and Sonnet 4 in May 2025, presenting improvements in coding and extended work with tools. [1]
Duration does not prove progress
An assistant can spend a long time exploring a repository and still pursue the wrong interpretation of a request. The longer the task, the more expensive that misunderstanding becomes. A clear statement of the user-visible change is a better starting point than a broad instruction to modernise the code.
Break the uncertainty into decisions
Separate discovery, a proposed approach and implementation. Review the assumptions that affect data formats, public interfaces and operating behaviour before expanding the patch. Each checkpoint should answer a real question; it should not become a ceremony that interrupts every harmless edit.
Preserve a reviewable change
Ask for a small sequence of coherent changes with evidence for each one. Keep unrelated formatting and new abstractions out of the first patch. The benefit of a capable coding model is easier delivery of useful changes, not a larger amount of code for maintainers to decipher.
Source & context
Anthropic · Claude 4, 22 May 2025This retrospective was written for the archive in September 2026. The linked primary source documents the announcement or event; the practical interpretation and proposed approach are Sansa’s editorial perspective. Public examples do not imply a client relationship. Product capabilities and guidance may have changed since the period discussed.
Another perspective · May 2025
A controlled modernisation of one ageing module
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