Heuristic for AI Coding Tasks: Split Tickets Based on a 150k Token Budget
mattpocockuk · x · 2026-08-11
Matt Pocock shares a practical heuristic for estimating and breaking down tasks when using AI agents for coding:
- Estimate Task Size: Roughly calculate the total tokens required to complete the task (when in doubt, overestimate).
- Calculate Ticket Count: Divide the total token estimate by 150,000 (the approximate sweet spot for SOTA agent context limits).
- Result: The resulting number gives you the exact number of tickets you need to create.
For example, a massive refactor requiring 1 million tokens divided by 150k yields 6.66, meaning the task should be split into 7 distinct tickets.
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