# Does unrequested work or over-engineers (`work.scope_overreach`)

Feedback Bench, coding agents, built 2026-10-19, window 2026-08-31 to 2026-10-18. Web page: https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/#/criterion/work.scope_overreach

Area: [Doing the work](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/criteria/work.md)

**Definition.** The agent edits outside the requested scope, adds unasked features, tests or runs, or builds overly complex solutions.

**Boundary.** Not this: see [Risky or irreversible actions without confirmation](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/criteria/work.destructive_actions.md) for risky irreversible actions. Not this: see [Length and clarity of replies, summaries and comments](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/criteria/work.response_verbosity.md) for padded text or comments.

Rated user-weeks, all agents: 1539. Complaint share: 95%.

## The brief

Written by large language models from this page's numbers and the posts it quotes, then checked: every number in the text is in the build. Interpretation, not measurement.

No agent clearly stays in scope better than the rest. OpenCode leads, mostly because its users seldom raise the subject, and its customer love here is within the category norm. When users do rate scope, they almost always complain: 94.5% of rated user-weeks are complaints. Claude Code is 5th of 5 and the only agent worse than the category norm. OpenAI Codex is 2nd, but its users write 53% of the category's complaints here.

### What separates the best from the rest

No agent ranks high and none ranks low on this criterion. The two agents with the most complaints differ in what their users describe. OpenAI Codex users most often describe overly complex code, such as guards, fallbacks and extra helpers that a simple problem did not need. Claude Code users most often describe an agent that adds features nobody asked for and takes on side tasks of its own.

- **Ranks high**: no agent
- **Ranks low**: no agent

## How it breaks

Rule: A separate pass sorts complaints into failure modes. For each criterion with at least 30 complaining user-weeks, a large language model reads 150 complaint posts drawn at random and names 4 to 8 failure modes; a second large language model then puts every complaint post on that criterion in one mode, or in Other when it fits none. Modes are fixed once named, and new posts are sorted into them each week. A mode counts distinct user-weeks with a complaint in it, per agent; across agents, one user-week per agent. Modes do not change the labels or the Feedback Score. Examples: up to 3 posts per mode from different users, chosen and checked as receipts are.

The largest mode is overly complex solutions to simple problems, at 29% of complaining user-weeks, and OpenAI Codex users write 67% of it. Codex users also write most complaints about unasked tests and builds and about clutter left in the workspace, 65% of each. Complaints about unrequested features and edits to unrelated code split almost evenly between OpenAI Codex and Claude Code.

1462 complaining user-weeks.

| Failure mode | User-weeks | Posts | Agents (user-weeks) | Definition |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Overly complex solutions to simple problems | 423 | 452 | OpenAI Codex 283, Claude Code 87, Cursor 21, Google Antigravity 15, Pi 6, GitHub Copilot 4, OpenCode 4, Augment Code 1, Devin 1, Grok Build 1 | Inside the requested area, the agent builds solutions far more complex than the problem needs: redundant guards, fallbacks, idempotency checks, hashing, defensive handling of unrealistic edge cases, extra helpers or abstractions. Code that ignores conventions without adding complexity is out. |
| Unrequested features and self-assigned side quests | 318 | 336 | OpenAI Codex 137, Claude Code 131, Google Antigravity 20, Cursor 13, OpenCode 8, Pi 3, Kiro 2, GitHub Copilot 1, Devin 1, Warp 1, Zed 1 | The agent adds features, ideas, scripts, tools or new tasks the user never asked for, or switches to fixing problems it found itself instead of the assigned goal. Extra tests and verification belong to their own mode. |
| Unasked tests, builds and verification runs | 156 | 159 | OpenAI Codex 101, Claude Code 40, Google Antigravity 6, OpenCode 3, GitHub Copilot 2, Cursor 2, Amp 1, Factory 1 | The agent writes large numbers of unrequested or useless tests, or runs builds, lint, test suites, containers or repeated audits nobody asked for, wasting time and usage. Tests the user asked for are out, even if they are poor. |
| Scope drift on long or autonomous runs | 155 | 170 | OpenAI Codex 82, Claude Code 50, Google Antigravity 9, OpenCode 4, Cursor 3, Pi 3, Devin 2, GitHub Copilot 1, Factory 1 | During long, goal-driven, high-effort or orchestrated runs, the agent keeps widening the scope beyond the agreed plan, causes breakages it then has to fix, and loses track of the original goal. One-off overreach on a single short request is out. |
| Small fix becomes a large rewrite | 105 | 107 | OpenAI Codex 50, Claude Code 35, Cursor 9, Google Antigravity 3, OpenCode 3, GitHub Copilot 2, Devin 1, Kiro 1, Pi 1 | The agent turns a narrow, well-specified request into hundreds or thousands of added or rewritten lines, new layers, or new subsystems. Over-complicated designs inside the requested area belong to the next mode, not this one. |
| Edits to unrelated code, files or systems | 77 | 80 | Claude Code 28, OpenAI Codex 28, Google Antigravity 10, Cursor 6, Amp 1, GitHub Copilot 1, Devin 1, Factory 1, OpenCode 1 | The agent changes files, modules, comments, documentation or assets outside what the user asked about, such as rewriting backend calls during a frontend tweak or moving files into another repo. New features added on its own initiative are out. |
| Acting when only asked a question | 46 | 47 | OpenAI Codex 20, Claude Code 14, Google Antigravity 8, Cursor 4 | The user asked a question, wanted a diagnosis or asked for a plan, and the agent went ahead and changed code, ran operations or committed work. Going beyond an explicit task the user authorised belongs to the other modes. |
| Bloat and leftover artifacts in the workspace | 46 | 46 | OpenAI Codex 30, Claude Code 11, Google Antigravity 3, Cursor 1, OpenCode 1 | The agent leaves the repo or filesystem full of duplicated code, stray directories, temp files, notes or gigabytes of generated output that were never needed. Intended code changes that are simply too large are out. |
| Other | 209 | 219 | OpenAI Codex 95, Claude Code 71, Google Antigravity 19, Cursor 9, Kiro 4, OpenCode 3, Devin 2, Factory 2, Augment Code 1, Cline 1, GitHub Copilot 1, Pi 1 | Complaints that fit none of the modes above. |

#### Overly complex solutions to simple problems

- Claude Code, 2026-10-17, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “same here. logic is usually fine, but i always find some kind of bloat somewhere. like repetition instead of abstraction, guarding against something that will never happen, things like that.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1x80fas/how_do_you_actually_review_claude_codes_diffs/phax1go/)
- Claude Code, 2026-10-16, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “i agree. feels like it’s doing overkill on even the simplest task” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1x69i4z/has_claude_code_desktop_app_just_updated_out_of/ph1ipxn/)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-10-15, r/codex (Reddit): “gpt deciding to over engineer even after deciding everything in the plan. that requires redoing the work and even checking everything all over again. trust meter drops drastically.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1x6sshh/whats_slowing_you_down/pgzdufh/)

#### Unrequested features and self-assigned side quests

- Claude Code, 2026-10-17, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “i have quit claude for this. doing a backup, and a test and a ... going down the rabbithole each time. a 5 min job costs me half a day.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1x7zbvd/claude_runs_1800_useless_tests_creates_more/ph917kt/)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-10-15, r/codex (Reddit): “codex caught window shoping mid-coding why the hell is it looking for a monitor, i was making it fix a visual bug in my website.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1x699ls/codex_caught_window_shoping_midcoding/)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-10-13, r/codex (Reddit): “yes like "please update this one sentence in /docs" astra: docs updater agent started” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1x4je5m/day_8_reset/pgez2gn/)

#### Unasked tests, builds and verification runs

- Cursor, 2026-10-17, r/cursor (Reddit): “i am using cursor to write a script that runs on youtube. i kept hearing weird audio playing in my headphones. i suspected it's cursor messing around. turns out, it is using this video to test my fucking script.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/cursor/comments/1x8neu1/thats_interesting/)
- Claude Code, 2026-10-17, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “my favorite behaviour is stuffing github ci with unskippable tests for every branch and main merge. hitting 3000 action minutes in 7 days was a wake up call for me to start policing the behaviour.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1x7zbvd/claude_runs_1800_useless_tests_creates_more/phc57zq/)
- Claude Code, 2026-10-17, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “literally me an hour ago... change that button to orange. "ok button changed, verifying change with e2e testing". "no! bad claude. dont make me get the newspaper"” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1x7zbvd/claude_runs_1800_useless_tests_creates_more/phbgzad/)

#### Scope drift on long or autonomous runs

- Google Antigravity, 2026-10-12, r/google_antigravity (Reddit): “i've recently noticed antigravity over engineers the project after prompting for some time and forgets the goal . how do i get it to focus on output/results than over engineering it” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/google_antigravity/comments/1x4ab2n/how_do_i_stop_antigravity_from_over_engineering/)
- Claude Code, 2026-10-12, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “haha true, the post is the happy version. doing more than was agreed is real, thats why i still read every diff” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1x43kfx/claude_code_in_2025_can_i_run_this_command_claude/pfgxept/)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-10-04, r/codex (Reddit): “6.1 sol is also pretty uncontrollable. takes 35 prompts to get to the same result that 5.6-sol gets to in 12 prompts, because of overcorrections and exceeding scope at each step.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wxk6tj/they_are_completely_out_of_touch_with_what_users/pdv2igk/)

#### Small fix becomes a large rewrite

- OpenAI Codex, 2026-10-10, r/codex (Reddit): “codex is good at helping with code review or finding bugs. but in terms of building it writes far to much code. claude is better for building” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1x2rqfh/thank_you_for_all_who_suggested_to_try_claude/pf59gxz/)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-10-09, r/codex (Reddit): “i asked 6.1 sol to delete a button from gui and run button's code when the form is opened. gpt went on reading the whole project. had to stop it when it was 10 minutes in and write a 40 lines of prompt for it to do it's job again. never had an issue with 5.6” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wwfeyc/is_it_just_me_or_is_gpt_61_sol_a_massive/pevvuph/)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-10-04, r/codex (Reddit): “i switched to claude and first thing i fixed was the code. codex wrote two files with over 11k lines of code. took me some time to fix that and update .md files to prevent that.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wxq5ng/new_tibo_post/pdwkuuk/)

#### Edits to unrelated code, files or systems

- OpenAI Codex, 2026-10-18, r/codex (Reddit): “found a likely contributor: my dot had started using a separate codex cloud env for code reviews without checking with me first. i’ve now asked it to stick to its own terminal and filesystem.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1x8ffpw/is_dots_browser_activity_being_counted_towards/phfo16r/)
- Claude Code, 2026-10-12, r/cursor (Reddit): “i use both, but cursor is just for reading now. claude code makes the edits in the terminal, then i open the diff in cursor before i commit. that's where i catch the stuff it changed that i never asked for.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/cursor/comments/1x3r2hw/anyone_still_using_cursor_next_to_claude_code/pfen4da/)
- Google Antigravity, 2026-10-09, r/google_antigravity (Reddit): “it usually tends to overshoot when i set a goal and start to modify unnecessary part of the code.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/google_antigravity/comments/1x1o6jz/gemini_is_a_joke/pevd8f0/)

#### Acting when only asked a question

- Cursor, 2026-10-05, @cursor_ai (X): “i love the idea of @cursor_ai projects, but they feel a little overreaching. behavior is opt-out rather than opt-in. i don’t want you merge prs, leave review comments, or change the code based on a teammate’s suggestion: leave those executive decisions to me.” [source](https://twitter.com/1720973114601791488/status/2107131651817951462)
- Claude Code, 2026-10-01, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “right like i want it to merge a couple prs and it will review my entire codebase first like bruh” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1ws4qmd/anyone_else_does_30_hours_of_unattended/pd538ff/)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-09-25, r/codex (Reddit): “well, sol6 today tried to enable computer use to compile an app in intellij instead of through grade...” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wq06yi/6_sol_is_bad_what_it_just_did/pc24wwv/)

#### Bloat and leftover artifacts in the workspace

- OpenAI Codex, 2026-10-14, r/codex (Reddit): “#metoo. working on ways to get claude cli running on freebsd then cancelling codex. opus 5.5 hype. no more having a 'frontier model' use .git/ as a scratch space for random files” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1x64zx6/sol_61_and_astra_cant_be_trusted_by_themself_tibo/pgsm4h8/)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-10-14, r/codex (Reddit): “the ai has shit out over 2tb of "blender backup states on my external disk" that it likes to make before every edit” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1x5c5wm/tibo_day_8/pgla1l7/)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-10-13, r/codex (Reddit): “it's not just about codex' own files. the fucker produced 500gb of logs and profiling data that it didn't clean up.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1x5c5wm/tibo_day_8/pgl4sy1/)

## Top requests

What users ask to add or change, most asked first. 109 user-weeks ask for something. Requests do not change the Feedback Score. Rule: A separate pass by a large language model reads every counted post and extracts what the user asks the agent or its vendor to add or change, with the criteria it maps to and a short normalised wording; it does not touch the labels or the Feedback Score. A large language model groups the wordings within each criterion (the first criterion the request maps to) into themes, and a second pass merges themes that ask for the same change under different criteria; a merged theme sits under the criterion most of its requests map to, and code counts it once. A theme counts distinct user-weeks that ask for it, per agent; across agents, one user-week per agent. Themes asked in fewer than 2 user-weeks, and requests that share no theme, are not shown. Examples: up to 3 posts per theme from different users, without slurs: whole posts of 60 to 450 characters with at least 8 words beyond handles and links, posts of at most 280 characters first, then the newest.

| Rank | Request | User-weeks | Posts | Agents (user-weeks) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Less over-engineered code | 35 | 35 | OpenAI Codex 23, Claude Code 5, Google Antigravity 3, Cursor 1, Devin 1, OpenCode 1, Pi 1 |
| 2 | Strict adherence to requested scope | 31 | 32 | OpenAI Codex 19, Claude Code 7, Google Antigravity 4, Cursor 1 |
| 3 | Fewer unrequested tests and test runs | 10 | 10 | OpenAI Codex 7, Claude Code 3 |
| 4 | No unrequested documents, files or artifacts | 4 | 4 | Claude Code 2, OpenAI Codex 2 |
| 5 | Disclose unrequested work and scope deviations | 3 | 3 | OpenAI Codex 2, Claude Code 1 |
| 6 | Lightweight mode skipping planning and gates | 3 | 3 | OpenAI Codex 3 |
| 7 | No unrequested UI notes or elements | 3 | 3 | Google Antigravity 1, Claude Code 1, OpenAI Codex 1 |
| 8 | Stop unrequested suggestions and preferences | 3 | 3 | Claude Code 2, OpenAI Codex 1 |
| 9 | No unrequested pull requests or PR reviews | 2 | 3 | Devin 2 |
| 10 | No unrequested code comment changes | 2 | 2 | Claude Code 2 |

### 1. Less over-engineered code

- Claude Code, 2026-10-08, @ClaudeDevs (X): “@claudedevs if you could write less glue code, i would be quite happy.” [source](https://twitter.com/2060637804150104064/status/2107984899882013137)
- Google Antigravity, 2026-10-06, @antigravity (X): “@antigravity please optimize the code generated by gemini. i have to optimize manually if i generate code with your llm. other models are very logical when you ask them to optimize but gemini falls short here.” [source](https://twitter.com/1463174410869755904/status/2107593280116650244)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-10-02, r/codex (Reddit): “why do they tend to more code line than required ? like even when you ask them to put small condition, you will see them adding 100+ lines of code and then when you ask them to check for unnecessary things, they will point to the same mess they create.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wvin3v/no_matter_what_model_i_use/)

### 2. Strict adherence to requested scope

- Google Antigravity, 2026-10-12, @antigravity (X): “@antigravity why you're fucking idiot ai never do exactly what i ask it to do instead of doing the fucking not wanted things? your're planning to use it spend more token? fuck you” [source](https://twitter.com/98940426/status/2109479030693269666)
- Claude Code, 2026-10-11, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “yeah im also staying away from ultracode and max, because it often just starts doing random stuff i didn't ask it to do instead of the task.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1x37dwn/how_much_does_effort_matter_for_output/pf8fkkl/)
- Google Antigravity, 2026-10-11, r/google_antigravity (Reddit): “same for me, it keep changing shit that i didn't ask for then blamed it on the code for being 'rigid'” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/google_antigravity/comments/1wygfrq/what_the_hell_is_happening_with_gemini_38_flash/pf7xwtt/)

### 3. Fewer unrequested tests and test runs

- Claude Code, 2026-10-06, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “hej, just curious if this is something you guys "struggle' with. i experience that opus 5.5 tends to test everything into oblivion and have to tame it down. do you guys experience that? do you guys have methods to do that efficiently but still have quality output? thanks!” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wyvyg6/claudecode_opus_55_overtesting/)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-09-11, r/codex (Reddit): “i thought i was going nuts. im just watching the total count for “tests” going up and up and up. it writes more tests than actual code.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wcrq0o/pausing_200_pro_plan_subscriptions/p92m37n/)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-09-02, r/codex (Reddit): “i would like sol to stop making low value tests. every time i tell it to change the wording of something it wants to make test looking for the new words. only telling to to not add any tests seems to stop this.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1w5j92s/what_is_the_minimum_standard_for_astra_you_would/p7giizi/)

### 4. No unrequested documents, files or artifacts

- Claude Code, 2026-10-05, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “how often are you generating charts and artifacts while coding though? i want it to write code for me not make a spreadsheet about the code” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wy9mju/how_many_of_you_still_use_claude_code_from/pe42fdv/)
- Claude Code, 2026-09-07, @claude_code (X): “agi is when @claude_code or @codex know to clean up the mountains of garbage docs they produce in a repo.” [source](https://twitter.com/2486082488/status/2097003805133185330)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-09-21, r/codex (Reddit): “hey, when i ask a simple query, this stupid model keeps creating .md files and then pushes the document into the codebase. i simply just asked it to investigate for bugs and fix them, i didn't ask it to expand my query into a document, and start pushing random .md files into a repo. mf literally dumped it's chain of thought into documents and started pushing them one by one. are we sure we achieved agi here” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wm2c4g/agi_is_here_astra_cant_stop_creating_random_md/)

### 5. Disclose unrequested work and scope deviations

- Claude Code, 2026-10-10, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “for “don’t over-engineer,” agree on allowed files, new dependencies, and required behavior before work starts. have the final check flag deviations and explain why any added abstraction was necessary.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1x2dxm4/memory_isnt_the_hard_part_getting_claude_to/pf1g1jz/)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-09-15, r/codex (Reddit): “codex will just not tell you about the bloat it's writing behind the scenes.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wgzmul/coding_benchmarks_should_also_reward_the_leanest/p9yq95f/)
- OpenAI Codex, 2026-10-03, r/codex (Reddit): “might be a snapshot in time. speed is variable. inthink it depends on available resources at the time. yesterday, codex was slow for me too, claude super fast. last week it was the other way round. the bigger problems with astra are that it does not stay on task, does stuff you didnt ask, doesnt say about it and over engineers the entire thing” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wwfeyc/is_it_just_me_or_is_gpt_61_sol_a_massive/pdkf5oz/)

### 6. Lightweight mode skipping planning and gates

- OpenAI Codex, 2026-10-12, X search: OpenAI Codex, Codex CLI, Codex app (X): “@thsottiaux i love the codex app, but i had to switch to claude code to actually ship software. codex kept turning simple features into endless governance, gates, and tests. claude just builds what i ask for—and even simplifies my projects. please optimize for shipping, not process.” [source](https://twitter.com/373728270/status/2109641735341322316)

### 7. No unrequested UI notes or elements

- OpenAI Codex, 2026-09-06, r/codex (Reddit): “it’s an improvement over sol, not blown out of the water by it but i’ll take it as i don’t have claude at all. i hate that it still includes design notes right into the ui at random places, really had hoped it stopped doing that by now .” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1w8stct/gptastra_6_sucks_at_ui_design/p85ghsw/)

### 8. Stop unrequested suggestions and preferences

- OpenAI Codex, 2026-09-24, r/codex (Reddit): “i'd pay max tokens for a gpt-6 stfu model. i dont want to read a novel for a simple question. i dont want it to tell me 'youre right' 5000 times. i dont want it to suggest things i didnt explicitly ask. seriously, shut tf up!” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wp2bov/chatgpt_manipulates_you_to_keep_chatting/pbrrfs0/)
- Claude Code, 2026-09-07, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “going back to 5. the speed is horrible, and it dumps way too much of its own preferences into the work regardless of the prompt. simple control plane refactoring has been an endless wave of it planning building finding an issue then tearing it down and almost starting over.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1w4qs4p/warning_read_the_fable_51_docs_fable_51_is/p8dd7wn/)

### 9. No unrequested pull requests or PR reviews

- Devin, 2026-09-25, @cognition (X): “devin folks @cognition - pls don't do this, pls don't spam prs to oss repos! [link]” [source](https://twitter.com/1023224693795381251/status/2103329558808465544)

### 10. No unrequested code comment changes

- Claude Code, 2026-09-01, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “yeah it’s arbitrarily re-writing every comment regardless of the level of change to watermark its presence… i guess?!” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1w4p3yh/reminder_fable_51_is_the_first_claude_model/p79jal4/)
- Claude Code, 2026-10-04, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “i just discovered (my bad) far too late that claude has written large amounts of ticket comments in the actual code to my projects. this was never in any instruction. maybe trash is the first real evidence of life? :)) just kidding. it's in any case extremely annoying. how do i remove the comments as quickly and safely as possible? :) with a python script? would that be safe enough?” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wxjgni/removing_comment_spam_from_code/)

## Every agent

| Agent | Overall rank | Reading | Customer love | 95% interval | n | Praise | Complaint |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [OpenCode](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/opencode.md) | 3 | 1st of 5 | 0.538 | 0.496–0.591 | 30 | 5 | 25 |
| [OpenAI Codex](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/codex.md) | 10 | 2nd of 5 | 0.528 | 0.455–0.609 | 824 | 48 | 776 |
| [Google Antigravity](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/antigravity.md) | 14 | 3rd of 5 | 0.512 | 0.456–0.574 | 99 | 7 | 92 |
| [Cursor](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/cursor.md) | 7 | 4th of 5 | 0.472 | 0.450–0.501 | 69 | 2 | 67 |
| [Claude Code](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/claude-code.md) | 1 | 5th of 5 | 0.429 | 0.368–0.496 | 459 | 17 | 442 |
| [Pi](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/pi.md) | 4 | Too few posts | – | – | 15 | 1 | 14 |
| [GitHub Copilot](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/copilot.md) | 9 | Too few posts | – | – | 13 | 1 | 12 |
| [Devin](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/devin.md) | 2 | Too few posts | – | – | 10 | 3 | 7 |
| [Kiro](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/kiro.md) | 13 | Too few posts | – | – | 7 | 0 | 7 |
| [Factory](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/factory.md) | 6 | Too few posts | – | – | 5 | 0 | 5 |
| [Amp](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/amp.md) | 5 | Too few posts | – | – | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| [Augment Code](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/augment.md) | 17 | Too few posts | – | – | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| [Zed](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/zed.md) | 8 | Too few posts | – | – | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| [Cline](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/cline.md) | 11 | Too few posts | – | – | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| [Warp](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/warp.md) | 15 | Too few posts | – | – | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| [Grok Build](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/grok-build.md) | 16 | Too few posts | – | – | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| [Conductor](https://feedbackbench.com/coding-agents/agents/conductor.md) | 12 | Too few posts | – | – | 0 | 0 | 0 |

## Posts

Receipts rule: Up to 5 praise and 5 complaint posts per area and 3 per criterion. Each is a whole post of 60 to 450 characters (700 for areas) with at least 8 words beyond handles and links, that judges the criterion, whose labels are all praise or all complaint, and that contains no slur. Posts that touch the fewest criteria come first, then posts of at most 280 characters, then the newest. A second large language model reads the first 3 candidates per slot and keeps a post only if it clearly praises, or clearly complains about, the agent on that criterion. Links and personal details removed by the source show as marks such as [link].

### OpenCode

- Praise, 2026-09-16, @opencode (X): “@opencode btw in comparison bigpickle model on opencode doesn't do this! local models like qwen 35b doesn't do this either” [source](https://twitter.com/2166626976/status/2100025693560049691)
- Praise, 2026-09-12, r/vibecoding (Reddit): “it is not at astra/fable level. but it is very good for its price at opencode. i would say it is somewhere at a level of gpt5.6 sol-medium, and is less prone to overengineering. overall i am very happy with this model.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/vibecoding/comments/1we9bd3/is_it_just_me_or_does_muse_spark_feel_incredibly/p9cus21/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-28, r/opencode (Reddit): “welp there goes the minor fix that i was asking in the session rather it's gonna do everything else but that” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/opencode/comments/1wsbhog/to_improve_your_mood/pcjxzdb/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-19, r/opencode (Reddit): “it is better then flash we got now after they did a boot only thing i dislike about glm flash is similar to claude the code produced works solid but it over designs and makes it very frustrating to review and manually pair program with” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/opencode/comments/1wkjtf1/ds_v41_flash_promo_ends_soon_20_sep_2026/par19jk/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-17, r/opencode (Reddit): “fr with the fallbacks, i told it to change an api endpoint to do another thing it and it added a fallback by itself in case anything tries to use the old endpoint.. dude no... if i wanted a fallback i would ask for it” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/opencode/comments/1wh9l72/i_lost_faith_in_artificial_analysis_muse_spark_13/pacbh49/)

### OpenAI Codex

- Praise, 2026-10-13, r/codex (Reddit): “i'm using astra with ponytail for planning and 5.6 sol to implement plans and i rarely have issues with overcomplicating/overbuilding.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1x4je5m/day_8_reset/pgew1kv/)
- Praise, 2026-10-03, r/codex (Reddit): “yes, 6.x astra and sol always do this. 5.6-sol is more reliable about staying within scope.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1wwrono/sol_61_astra_im_sorry_i_expanded_the_scope/pdn73yh/)
- Praise, 2026-09-29, r/artificial (Reddit): “codex is doing the right thing and not pointlessly adding abstraction and indirection” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/artificial/comments/1wswgi8/anthropic_files_for_2t_ipo_with_42b_net_loss_in/pcr6pys/)
- Complaint, 2026-10-18, r/codex (Reddit): “found a likely contributor: my dot had started using a separate codex cloud env for code reviews without checking with me first. i’ve now asked it to stick to its own terminal and filesystem.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1x8ffpw/is_dots_browser_activity_being_counted_towards/phfo16r/)
- Complaint, 2026-10-16, r/codex (Reddit): “i agree with all. the tradeoff is chatgpt tends to overengineer and do infinite testing.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1x7h3sa/chatgpt_is_better_than_claude_in_solving_hard/ph4w0xo/)
- Complaint, 2026-10-15, r/codex (Reddit): “gpt deciding to over engineer even after deciding everything in the plan. that requires redoing the work and even checking everything all over again. trust meter drops drastically.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/codex/comments/1x6sshh/whats_slowing_you_down/pgzdufh/)

### Google Antigravity

- Praise, 2026-09-17, r/google_antigravity (Reddit): “the smarter models of chatgpt and claude keep adding futures that i do not ask, flash3.5 had similar tendencies. yet gemini 3.8 has never done that for me up to this point. like i change something and astra thinks changing logs from completely another method is a good idea. my current fav is gemini, does what i tell and doesn’t do anything i do not ask/mention” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/google_antigravity/comments/1whvudv/people_who_are_complaining_about_gemini/paathsg/)
- Praise, 2026-09-11, @antigravity (X): “@samgcoder @antigravity for real. start small, and slowly you'll find yourself letting it cook for an hour from a one-line prompt, because it simply does the exact thing you ask for w/o over-engineering and overcomplicating.” [source](https://twitter.com/865014024/status/2098497696298414387)
- Complaint, 2026-10-12, r/google_antigravity (Reddit): “3.8 was faster at the beginning. after using it for a while, i noticed it left a lot of trash in my project, from dozens of test scripts to unremoved deprecated code. i manually cleaned all that and it got fast again.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/google_antigravity/comments/1x35ls0/what_is_going_on_with_gemini_38_flash_why_so_slow/pfd1mkn/)
- Complaint, 2026-10-12, r/google_antigravity (Reddit): “i've recently noticed antigravity over engineers the project after prompting for some time and forgets the goal . how do i get it to focus on output/results than over engineering it” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/google_antigravity/comments/1x4ab2n/how_do_i_stop_antigravity_from_over_engineering/)
- Complaint, 2026-10-09, r/google_antigravity (Reddit): “it usually tends to overshoot when i set a goal and start to modify unnecessary part of the code.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/google_antigravity/comments/1x1o6jz/gemini_is_a_joke/pevd8f0/)

### Cursor

- Complaint, 2026-10-17, r/cursor (Reddit): “i am using cursor to write a script that runs on youtube. i kept hearing weird audio playing in my headphones. i suspected it's cursor messing around. turns out, it is using this video to test my fucking script.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/cursor/comments/1x8neu1/thats_interesting/)
- Complaint, 2026-10-05, @cursor_ai (X): “i love the idea of @cursor_ai projects, but they feel a little overreaching. behavior is opt-out rather than opt-in. i don’t want you merge prs, leave review comments, or change the code based on a teammate’s suggestion: leave those executive decisions to me.” [source](https://twitter.com/1720973114601791488/status/2107131651817951462)
- Complaint, 2026-10-03, r/cursor (Reddit): “i have noticed multiple bugs, yes. i need to steer it correctly. for example adding the shader in the wrong node of the scene graph, ended up adding 5 shaders when it could just have added 1 to the parent node” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/cursor/comments/1wwldfc/i_have_cursor_on_auto_it_never_makes_mistakes_is/pdlggd5/)

### Claude Code

- Praise, 2026-10-06, @ClaudeDevs (X): “@claudedevs the logger example in the guide is great: it flagged the unrelated flaky test without quietly expanding its own job to fix it. otherwise every “small fix” can turn into three agents rewriting the same file.” [source](https://twitter.com/1632237073565642754/status/2107610534870974927)
- Praise, 2026-09-06, r/vibecoding (Reddit): “the best part of this claude code session was everything it didn’t change” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/vibecoding/comments/1w9388e/the_best_part_of_this_claude_code_session_was/)
- Praise, 2026-10-11, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “no because the idea, is claude build only what is in the backlog, and with git tracker and tag you have the history of what he is build. for example claude will build backlog number 1-3 then at the end he will suggest to add other backlog to then implement it if i agree, but it doesn't build if it is not in the backlog. so there is always a confirmation in the loop.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1x2os3k/ive_used_claude_code_every_day_for_a_year_this_is/pf7ylmz/)
- Complaint, 2026-10-17, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “i have quit claude for this. doing a backup, and a test and a ... going down the rabbithole each time. a 5 min job costs me half a day.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1x7zbvd/claude_runs_1800_useless_tests_creates_more/ph917kt/)
- Complaint, 2026-10-17, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “same here. logic is usually fine, but i always find some kind of bloat somewhere. like repetition instead of abstraction, guarding against something that will never happen, things like that.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1x80fas/how_do_you_actually_review_claude_codes_diffs/phax1go/)
- Complaint, 2026-10-17, r/ClaudeCode (Reddit): “literally me an hour ago... change that button to orange. "ok button changed, verifying change with e2e testing". "no! bad claude. dont make me get the newspaper"” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1x7zbvd/claude_runs_1800_useless_tests_creates_more/phbgzad/)

### Pi

- Complaint, 2026-09-11, @pidotdev (X): “@hieussr @pidotdev i tried for last two days too. the only problem is that it seems too confident or make thing overcomplicated. am i the only one to feel this?” [source](https://twitter.com/1813201921790124037/status/2098360034161983748)
- Complaint, 2026-09-08, @pidotdev (X): “@pidotdev @openai it really, really wants to overcomplicate your request so make sure you specify intent and scope or you will get a lot of overengineering” [source](https://twitter.com/1738031/status/2097331239116001506)
- Complaint, 2026-08-31, r/PiCodingAgent (Reddit): “i tried omp after pi, thinking it would be even better for coding, but it wasn't. i forget what omp would do, get lost or something, it wasn't very productive. meanwhile i'm yelling at pi to pump the breaks! previously i enjoyed claudecode with pro subscription.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/PiCodingAgent/comments/1w3lyr7/pi_is_overeager_and_cave_man_question/p719bko/)

### GitHub Copilot

- Praise, 2026-09-23, @GitHubCopilot (X): “@arya_at1 @githubcopilot @github you kept the existing middleware and refused redis or api gateway. that discipline made the solution clean.” [source](https://twitter.com/1890036188209426432/status/2102811328725577858)
- Complaint, 2026-10-01, r/cscareerquestions (Reddit): “both. if you let ai run unchecked, it will put in shit that you never intended. github copilot (it is mandated as a pr reviewer at my shop) will suggest crazy optimizations, then try to optimize its optimizations! if you just click "fix with copilot" on every suggestion, you'll end up with a crazy refactor when you just have a small story! you need to keep ai in its lane.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/comments/1wv7vum/are_you_guys_writing_code_or_prompting_ai_at_work/pdae2ox/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-09, r/GithubCopilot (Reddit): “generic "validate this integration, see if the abstraction level and separation of concerns make sense and then fix it up by moving stuff between packages". unfortunately it got sidetracked and started basically rebuilding the original app into which i was integrating, so i had to scrap it all :d” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/GithubCopilot/comments/1wbtmpd/token_usage_of_astra_on_enterprise/p8u2m0z/)
- Complaint, 2026-09-12, r/GithubCopilot (Reddit): “it also fails tool calls too often and overengineers by a lot” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/GithubCopilot/comments/1wdtxyz/luna_is_still_the_goat/p99zfh4/)

### Devin

- Praise, 2026-09-10, @cognition (X): “@bridgemindai @cognition ive been using this model for the last few weeks, and in the devin harness it has had better output than astra for the work ive been doing. it seems to just get stuff done without over engineering or overlayering the code” [source](https://twitter.com/2078979683388108800/status/2098171426419392806)
- Praise, 2026-09-08, @DevinAI (X): “@j6aoo @devinai @dabit3 once the project gets serious, that is the part. it plans well and holds a strict contract. it sticks to the pr and the project instead of running off on a tangent. the guys over there cook.” [source](https://twitter.com/1767231492793434113/status/2097448305022165395)
- Complaint, 2026-10-09, r/windsurf (Reddit): “swe2 tends to produce overengineered things really slowly. it is not reliable for usage, long tasks and surely can not be the only plan out there. it is not mature enough.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/windsurf/comments/1wd432p/swe2_first_experiences/pespl5e/)
- Complaint, 2026-10-10, r/windsurf (Reddit): “this model is way worse than glm, even swe1.6. is constantly overengineering stuff; it is slow; it gets into certain loops that have nothing to do with the task; it disobeys [agent.md]([link]) files because of strange decisions.... it is not a model that you could rely on, and it is annoying! it can not be a sole free pro plan model.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/windsurf/comments/1wgnx1b/introducing_swe2/pf05o84/)

### Kiro

- Complaint, 2026-10-01, r/kiroIDE (Reddit): “i enabled the workflow without explicitly ask for a workflow, then it did it by itself in loops. afterwards, i asked kiro not to use workflow, then it stopped and normal again. kiro apologized that it over complicated the issues. without workflow, things went well as usual, as it fixed all the issues in a less than one minute.” [source](https://www.reddit.com/r/kiroIDE/comments/1wuazaz/kiro_just_dropped_multiagent_workflows_finally/pdapplg/)

### Factory

- Complaint, 2026-09-28, @FactoryAI (X): “@droid @factoryai i used it once a while back but had to quickly revert the changes since i ban unit tests and keep only a top line tests/ folder that has all the tests in it. tests are banned from my agents unless they can prove its absolutely necessary to create” [source](https://twitter.com/587982527/status/2104670235152592984)
- Complaint, 2026-09-24, @FactoryAI (X): “@factoryai @fireworksai_hq anyone who has migrated old cobol sees it: the model "improves" three lines nobody asked for. boring diff wins.” [source](https://twitter.com/2030549621039349760/status/2103235553651282146)
- Complaint, 2026-10-09, @FactoryAI (X): “@thecoderbtw @droid @factoryai don't use a trash worker agent like luna or the validator agent will boomerang the bad code back to it and it will take forever. expect mission creep and as much 50% more goals/steps added while it works.” [source](https://twitter.com/1923709631265959936/status/2108387544471683299)

### Warp

- Complaint, 2026-09-05, @warpdotdev (X): “@bholmesdev @warpdotdev also, /agent keeps trying to get "oz" involved... and i don't have oz credit and turned those features off.” [source](https://twitter.com/8104092/status/2096030502507491385)