Flint vs Step 5 Preview
Flint took 10 min 5 s and was free at list price, Step 5 Preview took 10 min 44 s and $0.33 at list price. Step 5 Preview took 1.1× as long.
Flint
Recursive · free route · 36 HN pts
Step 5 Preview
StepFun · $2.70/M out · 155 HN pts
Pelican
Generate an SVG of a pelican riding a bicycle
Watch
Draw a mechanical wristwatch that shows the current local time, with a sweeping seconds hand and a date window. Make it look expensive.
Landing
Build the landing page for Lumen Cycles, a Copenhagen workshop that builds custom cargo bikes to order. Make it look like a real brand you would trust with 4,000 euros.
Breakout
Make a Breakout game I can play right now with the keyboard or the mouse. Give it several levels, a score and some juice.
Logo
Design a logo for Night Heron, an independent bookshop that only opens after dark.
About
Write the opening of the About us page for Patchbay, a three-person studio in Rotterdam that repairs vintage synthesizers. About 150 words.
Patchbay began in a small, cluttered workshop in Rotterdam, where solder smoke and old capacitors seem to belong together. We are a three-person studio, which means every synthesizer that comes through our door is handled by one of the same people who started the project. No call center, no hand-off to strangers. We repair vintage synthesizers: the dusty analog beasts, the rare oddities, the ones with missing knobs and mysterious tuning drift. Our work is part electronics, part archaeology, part stubborn love. We listen to the hum before we open the case, and we believe most vintage synths are not dead, just waiting for someone to pay attention. In a city known for moving quickly, we prefer taking our time. Patchbay exists to keep old voices alive, one oscillator, filter, and power supply at a time. If you have a synth that sings, whispers, or hums through the decades, we would be glad to meet it.
Patchbay is a three-person workshop based in Rotterdam, dedicated to keeping vintage synthesizers alive and playable. We are technicians, musicians, and obsessive tinkerers who believe that classic analog instruments deserve better than silence. From temperamental Jupiter-8s to worn-out ARP Odysseys, we restore, repair, and maintain the machines that shaped the sound of modern music. Every repair starts with listening—both to the instrument and to the person who plays it. Whether you are chasing a rare fault, need a full calibration, or simply want your old synth to feel new again, our bench is open. We understand that no two synthesizers arrive with the same story, and we treat each circuit, slider, and key with the care its history deserves. At Patchbay, we are here to make sure the sounds of tomorrow are built on those that came before.
Specs and numbers
| Flint | Step 5 Preview | |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | Recursive | StepFun |
| Made in | US | China |
| Released | 21 Oct 2026 | 8 Oct 2026 |
| Price in, per M tokens | free route (list $0/M) | $1.00 |
| Price out, per M tokens | free route (list $0/M) | $2.70 |
| Context | 262,144 tokens | 1,048,576 tokens |
| Weights | open | open |
| Hacker News points | 36 | 155 |
| Time for the six prompts | 10 min 5 s | 10 min 44 s |
| List price of the six prompts | free | $0.33 |
Flint was free at list price; Step 5 Preview cost $0.33. Flint was faster: 39 s less in total, and faster on 2 of the 6 prompts.
In the recording, Flint's Breakout game loads but doesn't start; Step 5 Preview's plays.
Tea Garden experiment: Flint's game passed 5 of 5 checks; Step 5 Preview was not in it.





