> I run through a $200 Claude Code subscription in less than 24 hours now just for a single project

How?

▲ olavgg an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Its easy when you spawn a couple of subagents in a homelab with a rack with 5+ servers.

This is how one of my claude code session looks like right now, one prompt from yesterday:

  ◯ lean-tracks  ▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱  7/12 · 18h35m · ↓ 3.1m tokens
  ◯ lean-tracks  ▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▰▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱  6/10 · 17h47m · ↓ 2.6m tokens
  ◯ lean-tracks  ▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱  0/1 · 4h49m · ↓ 275.9k tokens
  ◯ lean-tracks  ▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱  0/1 · 4h30m · ↓ 395.0k tokens
 ◯ lean-tracks  ▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱▱  0/1 · 3h50m · ↓ 490.3k tokens

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imdsm an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Not sure if this will help you but it helped me. I was using subagents and workflows for lots of long running tasks, and part of that work included running tests. If tests took longer than 5 minutes, the cache expired, and the whole thing was then being processed as uncached input.

I created a skill to better manage agents, including a way to keep the caches valid, and it has decreased my usage considerably. I now struggle to use my 100% each week and I hit claude hard. I have a reset expiring in 5 days and I'm trying to burn down the tokens (68% with 3d 8h left) quickly so I can use my reset before it expires.

Token efficiency just means understanding the way the system works. Best person to help with that... my old friend claude.

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dotancohen 5 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

After I stopped letting Claude run tests, my token usage went from "gone by Wednesday" to "what can I automate this Saturday so my tokens won't go to waste".

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iamflimflam1 35 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Some to think about with both Claude and skills.

Can you invert things. What’s deterministic and what needs “thinking”?

Can you create a script that runs things chaining together the deterministic parts with calling out to Claude for glue that needs “thinking”.

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olavgg an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yeah, I should see if I can create a similar skill. The tests do spend some time to complete.

Claude: Confirmed: 195M of the 212M cache tokens (92%) come from full re-writes after 5+ minute gaps, accounting for 77% of relative cost. Now I'll check the existing wrappers so the skill builds on them.

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oblio 7 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> my old friend claude.

Awfully new old friend.

	▲	dotancohen 3 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Google is the ex, Altavista is the high school sweetheart who tragically passed at a young age.

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raylad 44 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

How do you keep the caches valid?

	▲	entrope 16 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Not OP, but I typically ask it to report status of whatever is running; it can run a background task that reports to it every N minutes. With Claude Code in VS Code and a Pro subscription, it seems like the one-hour cache is the default, making it an issue less often.
	▲	j45 37 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Ask Claude, it's pretty wild to see.

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nextaccountic 24 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

> including a way to keep the caches valid

Maybe doing bogus small requests to prevent the cache from expiring?

I mean in the API you can set the cache expiration time right? But I guess claude code can't do this

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devtor 14 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

As a dev who hasn't used LLMs as an embedded part of their work, curious:

- How long do you reckon it would take a human to do the task?

- What percentage of features/ feature-extensions you add would have been done at all if you didn't have agentic assistance? Is there a tension between llm productivity gains and 'because we can' feature additions?

- Are many of the tasks for throwaway v1 features, exploratory tries, or redos of the same?

- How speced out is the work you give it, eg did this task have pages of specs, how long did the spec take to write?

- How deeply will you manually review the work and how much time will it take? Will you read all the code / review at a high level and interrogate with llm / have the llm review and self iterate?

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olavgg an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

[flagged]

▲ TomGarden an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Not OP, but I used to run out in a few days, for me it was a matter of suboptimal code review practices with many subagents looking at different aspects, often expanded to look at more than the diff.

▲ ramigb an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I swear I have the same question in my head always when I read such statements! I have never once reached 90% that includes everyday usage across multiple repos, artefact generation, device debugging, long running harness work!

I am not saying OP is not telling the truth. I just really want to understand!

	▲	pheggs an hour ago \| parent [-]
		in my experience there's a huge difference in token usage when creating new projects versus working on existing ones

▲ hugodan an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

not reviewing its ongoing work and spawning subagents that end up looping each other

▲ fahrvrgnugen an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Loading tons of MCPs and never compacting

▲ imadierich an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[dead]

▲ nimchimpsky an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

[dead]

▲ monster_truck an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

I can drain a $200 OAI plan in 2 hours flat working on my 10 projects simultaneously.

Maybe you're not being ambitious enough with these things? They are at their most fun when you spec out sprawling architecture documents and watch 1+8 astras buzzsaw through it.

I'm only at 260B for the year, though. I'm sure someone who has used more will be along shortly to chime in

E: The other subthread talking about tests is correct. Expensive models should not waste a single second waiting on tests or validation. If you cannot assign a single cheap model to be the test bitch, then just tell them to frontload everything and clean up later as a single wave.

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ricardobayes an hour ago | parent | next [-]

Not meant as a bad faith response but have you shipped anything? Do you have income from this? Why 10 projects apart from fueling ADHD and "never finishing a project"?

	▲	joshstrange 30 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Not OP and while I’m not draining my accounts in a single day/hour, I’m hitting limits with a $200-Claude and $100-OpenAI account. > Have you shipping anything? Yes, hundreds of PRs and shipped new features to 3 different platforms (day job and 2 side-business apps/platforms I’ve been developing for many years, pre-LLM). Those new features have gone out to customers and been used. > Do you have income from this? Well my day job for one, and I’ve been able to more easily sell to new clients with my side business. Without the changes I’ve shipped I would have been able to land a couple of the clients I’ve signed on recently. I don’t think OP’s message implied they are never finishing a project, maybe they edited it? In addition to the 3 income-generating projects, I have a number of other “just for me” projects. Some are mature now and only need occasional development when I want a new feature. Some are in flux as I build them out (like my “software factory”). At this point I’m limited by compute and tokens more than anything else.
	▲	tedk-42 33 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Some of us want to build and don't care that it doesn't monetise.

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loveparade 29 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Would love to see these 10 projects that are being worked on simultaneously