GLM 5.1 Just Dropped **FULLY TESTED in Claude Code**
Chapters11
The creator introduces testing GLM 5.1, promotes Harbor SEO.ai as a sponsor, and notes founder pricing availability for a limited time while outlining features and setup progress.
GLM 5.1 debuts in Claude Code with slow, inconsistent performance, but shows intriguing capabilities and solid design; speed and reliability are the big blockers right now.
Summary
Income stream surfers dives into GLM 5.1 as tested against Claude Code, sharing hands-on setup steps, a live prompt-building experiment with the Astrobuilder skill, and a frank verdict on speed and reliability. The creator highlights sponsorship disclosures with Zed.ai and Harbor SEO.ai, notes that GLM 5.1 is running in a sponsored context, and compares its output to Opus 4.6. A core experiment uses npx GitHub install Astrobuilder, the Turso CLI for a lightweight SQLite database, and Astro to assemble a complete website. Despite impressive attempts like auto-generated admin pages and a blog post, the reviewer repeatedly labels the experience as “way too slow” and plagued by timeouts and partial completions. Visuals include live updates on searches, web-reader behavior, and a side-by-side mental model with Claude Code’s prior builds. By the end, the verdict leans toward “potentially among the best models” if speed and stability get fixed, with clear caveats for anyone evaluating GLM 5.1 today.
Key Takeaways
- GLM 5.1 is installed and tested live in Claude Code with the tester claiming confirmation of usage and access via Zed.ai.
- The experiment uses Astrobuilder’s skills and the Turso (SQLite) database workflow to simulate building a full Astro-based site.
- Speed is the dominant issue: the tester describes GLM 5.1 as extremely slow—“dog slow”—with token throughput in some runs taking minutes per batch.
- Despite speed issues, the test shows GLM 5.1 can generate web components (admin pages, blog post) and wire them into a basic site layout, albeit with timing out and incomplete hookups.
- The reviewer compares results to Opus 4.6, noting GLM 5.1’s outputs are eerily similar in some builds, suggesting potential parity if performance improves.
- The video includes sponsorship disclosures and emphasizes taking Harbor SEO.ai’s founder pricing seriously before it ends.
- The project plan includes a live attempt to create a database, scaffold a project, and build, highlighting a workflow that could scale with faster processing.
Who Is This For?
This is essential viewing for developers and AI enthusiasts who are evaluating GLM 5.1’s practical viability in real-world workflows, especially those interested in Astro-based site generation and prompt engineering against Claude Code.
Notable Quotes
"“way too slow. I don't know if this is just first day jitters or this is, you know, what they're deciding to do.”"
—Sets the tone for the reviewer’s concern about initial performance.
"“This is way too slow to use, unfortunately.”"
—Cementing the core verdict on speed as the primary drawback.
"“I definitely am using GLM 5.1.”"
—Affirms the tester’s access to the model and authenticity of the test.
"“Shout out to Zed.ai. There'll be a link in the description if you do want to sign up.”"
—Noting sponsorship and affiliation with the test setup.
"“This will be super, super interesting.”"
—Before the Astro-based site test, signaling anticipation for the prompt-driven build.
Questions This Video Answers
- How does GLM 5.1 perform in Claude Code compared to Opus 4.6 on real-world prompts?
- Is GLM 5.1 fast enough for production workflows when building web apps with Astro and Turso?
- What are the current limitations of GLM 5.1 in early access tests and when can performance improve?
- What is Turso CLI and how is it used to scaffold a SQLite database in AI-assisted site builds?
- What sponsorships and pricing considerations should users know when testing GLM 5.1 with Zed.ai and Harbor SEO.ai?
GLM 5.1Claude CodeZed.aiHarbor SEO.aiAstroAstrobuilder skillTurso CLISQLiteOpus 4.6AI prompt engineering
Full Transcript
Hey guys, what is going on? Welcome to this video. In today's video, we're going to be testing out the brand new GLM 5.1 that just dropped with a very interesting new test. So, let's just set this test up first of all. And just before we jump into the video, guys, a very quick word from our sponsor, me. This is harbor seo.ai and it will be a nonfounder pricing very, very soon. However, for now, for probably the next 3 days to a week, you can still lock in the founder pricing and then that's going to be gone.
Go and get this now, guys. It's super super strong. I'm adding new features like we've just added the cluster feature. We've got the spy feature. All of these features are extremely strong and I just want to help people rank their website for extremely cheap. So, you can lock in founder pricing as of today, probably for the next week or so, and then it's gone forever. So, go and lock that in, guys. It's in the description and in the pin comment. Let's jump back into the content. So, this was actually quite a hard one for me to work out, guys, cuz I had to set it up basically.
But, I did eventually get it set up so that I'm using GLM 5.1. I do have access to this guys. The reason being is first of all, Z.AI are a sponsor of this channel. Um, this I'm going to put that this video is sponsored. This isn't the video that they actually paid for, but I am still going to put this as the video that they sponsored. Uh, and I'm going to send this to them. Um, but yeah, basically I mean I'm going to leave a link as well if you do want to join their coding plan, but just for the price it is extremely good.
If it's anywhere near the quality of Claude, then it's definitely worth it. So, I'll invite you guys. Again, there'll be a link in the description of this video. I just want to get as many people invited as possible so that I can continue working with Zed.ai. And I do have access to this. They did give me free access to GLM 5.1. So, shout out to Zed.ai. There'll be a link in the description if you do want to sign up. Now, basically yesterday, guys, I was working on something which I find extremely bloody interesting, I have to say.
So, we're going to test this out in today's video. So, npx GitHub install Astrobuilder skill. So, let's just go here and run that. By the way, I am confirmed to be on GLM 5.1. I asked it a question that it will never answer about something that happened. I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about. And it refused to answer the question. So, I definitely am using GLM. So, let's just say let's do SLK skills and let's say load the Astrobuilder skill for me, please. I'll be very curious to see how this handles this prompt because this is an extremely complicated prompt.
So, it'll be very, very interesting to see if it can actually build what I want it to build. So, it should build that and then it should ask me some questions. So, let's just see. I'm going to actually use a real example in today's video. So, let's just go here. Uh, I'm not going to be looking at benchmarks and things like that, guys. Um, what's he called? Plums. So, I'm going to be using this guy's website. Don't ask why. It's just uh I've used this website a few times. So, I want you to make a website for this guy.
Make sure to find real business information. Uh, number one. Number two, setup scaffold project. Three, build. What would you like me to build? Um, and then also I do need a database. So use the Tursa CLI to start that first. Right. So what that should do is it should create a Terso database which is just a very lightweight SQL light database which is super super important for things like filling in forms etc. So let's see if it can actually handle this entire prompt. Like I said this is a new prompt that I haven't tried. Well I have tried but oh okay z.AI built-in web reader.
Interesting. So, I've tried this a few times. I'll be very, very curious to see how it handles this. I wish it used the internal web reader of Claude Code instead of its own web reader, but that's fine. That's normal. Uh, so, okay, there we go. That's the web search there. Beautiful. Okay. So, it's not actually doing the Terso stuff, which I did say it needed to start a database. So, we'll see how this actually Yeah, basically works. It looks like it can't get a lot of the information that it needs. So, it did zero searches in 12 seconds.
Interesting. Uh, now it's just reading skills. So, so far this is pretty slow. I've got the website content. Let me extract the key business information. Now, I need to do this, that, and the other. Okay. Just reading all the different skills as well. These are all specific skills. They're basically references to the skills so that it can build something kind of consistent every time. Hopefully, it's also reading the taste skill. There we go. Beautiful. So, I've got a lot of information now. Let me summarize. Beautiful. Okay, now it's creating the Terso database. Beautiful. That's fine.
I don't really need uh reviews and things. No problem. So, there we go. There are my Terso databases. Let's see if it makes a new one or whether it just um tries to use one of these ones. I would prefer it makes a new one. Beautiful. There we go. So far so good. So, it created a database right now. So, that means we can basically create a complete website where someone fills in a form, then it shows in the admin database. This is a whole new thing that I've been working on for a couple of days now, guys.
It's basically using Astro to build an entire website. This will be an interesting test. I'm telling you guys, this will be super super interesting. So, let's just let this run and we'll be back when it's done. It is quite slow, I have to say. It's 2 p.m. now. Let's see how long this actually takes. Hey, so just for some reference, guys, this is my This is an example from yesterday. This is what Claude Code built. And then the second one as well here. This is also what Claude Code built. I have to say what Claude Code built will be very very hard for GLM to to beat.
Right, this is Opus 4.6. So I'll be very curious to see how something like this compares to what GLM comes up with. So we we'll definitely be keeping an eye on that. Okay, guys. So I'm not into giving biased reviews. Sponsored, not sponsored, doesn't matter. This is way too slow. I don't know if this is just first day uh jitters or this is, you know, what they're deciding to do. Like, this is way too slow. Look at this. 49 tokens in almost 4 minutes. Like, what? 3 and a half minutes, 297 tokens. Like, it's ability to spawn and make changes is way too slow.
It It's It's not even worth using, right, if it's this slow, unfortunately. Now, I am still curious to see if it's good, right? But yeah, I mean, as of today, this is just way too slow to use, unfortunately. Okay, so I'm just looking at a few things on Reddit. So, it looks like they're planning on it's planning on being open weights, which is good. The current model is still in preview version. We'll continue to optimize it based on everyone's feedback, so we haven't open source it for now. We plan to open source the model and launch the official full version on April the 6th or April the 7th.
Someone obviously had to say 67. Unbelievable. It's not out yet. They better cook something good. I'm just trying to see if anyone's saying anything about speed or slow lists. Okay. GM 13 per second, right? Super slow. You'll get rate limited and it's like dog slow. Like really really slow. Yeah. So, I'm not the only person that's picking up on this. This is dog slow. I think that's a really good way to put it. Like it still hasn't spawned these agents yet. God. Right. I'm just going to cancel this one for now. Cancel this one, too, and say, "Can you try hurry up, lol?" This is what we call wizard prompting, guys.
You wouldn't understand. Like, if you if you're not a wizard prompter like me, um you just wouldn't understand, you know, misspelling the word hurry here with the word lol on the end. Like, I'm sorry if if you're not on my level of prompt wizardry, then yeah, you're probably not going to you're probably not going to understand what I've just done there. But, but basically, this will make it run way faster. I'm joking, obviously. Okay, guys. So, we're pretty far into this. First of all, I'm getting all of these errors. Service may be temporarily overloaded. Classic.
It's now writing to me in Chinese, which is definitely interesting. Uh, this says, "Come on. Uh, I will This says, wait, what does it say? Sorry, bro." What does it say? Sorry, bro. Activate all remaining agents immediately. Exclamation mark. I did manage to get through to it eventually. That was a call I'm currently in, by the way, guys. I'm currently vibe coding another project at the same time. But uh we're going to keep letting this run. I can see that some code is coming through. Like it's just very very slow. But I think eventually we will get there.
So I'll do this test for you guys. But this ain't worth your time as of today because it's just way too slow and is not working fully. Okay guys. So I'm I mean it's pretty much done. That took uh an hour and a half. Let's just look at the quality, right? I'm sure that they're going to, you know, update their servers or whatever when they release it for real Z's, but I mean, this is as good as the one that was made by Opus. I'm not joking on that. Okay, this actually is this Am I on the Opus one?
No, I'm not because it didn't have any problems. Yeah, like Okay, there are a couple of problems. The service page is timed out, but like when they actually released the model, that probably won't happen, right? This is actually eerily similar eerily similar to Is this the right one? Palms Plumbing. Yeah. Wow. That's crazy. Actually, this is extremely similar to the one that was made by Opus. Let's just see if it Yeah, they definitely stole uh or borrowed. Not not legal, not whatever. Um crazy how similar this is. Hish. Uh wait. Hi.com. Hi. Hi. send message.
Okay, that worked. And then let's just go to slashadmin. See if there's an admin thing. There is. So, it wouldn't let me log in on the admin. It got kind of buggy there, but that's okay. It did seem to make the admin page. It just hasn't hooked up the password, which is fine. This is really, really good. I'm impressed by this. Honestly, I'm impressed by this. Okay, so I didn't manage to write the blogs either. There's definitely some time out timing out issues. Oh, it did write this blog though. Crazy. Wow. Really, really cool. Um, yeah, design-wise, looks great.
Looks very similar to Opus. It's probably slightly better than Opus's design. Very, very slow. Very annoying to use. Wouldn't recommend it as of today, but you know, when if they release this and they release it well, I'm not going to lie, guys, this might be one of the better models. Um, so yeah, fair play to GLM 5.1 and Z.AI. I'll leave a link to everything in the description, guys. Go and check out Harbor. Thank you so much for watching. If you are watching all the way to the end of the video, you're an absolute legend.
And I'll see you very, very soon with some more content. Peace out.
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