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AI EngineeringPython

Paleo Budget

Enforces a hard token budget per task/response by tracking estimates, stopping before limits, and summarizing if exceeded. Helps when users specify a token cap or want to limit spending.

11 stars0 forksAdded 2026/07/16

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agent-skillsai-agentsai-efficiencyautomationclaudeclaude-codecodexcontext-windowcost-optimizationdeveloper-toolsgeminigemini-clihermeshermes-agentllmllm-agentsprompt-engineeringskillstoken-savingtokens

Documentation

README

From the original repository

paleo-budget

Hard token budget per task. Cap spend, never overflow.

Rules

Set budget up front: "budget 2000" = max ~2000 out-tokens for the whole task.
Estimate before writing: rough tok ≈ chars / 4. Track running count.
Stop at ~90% budget. If answer incomplete, summarize remainder in bullets.
Tight budget → pair with paleo (terse). budget + paleo = max save.
Code/commands stay exact — budget hits prose, not correctness.

Levels

soft: warn near limit, keep going.
hard (default): cut off at limit, summarize the tail.
strict: fail-loud if estimate exceeds budget before starting.

Switch

/budget 1500 soft|hard|strict set cap + mode.
"no budget" / "unlimited" → off.

Gotchas

Token estimate is approximate (chars/4). Leave 10% headroom.
Never truncate the critical part of the answer — summarize instead.
Budget = output cap. Input/context not counted unless user says "total".

More from mocasus

Other Claude Code skills by this author in the directory.

Paleo Auto

Automatically detects long sessions, high token usage, or bulky context and enables the appropriate Paleo token-saving skills to optimize token consumption without manual intervention.

Paleo Converse

Condense prior conversation turns into a summary, merge near-duplicates, and keep recent messages verbatim to save context tokens without losing task state.

Paleo JSON

Compacts JSON and other structured data by removing whitespace, collapsing arrays, and shortening keys to reduce token usage in LLM outputs, without breaking parseability.

Paleo Summary

Condenses long tool outputs, logs, diffs, or documents into concise summaries while preserving key details. Use when you need to save context tokens on bulky payloads.

Paleo Trim Context

Automatically trim, summarize, or drop stale content from the context window to save tokens while preserving task state. Use during long sessions, large file dumps, or before calling expensive models.

Paleo Mode

Switches the agent to a terse output mode, reducing token usage by ~50-70% while keeping code, commands, and technical terms exact. Use when you need brief replies or want to save costs.

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