---
title: "Meet Claude Opus 5.5"
issue: 77
description: "Anthropic released Claude Opus 5.5 on September 22, with clearer writing, better coding, higher usage limits for paid plans, and lower costs for running AI workflows."
date: 2026-09-25
canonical: "https://mikemurphy.ai/ai-unplugged/issues/077/"
agent_json: "https://mikemurphy.ai/ai-unplugged/issues/077.json"
---

## 🌲 Agent Evergreen Build Log: Picking Up Where We Left Off

This week, Evergreen helped prepare the newsletter you're reading. It handed the drafting job to Scribe, which used my newsletter skill to research the selected topics and put together a draft for my review.

Then I started a fresh session and asked Evergreen to pick up where we left off. It recovered the saved draft, review notes, and next action without me explaining the assignment again.

That's a small but useful milestone: the work can continue across sessions. I still review the copy and decide when it gets published.

**Next up:** save the reviewed issue to my content management system.

- **Waitlist Signups:** 3
- **Read the full manifesto:** [mikemurphy.ai/articles/agent-evergreen-manifesto](https://mikemurphy.ai/articles/agent-evergreen-manifesto/)
- **The Founding waitlist:** [mikemurphy.ai/evergreen](https://mikemurphy.ai/evergreen/)

---

## 🗞️ AI News of The Week: Anthropic Introduces Claude Opus 5.5

Anthropic released Claude Opus 5.5 on September 22, with improvements to writing, coding, and the cost of running AI workflows.

Anthropic says the new model produces clearer responses, follows writing instructions more closely, and handles complex work more efficiently. The company also reports lower operating costs than Opus 5 and higher usage limits for paid Claude subscribers.

**Why this matters:**
- **Clearer writing:** Anthropic says Opus 5.5 puts key information first and uses less jargon. Try it on a draft you already know well.
- **More room to work:** Five-hour usage limits are increasing on Pro, Max, Team, and seat-based Enterprise plans.
- **Cheaper automated workflows:** Anthropic reports typical API workloads cost about 40% less than Opus 5 in its tests. That is an operating-cost claim, not a subscription discount.
- **A useful comparison:** Run an existing assignment through the new model and check whether it needs fewer corrections.

👉 [Read More About Claude Opus 5.5](https://www.anthropic.com/claude-opus-5-5)

## 🧠 AI Term of The Week: Opaque Recurrence

**Definition:**
Opaque recurrence is when an AI model repeatedly processes internal information without expressing each intermediate step in readable words.

**Explain Like I'm 5:**
Imagine someone working through a puzzle on a hidden scratchpad, then showing you the answer.

## 💬 Quote of the Week

> "Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination."
> — Mark Twain

## 🧰 AI Tool of The Week: Google Vids

Google Vids is a video creation and editing tool for people who want to make explainers, training videos, and presentations with AI assistance.

**Why it's interesting:**
- Turns Google Slides presentations into video projects and provides templates and stock media.
- Records your screen and audio, with AI voiceovers and avatars also available.
- Lets collaborators edit, comment, and view through sharing controls.
- Create and edit on desktop. Advanced features and usage limits depend on your plan.

👉 [Explore Google Vids](https://workspace.google.com/products/vids/)

## 🛠 AI Tutorial Of The Week: How To Build Your First AI Agent From Scratch

**Description:**
Build a simple Evergreen agent with two Markdown text files and Claude Code in VS Code, then give it the job of recommending your next article.

**🤖 What You'll Learn**
- Create a context file with your audience, goals, and article ideas.
- Write instructions that define the agent's job and boundaries.
- Ask Claude Code to read those files and recommend an article.
- Review the recommendation and save it as a file you can return to later.

📺 [Watch Tutorial on YouTube](https://youtu.be/mFVqAYxKdoo)
📖 [Follow the written walkthrough](https://mikemurphy.ai/tutorials/agentbuild/)

---

**Mike Murphy — The AI Handyman 🧰**
Helping creators & small businesses turn their content & documents into AI-powered tools.