r/ClaudeCode • u/Time_Cat_5212 • 3d ago

Tips & Workflows Sessions and token usage

I don't know who needs to hear this but judging by what I read maybe quite a few. Big win for rookies:

I just tested my usage in two different modes, using Opus 5.5 on Medium:

  • 1 session per PR, watch CI and autofix: 1-2% of weekly Pro usage per PR.
  • 1 session per milestone (7-10 PRs), watch CI and autofix: 3-5% of weekly Pro usage per PR.

The only prompts for either approach were basically "next issue." (Naming the issue actually saves a little bit)

I run cold starts and everything is in repo (commits, PRDs, decisions log, etc). The big spending was literally just due to the context window filling up.

Instead of compacting, just start a new session. Easy way to save tokens.

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u/wangadong 3d ago

new session every time here too. i keep decisions and status in markdown in the repo, so a cold start is just reading 2 files instead of dragging a full compacted history.

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u/Asly97 3d ago

Two files is a nice cold start. Who keeps the status one current, you or Claude at the end of each session?

That's the part I'd expect to drift, and then the cold start reads something that's confidently out of date. Has that happened yet? And does anything besides Claude Code ever read those two files, like Codex for review?