Opus 4.5 changed everything (Changelog Interviews #678)

Burke Holland works on GitHub Copilot by day and codes with his AI agents always. Early January, Burke posted about how Opus 4.5 changed everything. We were all still buzzing from the holiday-season 2x usage bump Claude gave us, and Opus 4.5 felt like a genuine step function in capability. Burke and I get into all the details. Opus 4.5 may have started the fire, but GPT-5.3 Codex is certainly living up to the hype.

Join the discussion

Changelog++ members get a bonus 17 minutes at the end of this episode and zero ads. Join today!

Sponsors:

• Augment Code – Adam loves “Auggie” – Augment Code’s CLI that brings Augment’s context engine and powerful AI reasoning anywhere your code goes. From building alongside you in the terminal to any part of your development workflow.
• Squarespace – Turn your expertise into a business with the all-in-one platform for websites, services, and getting paid. Use code CHANGELOG to save 10% on your first website purchase.
• Notion – Custom Agents that automate the busywork so your team can focus on real work. Try them free at notion.com/changelog

Featuring:

• Burke Holland – Website, GitHub, X
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

• Opus 4.5 is going to change everything
• Jon Gjengset Explains Rust 2026
• How we rebuilt Next.js with AI in one week Rebuilding Next.js using AI in a single week
• The era of the Small Giant (Changelog #673)
• Layercode — Voice AI infrastructure for TypeScript developers
• Diffs — An open source diff and code rendering library
• Pierre Computer Company
• Code Storage
• Entire — Developer platform from former GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke
• Tigris Data
• @traskjd tweet
• GitHub Copilot

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!