Codex Plus Local Agent Saves 80% Tokens
KitchenAmoeba4438 · reddit · 2026-07-19
The author shares results from combining Codex 5.6 with a local or low-cost agent, aiming to let the main model "direct" while delegating execution to cheaper agents.
Three sets of benchmark results show significant drops in management token usage and costs: on SWE-bench Lite, a reddit10 subset, and SWE-bench Verified multi-file tasks, token usage dropped by 58% to 87%, and costs fell by 46% to 72%. The author notes this setup allows them to push the main model's effort higher, achieving better results at lower costs; initial signs show speed improvements, but the biggest gain is token savings.
The "secret sauce" isn't orchestration itself, but memory: enabling cross-turn communication between agents and ensuring the same work is done only once, as naive orchestration leads to duplicated labor. The post includes GitHub PRs, code, and raw data for reproducibility and review.
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