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Why are Claude models so verbose?

Why are Claude models so verbose?

2 pointsby JacobWolf6 comments

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  • Because models that chat to themselves generate more tokens, hence more money is spent.

    Easy

    by danielovichdk
  • I've been messing around with output styles for a bit to try and reduce the madness that is opus 5's extremely disorganized and verbose output. I haven't had a lot of success, but they did just release their own concise style so I'm trying that out now. I'm hoping they figured this out because it's really degrading the experience and usability.
    by rtrann
  • IMO: The extra code comments always help further to understand the context and perform quickly the debugging when needed.
    by geludobre
  • We can control it (claude.md and plus use 'rules') but, it would be better if not verbose before I set it. yeah
    by lhk931122
  • Consider that verbosity on Token Generation is negligible with respect to the tokens consumed for the prompt and the context, so I think it is just a writing style than can be appreciated or not (to me it is not so bad).
    by _barban_
  • I think there are a few nuances here:

    1. On the ignore instructions point: using Cursor with Claude as the underlying model is quite different from using Claude directly through Claude Code. The agent/tooling layer can have a pretty big impact on the behavior.

    2. On verbosity: IMO, Claude's default writing style tends to be more verbose than GPT's. GPT models are generally more concise when coding, while Claude often explains more. That said, I think this can be mitigated quite a bit by how you harness the model.

    3. I agree that it’s worth trying new models. The pace of AI development is so fast that models can change significantly in a short time. But I’d also suggest trying different agent tools rather than sticking with Cursor alone. The tooling and agent loop can make a big difference too.

    by thingstohappy
  • I've had to put hard rules into Claude - and I still have to reinforce them - not just CLAUDE.md (make sure not over 40k characters) but hooks that force a read of .md files on startup, etc. Some sessions still bend the rules along the way, but hooks help bring them back into line automatically. I don't worry too much about verbosity - so I haven't tried to curb that. I just ask "give me the short version" when needed. I let the comments happen for future session passes.

    As for "things solved by X" - part of my rules includes a list of "check X first" before planning or implementation - do not reinvent what is already solved". Seems to help.

    by ericmaciver
  • Claude Code has output styles; one of the predefined styles is Concise [1].

        Concise: Claude leads with the result, skips preamble and narration, and
    keeps responses short by default, while doing the engineering work as
    thoroughly as in the Default style. When you ask for an explanation or
    more detail, Claude answers in full. Claude always keeps the complete
    content of error reports, security warnings, and confirmations for
    destructive actions. Requires Claude Code v2.1.237 or later.
    [1]: https://code.claude.com/docs/en/output-styles
    by alwillis

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