The proper way to work with Claude or Codex is, IMO, to load up the context with a discussion about what you're doing and why. You go back and forth, pushing back on its opinions and shaping the context until the tokens are ready to flow into the right shape. Every angle you miss is an opportunity for them to slop out all over the place, and, until Codex was mature, the longer you ran the task for, the more it'd spread out and lose shape.

Re-shaping the context sometimes involves severe pressures like "wtf is this ugly crap?" or "did I just spot you laying a turd in my codebase again?" and other strong forms of disapproval, mixed with "hmm not sure I like the sound of that"s, to "yea that's much better" to pull it back in the other direction.

The trick is to shape the flow before the tide comes in and you end up like King Canute