Shikhar's post on X, curated on eChai

More Founder Notes

• Curated from X →

  Vaibhav Srivastav is at OpenAI, and was at Hugging Face before that, so this is written from inside the team that shipped the model. The five lines in the middle are the part to keep: what to change in your own prompts and AGENTS.md now that Astra follows instructions more closely than the model before it.

  Vaibhav (VB) Srivastav 3h

  GPT-6 Astra is now available to all Pro, Enterprise and Business Premium users in ChatGPT Work and Codex. It’s also live in the API.

  It's a phenomenal model and I love every second working with it!

  Astra follows instructions more closely, so revisit your prompts and skills:

  > Make “can you…” mean “do it”: finish authorised work and prepare a reviewable result before seeking approval.

  > Audit AGENTS.md and skills. Ask it to identify the exact file and rule blocking progress. Prioritise your request over skill guidelines.

  > Specify short paragraphs, plain language and phrases to avoid.

  > Ask for subagents on independent work when it improves speed or quality.

  > Run relevant checks. Repeat or expand only for changes, failures or unresolved concerns.

  To push it to it's limits, I gave it a prompt to build a real-scale video fly through of nürburguring track in blender and it did not disappoint!

  Enjoy! ✨

  

• Curated from X →

  Miguel Ángel is a product engineer at HeyGen, and HyperFrames is HeyGen's own product, so this is the model being used on the thing he builds all day.

  Miguel Ángel 3h

  Astra is too good making @HyperFrames_ videos!

• Curated from X →

  Theo runs T3 Chat and makes videos about web development. Almost everything else in this collection is somebody building a new thing in one sitting; his six suggestions are all maintenance on code that already exists. He asks the model to audit a codebase for what he calls slop, useless tests and unnecessary function wrappers, to work through open pull requests and issues, and to take over a branch that has been stuck for months with permission to throw the existing work away. He says he has closed at least 200 pull requests and issues this way.

  Theo - t3.gg 3h

  Astra is rolling out now! It's unbelievably powerful, but you have to push it a bit to really see the difference.

  I wanted to give some examples of what I mean here. Here are some fun things to try in your codebases when you get access:

  1. Slop audits
  I have asked Astra to go through all my codebases hunting for slop. Useless tests, unnecessary function wrappers, stuff like that. Surprisingly effective. It's cleaned up a ton of code for me.

  2. Hunt for performance wins
  Astra has found a ton of performance wins in my apps. It can make hard cuts and verify the results. Make sure you give it the tools it needs to verify it's changes. On that note...

  3. Improve agent dx and verification loops
  This model is surprisingly aware of what it can do. Ask it what it needs to verify it's own work. Let it suggest improvements to setup and worktree flows, debug access, end to end QA flows, etc.

  4. Audit open PRs/issues
  I've had Astra close at least 200 PRs and issues at this point. It also does a great job of finding easy win PRs to merge. Super helpful for projects with lots of contributors (both OSS and internal repos)

  5. Let it merge
  Once you get used to the model and it's ability to verify work, try trusting it a bit more. Obviously don't let it yolo ship to production, but if you have a good flow for pr -> main -> staging -> prod, maybe roll the dice a bit?

  6. "takeover" work that is stuck in a loop
  I've had this model land PRs that were stuck for months. If you have some old branch or PR where your agents are running in circles, blowing up the spec without actually shipping, tell Astra to take it over. Make sure it knows it can throw away the existing work and start from scratch.

  Hope these help you guys with really pushing the new model! I've had a blast with it, I hope y'all do as well :)

  Note: I cannot be held responsible for surprise bills and limit usage

  Show more

Every note →