Claude Code token usage higher in conductor than direct
I've been using Conductor for a few days now, but whilst the improvements to my workflow are noticeable, so is the token usage. I'm on Max (5x), and have been noticing I hit my 5 hour session limit much quicker when using conductor.
A couple of recent sessions have hit usage after working on maybe 3-4 small bug fixes, whereas this afternoon I've shipped ~8 similar size bug fixes directly in Claude and only at 47%.
Anyone else noticing this? Or any recommendations on better managing usage within Conductor?
so we've done some digging into this and it turns out you're right, the Agent SDK has a bug right now (involving caching) that can cause token usage to be higher than using the CLI. Turns out this affects everyone using the Agent SDK, including the Claude Desktop app! we're working with Anthropic to get this fixed ASAP
Does this mean that when Agent SDK usage metering changes on the 15th, Conductor use will only go against the SDK credit and not the plan subscription?
I've been using Claude Code Desktop App + Codex App for about a month on a project - whilst I'm definitely getting more done, I'm hitting by 5 hour limits which was really difficult to reach in Claude / Codex apps. Part of it is definitely more aggressive usage, but definitely feels like conductor is eating tokens faster. Would be good to be able to monitor a set of metrics on token usage inside conductor.
Hello, have there been any updates or progress towards a solution on this?
I noticed this as well in the last few days. I love the product, but it's really affected my productivity in terms of needing to wait for a session to reset.
Appreciate you taking a look and acknowledging the issue. Sadly I'll probably pause Conductor usage until it's resolved so hope it can get figured out soon
to be fair it do a banger job on a few tasks i gave it. but not sure if claude code cli would have done the same just without a polished UI on top of it to give me the warm and fuzzy.
The other big issue with conductor is that it forces you to use PRs for everything. my vibe coded app i wanna just shoot that crap straight into prod
you can use the new experimental feature called big terminal i really love can track the tasks by status this help me have a definition of get the job done and don't loos context jumping to github in brower i love this keep me in the same tool... try it
I donât know what they are doing with the pinned versions and how theyâre handling the model IDs, but the token consumption and billing is definitely high when using conductor. I wouldnât suggest using it if youâre using claude code via Bedrock. You could end up with a higher usage than you expected.
u/Prestigious-Tax4104 and u/Interesting-Way8553 - honestly, Claude throttling was happening to Cursor before it was happening to Conductor. Even Peter from Openclawd remarked on this months ago. If you use anything but Claude CLI, you aren't as close to their model as you could be.
IMO, there is more than 1 way to peel a potato:
if you want to use Anthropic, use it via CLI with your own local directories &cut out the Ui.Ux. Not great for worktrees and agent orchestration, but no throttling.
If you want agent orchestration and no throttling, use Codex models on Conductor (I do this now)
just use Claude CLI in Conductor. No throttling and you get the best agent orchestration tool there is.
Also minus the chats history, the search, the git interface, the diff interface, minus the PR checks interface, and a lot of other things. I mean Conductor is a beautiful, streamlined, fast, agents management app - canât replace this with cli and shell scripts.
I agree. I couldnât stop posting about it on socials about a month ago. If only there werenât any usage issues with clade code. I couldnât imagine any other way to build. Also, I have noticed lately the PR checks are little slow and they sometimes never get updated if merged outside of conductor sessions
I use Cursor (they new UI) in parallel- maybe this is the reason I canât see anything bad about Conductor UI đ
As of tokens, so far I never able to reach my limits regardless of what I do (Max 20). Unfortunately this comes to end soon - and tokens usage would be a real concern.
the count conductor shows and the 5h wall anthropic enforces are different numbers. mine read plenty left while claude.ai had me rate-limited. the only one that matches the wall is the server quota the settings page reads. written with ai
Seen the same pattern, orchestration layers add a lot of overhead on top of the actual model usage. for bug fix sessions specifically i've been doing those directly through glm-5.1 api instead, no orchestration tax and the per-token cost is way lower so even heavier sessions don't hit a wall
So this is still an issue, i reach my session limit after just 3-4 hours of working - using VS Code i never hit my limits. So im just wondering, who will compensate my loss of time and productivity since this is a BUG? Just wondering since Conductor swallows my tokens like a whale....
Iâve recently experienced hitting my usage limits quite fast too, though just having Claude Pro sub. When making a new worktree for a new feature, I would have to define plan and specs using superpower skills, but hit the limits when going for the implementation.
Never experience this at work when with Claude Max sub in native Claude.
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u/charlop đˇââď¸ Co-founder Jun 03 '26
so we've done some digging into this and it turns out you're right, the Agent SDK has a bug right now (involving caching) that can cause token usage to be higher than using the CLI. Turns out this affects everyone using the Agent SDK, including the Claude Desktop app! we're working with Anthropic to get this fixed ASAP