For some reason reasoning effort low and medium used similar numbers of tokens, and xhigh used less than high. I think I need to try without OpenRouter in the middle.
UPDATE: I tried again with the xAI API directly: <a href="https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgist.github.com%2Fsimonw%2F5a1819a2bd24bb642f38c4bc6733090f" rel="nofollow">https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=ht... - not a great deal of difference between reasoning levels, and this time xhigh and low used the same number of reasoning tokens for some reason.
For comparison here's a fresh run against Grok 4.6: <a href="https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgist.github.com%2Fsimonw%2Ffedc404b9aa8e6fca31d59c898dabba0" rel="nofollow">https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=ht...
exactly, the benchmark just needs to be downvoted into oblivion each times it's posted. The outcome is not deterministic and the model needs to determine what level of detail is appropriate for an svg. There is no wrong answer to this unless it's obviously un-Pelican-like.
simonw · · focus · HN ↗
Here's reasoning level high: <a href="https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgist.github.com%2Fsimonw%2F8ab126bda2b384264b3ad931e3ebb8b4" rel="nofollow">https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=ht...
For some reason reasoning effort low and medium used similar numbers of tokens, and xhigh used less than high. I think I need to try without OpenRouter in the middle.
UPDATE: I tried again with the xAI API directly: <a href="https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgist.github.com%2Fsimonw%2F5a1819a2bd24bb642f38c4bc6733090f" rel="nofollow">https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=ht... - not a great deal of difference between reasoning levels, and this time xhigh and low used the same number of reasoning tokens for some reason.
For comparison here's a fresh run against Grok 4.6: <a href="https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgist.github.com%2Fsimonw%2Ffedc404b9aa8e6fca31d59c898dabba0" rel="nofollow">https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=ht...
TomGarden · · focus · HN ↗
athrowaway3z · · focus · HN ↗
It used to be a mess in various interesting ways. Now, almost every big release can draw something perfectly functional.
So the question - without a correct answer - given the prompt "Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle":
Does the user want the least lines of code to make it functional, or the best looking version?
peder · · focus · HN ↗