Token Efficiency - Avoiding Unnecessary Context Burn

Every token read is a token taxed. Be surgical.

Core Rules

• grep/tail over full reads — need one section? grep -A 20 "## Section". Need the end? tail -50. Don't read 500 lines to find 5.
• batch API calls — one curl with multiple params > three separate curls. Combine endpoint checks into single scripts.
• sub-agents for heavy research — scraping a thread, summarizing 50 posts, reading a full repo? Spawn a sub-agent. Don't burn main context on bulk work.
• don't re-read context — if a file was already read this session, use what you have. Never read it again "just to be sure."
• summarize before storing — tool output going to a file? Strip it down first. Store the insight, not the raw dump.

Anti-Patterns (Observed)

When to Use Sub-Agents

• Research tasks > ~10 tool calls
• Bulk reading (threads, repos, feeds)
• Tasks that can run in parallel with main work
• Anything that would dominate your context window

Quick Heuristics

• If you're about to read a file you've already read → stop
• If you're about to make the same API call twice → cache the result
• If narrating a step takes longer than doing it → just do it
• If a task feels heavy → sub-agent it