Build Your Own Agent Harness: Off-the-Shelf Frameworks Bloat Token Costs, Says DAIR.AI's Elvis
omarsar0 · x · 2026-09-15
Responding to Uncle Bob's observation that dropping his self-built harness slashed token consumption, DAIR.AI's Elvis argues out-of-the-box agent harnesses are bloated and charge a huge premium for features most users don't need. Building your own is one of the biggest levers to cut token costs. His key optimizations: tune only for the tasks you care about, use a lighter and more precise system prompt, make tool calling more efficient, improve context compaction and handoff, route different tasks to different models, and add custom verifiers for reliability. He cautions that token cost isn't the only factor — but users should know what they're paying for in generic frameworks.
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