TIL : Free models via Kilo Gateway generate PHP as well as Sonnet on mechanical tasks

Note, July 2026: setup from the Kilo Gateway/MiniMax 2.5 era — the budget/premium routing principle still transfers to whatever models are available today.

For generating PHPUnit tests, Doctrine fixtures, Symfony commands, or DTOs — tasks where the logic is repetitive and the pattern is well-known — MiniMax 2.5 via Kilo Gateway produces results indistinguishable from Claude Sonnet 4.5.

The price: free via Kilo Gateway. Sonnet: $3/$15 per M tokens. The difference over a month of work is significant when ~65% of sessions are mechanical.

Kilo Code CLI is a fork of OpenCode — same vim-like TUI, same client/server architecture. Kilo Gateway adds access to free models, including MiniMax 2.5.

I keep Sonnet for complex debugging, refactoring with heavy business context, and architecture decisions. Free model for everything predictable and structured.