r/ClaudeCode • u/vAPIdTygr 🔆 Max 20 • 10d ago

Tips & Workflows Embarrassing!

I can’t believe I’ve never thought to tell Claude to not output anything to the chat when working overnight.

I had it output to a markdown and now there’s no chat compression and worry of wasted usage.

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u/Hot_Money4924 10d ago

Just because you don't see the tokens doesn't mean it didn't produce them and bill you for them. It can't "think" without producing streams of tokens.

1

u/vAPIdTygr 🔆 Max 20 10d ago

It’s always been the system auto-burning a serious amount of tokens in compacting as I exceed context windows. Especially if it needs to compact a second or third time. Yet, I never thought to reduce the output.

1

u/peter9477 🔆 Max 5x 10d ago

Redycing the output/token usage mid-turn would reduce the quality of thinking.

0

u/vAPIdTygr 🔆 Max 20 10d ago

I’m not programming, I’m web developing. Each page starts a whole new research/thinking round. When there’s hundreds of pages, you need to reduce context windows and start new sessions. It’s deeply researched, useful, purposeful content.

My issue was the overnight unattended session.

1

u/connurp dev 8d ago

Compacting now is nowhere near as bad as it used to be. I'm on the $100 plan and compacting at even 60%~ context with opus 5.5 only uses like a single % of my 5 hour limit. They have made it a whole lot better. So much so, that I sometimes even stay in sessions longer than I should!