1) Claude ($100) + Codex ($20) seems to be a sweet spot, with Codex being able to generate images and do reviews of Claude's code

2) If I want to do, say, summaries at scale, I reach for Gemini 3.5 Flash Lite

3) CMUX with folders per project + Stream Deck that shows me which agent has finished :)

4) Just Opus 5.5 orchestrating its subagents

5) Hermes. I find at least one 24/7 machine with agent running, that you can reach from anywhere to be worth it. As your personal assistant.

(shameless promotion) Many people here are looking for tips on how to improve their setup. I asked my agent to go through my setup, put it into 100 tips and tricks and to let anyone's agent go through their setup and see if there are any good ones that they haven't tried yet.

So give your agent this: https://virpo.io/levels and ask it to see if there are some tips you could try.