Claude subscription changes coverage of `claude -p`(x.com)
40 pointsby ramoz7 hours ago13 comments
  • 2001zhaozhao44 minutes ago
    I mostly get this change from their side except for the extremely misleading framing. I think in response to this change, I might write an open-source Claude Code GUI wrapper to wrap over the TUI and allow accessing it from a GUI interface.

    Still interactive (conforms to spirit of Anthropic's new rule), and runs Claude Code via the actual CLI (conforms to letter of Anthropic's rule), without even using the JSON output flag. It would just read the outputs directly from the terminal like a user would, and then translates the user's actions directly into actions to the Claude Code TUI.

    Tradeoffs: the thinking blocks are lost, and file changes from edit tools might have to be reconstructed after-the-fact using VCS commands because the TUI doesn't display them when accept-edits mode is enabled. Requires underlying terminal to have a giant width/height in order to reliably capture the outputs by reading the terminal alone. Interactive tools like AskUserQuestion will need to work via detecting that such a prompt is open and exposing the original CLI interface to the user temporarily.

    But overall it seems like it could give users most of the benefits of an interactive GUI interface (scrollable history, much higher info density, easy to copy text, browse features with mouse) while staying compliant with Anthropic's new rules both in letter and spirit. You can then build a worktree manager or whatever above this agent GUI layer. This way us interactive users can have our good tools back (and leverage the new claude -p credit for occasional automation features) while the people who are actually abusing the plan with 24/7 dark factories or openclaw are still locked out.

    (the only way Anthropic would not agree to this is if they had the ulterior motive of lock-in in mind...)

  • alyxya3 hours ago
    This could end up becoming a cat-and-mouse game where users programmatically try to turn their non-interactive usage of Claude Code to appear interactive and Anthropic tries to detect and charge that under API pricing. I don't know if there's a proper solution here because there will always be borderline use cases like using Claude Code on a cloud VM, where it would be nicer to interactively do work through sending and receiving messages on a custom frontend rather than SSHing and using the CLI.
    • 9wzYQbTYsAIc3 hours ago
      Next thing to go will be loops and scheduled tasks, if they keep needing to trim usage to fit in the available compute, I suspect, if ‘claude -p’ is essentially gone, now.
  • puglr5 hours ago
    It's a bit disheartening that this is generating so little discussion (this thread seems to be the one with the most comments, currently at 8).

    99% of my max plan usage is non-interactive, and this post-June 15 pricing will far, far exceed what I can afford. I assume this applies to a great deal of us.

    • solenoid09374 hours ago
      It's not bad at all. You get $200 in monthly extra usage credits. Unless you are a deeply unprofitable user this change is no big deal.
      • brianwawok4 hours ago
        The $200 plan is easily providing $2000 of AI usage. So with this change your bill goes from $200 to $200 + $2000 -$200 = $2000. That’s a 10x jump.

        Stuff like gas town is dead in the water

      • sigseg1v4 hours ago
        is using a Ralph loop for all tasks with "claude -p" and using my weekly limit up to 100% considered some kind of unprofitable outlier? It's a command line tool, it would be ridiculous to expect that a large number of users don't do this. I never launch "claude" interactively by itself.

        My understanding is that now with this workflow I will pay the same amount but get much less usage before getting to 100% for the week. How is that not bad?

        • BoorishBears2 hours ago
          They've probably (rightfully) identified long horizon autonomous development isn't quite there yet, so most stuff created by forcing Claude to run until you hit 100% of your weekly limits is going to be relatively low value slop that will not convert to long-term sticky spend/usage vs someone actively steering Claude until they hit their limit.

          If anything you might be an outlier if you do this and are actually producing something of reasonable value down the line.

          They know if the value provided by subsidized usage is too low, they're literally burning dollars for nothing: people won't feel any great pain losing it one day and definitely won't convert.

      • gcr3 hours ago
        [dead]
    • mkw50535 hours ago
      Out of curiosity, how are you using it and for what?
      • puglr3 hours ago
        Lots and lots of automation, along with long-running multi-instance headless tasks. My usage, which I was on the verge of increasing via a second Max plan, would cost 3 figures per day, rather than per month. I already know this because my initial tooling was prototyped against direct API usage, and that was the cost of my usage patterns.

        That is not sustainable for me. I understand that Anthropic can't subsidize all of us forever, but this will force me away from claude which is unfortunate. A number of the people I work with are similarly affected.

        • DonsDiscountGas42 minutes ago
          I'm curious what you're doing so often and repeatedly that can't be done with more normal software. Or maybe write a good school, I've noticed Haiku+good instructions often matches Opus
        • 3 hours ago
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    • paulddraper4 hours ago
      Yeah, it's a pretty wild change.

      It's one thing for Anthropic to ban subscription usage of OpenCode etc of their backend.

      It's another thing to use their tools and still not get the full usage.

      Claude's recent one 9 of uptime [1] might have something to do with it.

      [1] https://status.claude.com/

  • melonamin2 hours ago
    I wonder how this cat-and-mouse game will end. I've been using my own wrapper around Claude CLI that overcomes some 'claude -p' limitations, and now I have even more reasons to.

    But inevitably, this will end, ultimately making AI a bit less accessible for consumers.

  • ramoz7 hours ago
    The wording in the press is very confusing. Not sure if deliberate.

    If you're an active `claude -p` user, it will now cost you API rates vs being able to user your subscription.

    UPDATE: https://x.com/lydiahallie/status/2054650920768807313?s=20

    Still confused.

    • aselimov36 hours ago
      Where are you seeing that info?? The link you posted says nothing about -p
    • solenoid09374 hours ago
      You also get $200 in monthly credits so it's not bad.
      • gcr3 hours ago
        Ya but that monthly usage doesn't refill every five hours or every week the way your subscription usage does. Once you're through the $200, you're done until next month.
    • teg4n_5 hours ago
      I mean it does cost you API rates, you just get a certain amount of credit by having a subscription.
  • 6 hours ago
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  • luckystarr4 hours ago
    So what does that mean? Claude within ACP within my editor is billed differently than Claude via CLI?
    • gcr4 hours ago
      As a fellow zed user, I fear this could affect us (though i'm not 100% confident). Zed uses their own adapter to implement claude's ACP support, and it's likely using `claude -p` (the agent SDK) under the hood.

      Hoping the Zed team will clarify.

  • ed_mercer3 hours ago
    I guess Openclaw can update their docs once again.
  • paulddraper6 hours ago
    Title is misleading. (EDIT: Has been updated)

    https://x.com/ClaudeDevs/status/2054610152817619388

    You can claim a monthly credit that covers programmatic (`claude -p`, etc) usage.

    So a Claude subscription does cover it, but at a lesser amount.

    • ramoz5 hours ago
      Happy to change the title if there is explicit clarity on what my `claude -p` usage costs me today & it not differing from what it'll cost me once the change is in effect.
  • solenoid09374 hours ago
    Before the doomers come in, you get $200 in API credits every month for claude -p usage. Usage counts against those API credits.

    This is a nothing burger.

    • ramoz4 hours ago
      This is much of a something burger for users who actively use `claude -p` under their subscription. Users will have to do their own math, but that 200 could come and go quite fast and then you're hitting normal API rates versus what you had previously been hitting.

      https://x.com/jeremyphoward/status/2054682882753597603?s=20

      • solenoid09374 hours ago
        Sure, but if you spend that many tokens you're probably a pretty big net loss for the company anyways. No company will subsidize that level of compute for you indefinitely.
        • ramoz4 hours ago
          Yea that's fine and understandable.

          But like I said, this is something for those users. I launch many review processes locally with `claude -p`

    • gcr3 hours ago
      You're not understanding the difference between API billing and subscirption billing.

      Subscription usage refills every five hours. API billing doesn't.

      • Shadowmist3 hours ago
        Before we got $0 for API usage and banned if caught trying to use a subscription for API stuff, but now there is monthly credit for API.
  • throawayonthe6 hours ago
    hahahahahahaha