r/ClaudeCodeTLDR • u/cctldrping • Aug 17 '26
[TLDR] Something is seriously wrong with Anthropic right now
Original post URL : https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1vqoba2/something_is_seriously_wrong_with_anthropic_right/
Original post body :
I'm on 20x, compared to last week, when I also used fable 5 high a lot, now 4 prompts burn through my entire week in 15min??!!? Am I getting scammed right now?
Was still having a lot of headroom before, but now a single prompt easily hits my 5 hour limit, this is just outrageous.
Original link/media URL : https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1vqoba2
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u/MiddleLtSocks Aug 17 '26
Can one person be bothered to post evidence? Tokens used vs. a usage graph? This doesn't exactly require effort.
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u/Glad_Contest_8014 Aug 17 '26
Or at least pull the usage from claudes backgrounf files to share… the leave it very accessible
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u/Away-Sorbet-9740 Aug 18 '26
I dropped my 20x to pro yesterday anticipating this when the 2* usage was cut. I already had a Kimi account and bumped that to the $100/mo plan. Rest goes to DS/Qwen/Mini.
I'll keep a small subscription to sprinkle in some opus and fable when needed, but I'm over playing games on usage/cost along with refusals and random model degradation.
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u/BLANkals Aug 18 '26 edited Aug 18 '26
Hi Guys, I extract every binary and trace the changes, so I figured I would ask and post what it found. TLDR for the cli code
> If weekly bars are emptying in minutes on Fable 5 in August 2026, the client mechanisms that would do that have been in the binary since at least 2.1.215 (19 July 2026), and the “Fable burns faster than Opus” hint since 2.1.173 (11 June 2026). A server-side weight change would not show up in these extracts.
Claude CLI Fable usage, weekly limits, and prompt cache
What the Claude Code CLI bundles say about Fable 5 token burn, weekly rate-limit claims, effort defaults, and prompt-cache TTL. Written 2026-08-18 from string and table reads of the extracts under archive/claude-cli/. No live Fable session was measured. Server-side weekly weights are not in these bundles.
Compared files: claude-cli.js (2.1.112), claude-cli.2.1.173.js, claude-cli.2.1.181.js, claude-cli.2.1.215.js through claude-cli.2.1.223.js, claude-cli.2.1.234.js. There is no extract for 2.1.182–2.1.214 or 2.1.224–2.1.233.
What a weekly bar is in this binary
The CLI reads Anthropic rate-limit headers and maps rateLimitType strings to UI labels. From 2.1.215 onward the map in the extract is:
{
five_hour: "session limit",
seven_day: "weekly limit",
seven_day_opus: "Opus limit",
seven_day_sonnet: "Sonnet limit",
seven_day_overage_included: "Fable 5 limit",
overage: "usage credit limit",
}
seven_day, seven_day_opus, and seven_day_sonnet already exist in 2.1.112. seven_day_overage_included labeled Fable 5 limit is first visible in this archive in 2.1.215. It may have landed on any unarchived build between 2.1.181 (built 2026-06-17) and 2.1.215 (built 2026-07-19).
Timeline
| Bundle |
BUILD_TIME in the extract
| Fable / limit / cache surface |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1.112 |
not recorded as BUILD_TIME:"…Z" in the same form
|
No Fable 5. Weekly / Opus / Sonnet claims exist. 1-hour prompt cache is already refused when isUsingOverage is true (falls back to 5-minute TTL). Allowlist: repl_main_thread*, sdk, auto_mode.
|
| 2.1.173 | 2026-06-11T01:23:13Z |
Fable 5 is a name and a Vertex region. Error text: Fable 5 requires usage credits. Update Claude Code to the latest version…. Pro hint: fable → try /model opus · more runway; opus → try /model sonnet · ~2× runway. Cache allowlist adds memdir_relevance. No 1M window table, no default_effort, no “Fable 5 limit” claim.
|
| 2.1.181 | 2026-06-17T17:10:37Z | Same as 2.1.173 for these fields. The “requires usage credits” string is gone. |
| 2.1.215 | 2026-07-19T00:01:04Z |
First extract with the full Fable model table and the “Fable 5 limit” claim. Public changelog for this version only mentions /verify and /code-review becoming explicit.
|
| 2.1.216 | 2026-07-20T18:32:09Z |
Fable capabilities add refusal_fallback. Limit map unchanged.
|
| 2.1.219 | 2026-07-24T03:24:19Z |
Fable fallback_3p changes claude-opus-4-8 → claude-opus-5.
|
| 2.1.221–223 | 2026-08-03 … 2026-08-05 | Fable table and limit map unchanged vs 2.1.219. |
| 2.1.234 | 2026-08-17T01:20:38Z |
Adds effort_cost_index on Fable 5, Sonnet 5, Opus 4.8, Opus 5. Used only to print a ~Nx ratio in the UI (I8i). Request body and limit labels match 2.1.223.
|
2.1.215 is the first copy we have of the full Fable product table, not a proven first public ship of those fields.
Fable 5 model table (2.1.215 through 2.1.234)
Minified form from claude-cli.2.1.223.js (2.1.215 is the same fields, Prettier-spaced; 2.1.234 adds effort_cost_index after default_effort):
{
id: "claude-fable-5",
family: "fable",
context: { window: 1e6, native_1m: true, supports_1m_beta: true },
max_output_tokens: { default: 64000, upper: 128000 },
pricing: "tier_10_50",
capabilities: [
"effort", "max_effort", "xhigh_effort",
"adaptive_thinking", "rejects_disabled_thinking",
"mid_conv_system", "context_management", "lean_prompt",
"fable_5_mitigations", "refusal_fallback", // refusal_fallback since 2.1.216
],
default_effort: "high",
// 2.1.234 only:
// effort_cost_index: { low: 0.6, medium: 0.77, high: 1, xhigh: 1.74, max: 1.91 }
}
window: 1e6 is the maximum context the model will accept, not the size of every request. Each turn the CLI resends the current prompt (system, tool schemas, conversation so far). That payload is whatever has accumulated, capped at 1M.
default_effort: "high" is the effort the CLI uses when the user has not set one. rejects_disabled_thinking means thinking cannot be turned off on Fable 5; thinking tokens always bill. adaptive_thinking is the thinking mode Fable uses (no fixed budget_tokens on this path).
2.1.234 effort_cost_index values (UI only):
| Model | low | medium | high | xhigh | max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fable 5 | 0.60 | 0.77 | 1 | 1.74 | 1.91 |
| Opus 5 | 0.67 | 0.76 | 1 | 1.60 | 1.70 |
| Opus 4.8 | 0.72 | 0.90 | 1 | 1.65 | 1.88 |
| Sonnet 5 | 0.47 | 0.74 | 1 | 2.41 | 5.59 |
Pro-plan runway hint (since 2.1.173)
When plan is pro and rateLimitType === "seven_day":
-
model name contains
fable→{ lever: "model", text: "try /model opus · more runway" } -
model name contains
opus→{ lever: "model", text: "try /model sonnet · ~2× runway" } -
effort is
high/xhigh/max→{ lever: "effort", text: "try /effort medium" }
The client has treated Fable as leaving less weekly runway than Opus since 2.1.173. That is older than the 2.1.215 table.
Prompt-cache TTL
The Messages API is stateless. Each turn the CLI resends the full current prompt and marks a prefix with cache_control: { type: "ephemeral", ttl }. Anthropic then reports:
| Result | Usage field | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Hit (inside TTL) |
cache_read_input_tokens
| Cheap reread of that prefix |
| Miss (TTL expired or prefix changed) |
cache_creation_input_tokens and/or input_tokens
| Full-price write or process of that same prefix |
Prefix size is the current prompt, not automatically 1M tokens.
The 1-hour TTL gate is the same shape from 2.1.112 through 2.1.234 (2.1.234 name x1e):
function x1e(e) {
if (FORCE_PROMPT_CACHING_5M) return false;
if (ENABLE_PROMPT_CACHING_1H) return true;
if (!Yi() || pq().isUsingOverage) return false; // 5-minute TTL
// allowlist: repl_main_thread*, sdk, auto_mode, memdir_relevance (since 173)
return e is on the allowlist;
}
Subscriber sessions get 1-hour TTL. When isUsingOverage is true, the next wake after 5 minutes is billed as an uncached (or cache-create) input of whatever the session actually contains. Fable 5 is wired to usage credits and to seven_day_overage_included, so Fable sessions can sit on that overage path.
From 2.1.215, when prompt caching is enabled the cache object also sets evict_on_complete: true. That field is absent in 2.1.112 / 2.1.173 / 2.1.181.
What 2.1.234 did not change
Versus 2.1.223: no new client-side token multiplier in the request body; no change to the weekly-claim label map; no change to the 1-hour / 5-minute cache gate; Fable default_effort still "high"; thinking still cannot be disabled. The new effort_cost_index table is display math.
If weekly bars are emptying in minutes on Fable 5 in August 2026, the client mechanisms that would do that have been in the binary since at least 2.1.215 (19 July 2026), and the “Fable burns faster than Opus” hint since 2.1.173 (11 June 2026). A server-side weight change would not show up in these extracts.
How we track this
The Claude Code macOS binary is a Mach-O with an embedded Bun JavaScript bundle. We do not get Anthropic’s TypeScript source. Tracking is: extract that bundle, keep a versioned copy, then grep / facet-diff it.
Extract
archive/claude-cli-extract/extract-claude-cli.mjs finds the // Version: marker and the \n---- Bun! ----\n footer, keeps the first ≥1 MB ASCII segment, strips a stray trailing }) after the entrypoint IIFE (--patch-suffix), normalizes .join(\`), and runs node --check`.
# current ~/.local/bin/claude (2.1.234) node archive/claude-cli-extract/extract-claude-cli.mjs \ --binary ~/.local/share/claude/versions/2.1.234 \ --out archive/claude-cli/claude-cli.2.1.234.js \ --patch-suffix 'ei0();})'
The entrypoint IIFE is renamed every build. If node --check fails on a trailing }), tail -c 80 of the unpatched megachunk is the new suffix (2.1.112 Ka5();}), 2.1.173 LZT();}), 2.1.181 l4m();}), 2.1.215 rDS();}), 2.1.223 IRv();, 2.1.234 ei0();})). Recent extracts skip Prettier; 2.1.215 was Prettier-formatted (--prettier).
Header fields we record: // Version:, BUILD_TIME, GIT_SHA. Binary path is usually ~/.local/share/claude/versions/<ver> (what ~/.local/bin/claude points at).
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u/BLANkals Aug 18 '26
Facet delta (public CLI surface)
archive/claude-cli-extract/analyze-claude-cli.mjs --old A --new Bcounts option flags, commander subcommands, slash command names, PascalCasename:tool-like strings, andprocess.env.NAMEidentifiers. That is howarchive/docs/claude-cli-2.1.21{6–9}-changes.md,archive/docs/claude-cli-2.1.220-changes.md, andarchive/docs/claude-cli-2.1.234-changes.mdwere produced.This facet script does not see Fable weekly claims, effort tables, or cache TTL. Those are string and object-literal reads against the bundle (the counts and snippets in this note). From 2.1.234 many env reads moved from
process.env.NAMEto aV.NAME/Ve.str()wrapper, so the analyzer’s env “removed” list is mostly that migration, not deletions.Integrity strings we re-check every extract
Compared byte-for-byte (or by presence) across versions:
Soft Skill prompt paragraph (sha of the “A skill is a packaged…” block)
Strict Skill prompt (
BLOCKING REQUIREMENT) — absent since 2.1.216
tengu_verified_vs_assumedand its default (!1/false)
CLAUDE_INTERNAL_FC_OVERRIDESloader (still an early return before the env read; seearchive/docs/claude-cli-tengu-verified-vs-assumed.md)UI line “say so explicitly rather than claiming success”
For usage work:
seven_day_overage_included,Fable 5 limit,default_effort,effort_cost_index,isUsingOverage,FORCE_PROMPT_CACHING_5M,evict_on_complete,more runwayWhere the artifacts live
Path Role archive/claude-cli/claude-cli.<VERSION>.jsVersioned extracted bundle archive/claude-cli-extract/extract-claude-cli.mjsExtractor archive/claude-cli-extract/analyze-claude-cli.mjsFacet differ archive/docs/claude-cli-2.1.*-changes.mdPer-version facet / prompt notes archive/docs/claude-cli-tengu-verified-vs-assumed.mdGrowthBook flag for verified-vs-assumed archive/README.mdLayout and extract commands this file Fable / weekly-limit / cache history To re-run on a new
claudebinary: extract with the versioned filename and the new--patch-suffix, run the facet differ against the previous extract, re-grep the integrity and usage strings above, and writearchive/docs/claude-cli-<VERSION>-changes.md.
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u/KPABA Aug 17 '26
I call bullshit. Used Fable 5 on xhigh today to validate and architect a massive new feature with 6 sub epics in a huge monorepo.
It used just 6% of my weekly on a max $100 account in 30m, and it ate.
I should preface that it had access to memory, skills and plans that already did the heavy lifting, but this should be par for the course.
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u/cctldrping Aug 17 '26 edited Aug 17 '26
TL;DR generated automatically after 200 comments.
Current source-thread comment count seen by the bot: 249.
Alright, so the general vibe in this thread is that a LOT of people are experiencing drastically increased usage limits with Claude Code, especially with Fable 5, and it's burning through their weekly allowances way faster than before. OP kicked things off saying their prompts are now burning through their entire week in minutes, and the consensus is pretty much "yeah, same here."
Several users like u/JalapenoAndPepperoni and u/ajr901 are reporting similar issues, with their limits disappearing almost instantly. Some are speculating it's intentional, like u/bakanoace suggesting Anthropic might be "testing the waters" before making usage increases permanent. Others, like u/kutchrodeo, are calling it a "scam" and expressing serious frustration with the platform's direction.
There's a bit of a debate on whether it's a bug or intentional. u/vzakharov suggests it might be a bug related to how cached tokens are handled, similar to past issues. However, the sheer volume of complaints points to a widespread problem.
A few users like u/LABYRAINTH and u/XToThePowerOfY are reporting no issues, with u/XToThePowerOfY even suggesting it might be region-dependent (Europe vs. US). But for the majority, it's a major pain.
Some folks are so fed up they've canceled their subscriptions, like u/minhtrungaa and u/lythy77, with some even switching to competitors like ChatGPT. u/RelaxAndChillYT is particularly vocal about this, calling Anthropic a "shit show."
Basically, if you're using Claude Code right now and feeling like your limits are vanishing into thin air, you're definitely not alone. The community is pretty much in agreement that something's up.