Solo dev built an AI dev squad — now he manages AI bureaucracy more than code
chee006 · reddit · 2026-10-21
A solo dev building a Cold War wargame assembled a multi-model AI dev squad (Claude, ChatGPT, DeepSeek, Qwen) split into design, UI, architecture and coding roles — and now spends more time managing the agents than coding.
Key findings: he burned through Claude Pro → Max x100 → Max x200 and still hit limits; ChatGPT's orchestrator agent gave "advice and philosophy" instead of fixing broken cloud sessions and suggested filing a support ticket, while $5 of Claude API credit fixed the issue in 10 minutes. DeepSeek was his most tireless, cost-effective coder; Jules/Gemini got cut for weak coding.
His core pain: half the agents' time goes to writing markdown reports and managing each other instead of coding. He's asking whether to flatten the hierarchy into one strong orchestrator with cheap coder agents.
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