The Harness Has a Token Budget
The article discusses the challenges faced by the CLAUDE.md project due to a token budget that has been exceeded. As the number of tokens increases, the agent struggles to maintain focus and adhere to important rules, particularly those buried in the middle of the guidance. The author suggests strategies for managing the token budget effectively to improve the agent's performance and rule adherence.
- ▪The CLAUDE.md project exceeded its token budget, leading to missed rules by the agent.
- ▪The agent's attention is uneven, with rules at the top of the harness being followed more reliably than those in the middle.
- ▪The author proposes four strategies to manage the token budget: consolidate, compress, scope down, and delete.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
try { if(localStorage) { let currentUser = localStorage.getItem('current_user'); if (currentUser) { currentUser = JSON.parse(currentUser); if (currentUser.id === 171498) { document.getElementById('article-show-container').classList.add('current-user-is-article-author'); } } } } catch (e) { console.error(e); } Ian Johnson Posted on Jun 3 The Harness Has a Token Budget #ai #agents #programming #webdev Our project CLAUDE.md crossed 4,000 tokens last quarter, and the agent started missing rules it had been respecting for months. Not the rules at the top. The rules in the middle. The ones buried under three other sections of guidance, the ones the agent could reach if it stayed focused but did not reach reliably when it was deep in a task.
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