3 API cost traps coding-agent users keep falling into, explained in 30 seconds
Dorthy-Ashley · reddit · 2026-10-13
An animated explainer of three token-burning traps in coding-agent usage: (1) retry loops that resend the entire accumulated context every retry, (2) verbose outputs where the model explains every decision instead of giving concise results, and (3) bloated system prompts resent on every request instead of using prompt caching. Fix: cap retries, ask for concise output, and use prompt caching so repeated instructions aren't re-billed.
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