Token cost comparison: Superpowers vs Compound Engineering

AlexKim · x · 2026-08-29

AlexKim compares the token costs of Superpowers and Compound Engineering (CE). He argues the usual framing is backwards: Superpowers is expensive per fire but cheap to install, while CE is lighter per call. Data shows CE's subagent-driven development loads 8,084 tokens, with debugging at 3,650 tokens. CE stays smaller by keeping its depth in 298 reference files opened on demand.

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