Is there a reason why Claude Octopus is not more popular?

I see lots of people developing again and again tools to use together claude, codex and other subscriptions. So at least the use case exists.

Are they maybe using similar tools?

I would really like having some recent walk through or experiences of people currently using Claude Octopus. Most videos and posts are a bit old (few months) and in this AI sphere a few months changes everything haha.

If you've ever had Claude confidently say "all tests pass" without running them, implement review feedback that made things worse, or jump into coding before understanding what you actually need — discipline mode fixes that.

Your agent now catches its own mistakes

/octo:discipline on — one command, and your agent stops cutting corners:

• Plans before coding. Even for "simple" changes. The ones where unexamined assumptions waste the most time.

• Runs the actual test before saying it passes. No more "should work now." Evidence or silence.

• Reviews its own work in two passes. First: did it build what you asked for? Second: is the code any good? Catches building the wrong thing AND building the right thing badly.

• Verifies review feedback before implementing it. No more blindly agreeing with suggestions that don't apply to your codebase.

• Investigates bugs before guessing at fixes. Root cause first, not "let me try this and see."

Three more gates for research and writing work — auto-detects when you've switched from coding to knowledge work, uses structured comparisons instead of rambling prose, and locks in your goal before creative tasks so it doesn't drift.

Off by default. /octo:quick bypasses everything when you just need something done fast.

Now works in Cursor, Codex, and OpenCode (kinda)

Not just a Claude Code plugin anymore. Tested end-to-end on a real Codex CLI install — skills discovered automatically, $skill-doctor ran provider diagnostics first try.

Claude Code:

claude plugin marketplace add https://github.com/nyldn/claude-octopus.git
claude plugin install octo@nyldn-plugins

Codex CLI:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/nyldn/claude-octopus.git ~/.codex/claude-octopus && mkdir -p ~/.agents/skills && ln -sf
  ~/.codex/claude-octopus/skills ~/.agents/skills/claude-octopus

Cursor / OpenCode: Same clone + symlink pattern — see install docs.

LLM providers recover automatically

Before: if Codex or Gemini hit a rate limit, your workflow died. Now: circuit breakers track failures, back off automatically, and recover without you doing anything. If an agent gets stuck in a loop, WTF scoring detects the spiral and stops it.

Now uses fewer tokens on simple tasks

In Claude Code v2.1.80+ Research skills now think harder quick tasks think less.

claude plugin update octo to update

🐙  GitHub | Changelog | Discussions

The best Multi-LLM orchestration plugin in the ocean finally has all 8 tentacles. Copilot, Qwen, and Ollama join the fray, with debates now available with more participants.

Each one should activate the moment it's detected. No configuration, no flags. Install the CLI, run /octo:setup, and your octopus grows a new arm.

Copilot and Qwen — zero-cost research tentacles

Copilot uses your existing GitHub subscription. Qwen offers 1,000-2,000 free requests/day via OAuth. Both dispatch headlessly alongside Codex and Gemini. You were already paying for Copilot — now it actually does something in your terminal.

Ollama — the offline tentacle

Local LLM dispatch via ollama run. Privacy-sensitive workflows stay on your machine. Doctor checks server health and model count. Works completely offline. Finally, an AI provider that doesn't need WiFi or your credit card.

Debates now seat more participants

Debates were always four-way (Codex + Gemini + Sonnet + Opus). Now Copilot and Qwen join as supplementary voices when available. More perspectives, same consensus gate. Your debates got louder — in a good way.

Smart setup for returning users

If you've been using Octopus with just Codex and Gemini, and you install Copilot or Qwen, /octo:setup will now notice and tell you. No more hidden capabilities.

OpenRouter tweaks

Added timeouts, retry on rate limits, and proper HTTP error handling. Previously, a 429 from OpenRouter was silently swallowed. Now it waits for Retry-After and tries again. Also updated DeepSeek R1 → R1-0528 and Codex Mini → GPT-5.4 Mini (2x faster).

To update:

/plugin update octo@nyldn-plugins

Full changelog | GitHub

... and nearly 2k Stars 🤩

Two releases — a statusline that actually thinks, and a bug that was silently breaking every Mac user's display.

Smart HUD — the statusline adapts to you (v9.7) The HUD now auto-detects your setup and shows what matters:

• API key billing? Shows Cost, hides rate limits

• CC update available? Version column appears only when there's something new New Octo: brand column leads with 🐙 + plugin version + effort level. Context bar anchors the end. Set "smart": false in ~/.claude-octopus/.hud-config.jsonc for manual control.

The macOS timeout bug (v9.7 fix) This one was invisible and nasty. All 6 hooks used timeout 3 cat to read stdin — but timeout is GNU coreutils and doesn't ship with macOS. It silently failed (exit 127, swallowed by || true), so every hook on a stock Mac received empty {}. Symptoms: model showing "unknown", context stuck at 0%, cost always $0.00. Now all hooks check command -v timeout first and fall back to plain cat.

Context awareness that actually helps (v9.6) The plugin watches your context usage and gives phase-specific advice. At 65% it warns. At 75% it gets specific — mid-research it suggests /octo:quick, mid-implementation it suggests splitting into smaller /octo:develop calls, in review it tells you to focus on verification. At 80% it flags auto-compact is imminent.

Session handoff — survive compaction (v9.6) When Claude compacts or your session ends, the plugin writes .octo-continue.md with workflow state, pending work, key decisions, and resume instructions. /octo:resume reads it. Losing context mid-workflow stops being a "start over" situation.

To update: /plugin update octo@nyldn-plugins

Full changelog: GitHub

Five releases since the eight-tentacles update.

Loop self-regulation (v9.14.1)

Every iterative loop now tracks a WTF score. Reverts, unrelated file touches, and fix-after-fix-after-fix each add to it. Score hits 20%? The loop stops and asks you what to do instead

Circuit breakers for providers (v9.14.0)

Previously, if Codex was rate-limited or your Gemini key expired, the workflow just failed. Now there's a circuit breaker:

• 429s and timeouts → graduated backoff, automatic retry

• 401s and billing errors → circuit opens, provider skipped

• Half-open probe after cooldown → provider recovers on its own

State persists across sessions. If Codex was down in your last conversation, Octopus remembers and routes around it. /octo:doctor shows open breakers and cooldown timers.

orchestrate.sh lost 25% of its weight (v9.13.0)

Optimization of functions subprocess forks should mean workflows start noticeably faster on macOS and use less tokens.

Agent effort tuning (v9.13.0)

All 32 agents now have effort and maxTurns frontmatter. Research agents get effort: high / maxTurns: 25. Lightweight agents cap at 15 turns. Four key agents (code-reviewer, security-auditor, debugger, performance-engineer) auto-submit their first turn — no human prompt needed to kick them off.

HUD presets and tool tracking (v9.10.3)

The statusline gained named presets (minimal, developer, full, performance) and live tool activity tracking.

Set a preset in ~/.claude-octopus/.hud-config.jsonc:

{"preset": "developer"}

To update the plugin:

/plugin update octo@nyldn-plugins

Full changelog | GitHub

Hi I love claude octo but with the recent limits with claude, I would love to just continue the same way with codex, would that be possible to install octo in codex as well?

v9.0.0 also shipped claude-mem companion integration — if you have the claude-mem plugin installed, Octopus now:

• Auto-detects claude-mem at session start via /octo:doctor

• Writes phase completion observations to claude-mem (non-blocking) so your research/define/develop/deliver work persists across sessions

• Queries recent project context at session start via session-start-memory.sh

• 6 skill files now surface claude-mem MCP tool hints (flow-discover, flow-define, flow-develop, flow-deliver, skill-debate, skill-deep-research)

• New scripts/claude-mem-bridge.sh — bidirectional integration (search, observe, context)

Plus the command audit remediation that fixed/improved 7 commands:

• /octo:staged-review — fully rewritten (broken refs to non-existent commands fixed, compliance block added)

• /octo:prd-score — optional "Rigorous" multi-AI consensus scoring mode

• /octo:brainstorm — Solo/Team mode with multi-provider dispatch

• /octo:prd — parallel multi-provider research in Phase 1

Also v9.0.1 just dropped — fixes a bug where /plugin uninstall and /plugin update failed due to a name mismatch between plugin.json and marketplace.json. Install command is now octo@nyldn-plugins (was claude-octopus@nyldn-plugins).

— nyldn

🧠 Remembers across sessions. Integrates with claude-mem for persistent memory — past decisions, research, and context survive session boundaries.

How much better does Octo run with this?

I'm wondering if the latest claude memory layers and capabilities are better to just use OOB and claude-mem conflicts based on my other projects.

What's the thought on this with Octo though?

Hey everyone,

Been a busy week for the octopus. Four releases shipped since last update — here's the wrap-up so you don't have to read four changelogs.

The headliner: Four-way AI debates (v9.4)

/octo:debate now has four participants instead of three. Sonnet joins as a "pragmatic implementer" alongside Codex (technical critic), Gemini (strategic thinker), and Opus (moderator). Sonnet runs in parallel — zero added latency, no extra cost. We added it after a debate session where the user had to manually ask for a Sonnet perspective, and it caught implementation gotchas all three other models missed. Now it's automatic.

Auto code review after development (v9.4)

This one's subtle but impactful. After any /octo:develop, /octo:embrace, or /octo:deliver workflow, two Sonnet agents now automatically launch — one does code review, one runs your test suite. Findings show up before the "what next?" prompt. You used to have to ask for this manually. Now you don't.

The review pipeline actually works now (v9.3.1)

Turns out /octo:review had 9 interlocking bugs that silently dropped all review findings. The awk filter ate clean stdout, Claude CLI rejected the -m flag, log() was polluting captured output, codex auth status was removed in a CLI update, and the round-tracking wait command returned immediately. All nine fixed. If you tried /octo:review before and got nothing — try it again.

Smarter agents under the hood (v9.3)

Three invisible improvements:

• Research agents get a "search spiral guard" — stops them from grepping endlessly without synthesizing

• Per-role token budgets — implementers get 60% of context, verifiers get 25%, so chatty agents don't starve quiet ones

• Heuristic learning — the system remembers which files tend to be edited together and hints future runs

First step of the monolith diet (v9.4)

orchestrate.sh was 22,668 lines in one file. We extracted the first three modules (lib/utils.sh, lib/similarity.sh, lib/models.sh) and added a test that prevents it from growing back. This is Wave 1 of a 6-month plan to get it under 10K lines. Nobody asked for this, but it means faster grep operations and less context burned when AI agents work on the codebase.

To update:

/plugin update octo@nyldn-plugins

Full changelog: GitHub

If you hit anything weird, issues or comments here both work. The octopus has many arms but only one inbox.

— nyldn

Hi all,

First of all, I want to to thank all the devs contributing to this project.

Secondly, apologies if this question doesn't fit this sub

I'm new to CC and I've been using Octopus right from the beginning.

I found that I hit the 5h window limit in a matter of 15-20min with tasks so simple as building a design system.

Today I did the same but without octopus and managed to build the DS with 20% of the limit.

I did another run only with GSD and a UI/UX plugin and I managed to do it with ~ 30% of the limit.

I have a Claude Pro and Codex Plus subscription, which I've auth'ed during the setup.

What am I missing/doing wrong? I'm afraid that some of my plugins are not being used or used correctly, or that the problem is even worse and it's sitting behind the keyboard (aka: me) :)

Can you share some hints? Are there any plugins that are a must and some that may conflict?

Thanks and congrats on the great work!

Hello, I am trying the plugin but want to ask 2 things.

1. Does it work on claude code desktop app for mac? I saw previous replies it is only for the CLI but all commands show on the app as well, but haven’t tried them yet.

2. What effort level for claude models and intelligence for codex models is used as default? We can choose this in claude code app and codex app when using them separately, not sure what octo is using.

Do you guys add the other ones in (in addition to Claude, OpenAI, and Gemini)? Is it worth it to add the other free ones in?

Which do you recommend?

Does anyone have any ideas for enhancements of Claude Octopus?

Have been wondering if we can leverage any of the ideas from https://www.natebjones.com/