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AI EngineeringPython

Paleo Budget

by mocasus

Paleo Budget is an AI Engineering skill for Claude Code, published by mocasus in paleo.

11 stars0 forkson mocasus/paleoAdded 2026/07/16Repository updated 2026/07/12
View source on GitHubDownload repo ZIP
agent-skillsai-agentsai-efficiencyautomationclaudeclaude-codecodexcontext-windowcost-optimizationdeveloper-toolsgeminigemini-clihermeshermes-agentllmllm-agentsprompt-engineeringskillstoken-savingtokens
Install in seconds
Install Paleo Budget
Copy Paleo Budget into your Claude Code skills folder. Run the command in your terminal, or review the source on GitHub before installing.
terminal
npx degit https://github.com/mocasus/paleo/tree/main/skills/paleo-budget ~/.claude/skills/paleo-budget

Requires Node.js. Downloads this skill only — not the rest of the repository — into your Claude Code skills folder.

Without Node.js

git clone https://github.com/mocasus/paleo.git

Clones the whole repository, then copy the skill’s own directory into your skills folder yourself.

In this catalog

Source file
skills/paleo-budget/SKILL.md in mocasus/paleo
Installs to
~/.claude/skills/paleo-budget
Collection
One of 7 skills cataloged from this repository
Category
AI Engineering — 3670 skills

What Paleo Budget does

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.

Paleo Budget is cataloged under AI Engineering on DirSkills. Paleo Budget comes from a repository tagged agent-skills, ai-agents, ai-efficiency, automation and claude.

Documentation

README

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.

This is the opening of the README. Read the full README on GitHub.

Commands Paleo Budget provides

Slash commands named in this skill’s SKILL.md, listed in the order they first appear.

  • /budget

Frequently asked about Paleo Budget

  • What else does mocasus publish alongside Paleo Budget?

    Paleo Budget is one of 7 skills that DirSkills catalogs from mocasus/paleo, the repository it ships in. Its siblings there include Paleo Auto, Paleo Converse and Paleo JSON. Each one is a separate skill with its own page in this directory, installs the same way Paleo Budget does, and is maintained by mocasus in that same repository. The rest of the collection is listed on the mocasus/paleo page.

  • How does Paleo Budget compare to other AI Engineering skills?

    Paleo Budget ranks #3653 by stars among the 3670 AI Engineering skills in this catalog. The most-starred ones next to it are Architecture Decision Records, AI-First Engineering and Agentic OS. DirSkills ranks by the star count of the repository each skill ships in, so that order reflects how popular those repositories are rather than any review of Paleo Budget against them. Open each page to compare what they document and how they install.

More from mocasus/paleo

Paleo Budget is one of 7 skills cataloged on DirSkills from mocasus/paleo.

See all 7 skills →
🦴
2026/07/16

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.
Automation
110
🗜️
2026/07/16

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.
AI Engineering
110
🗜️
2026/07/16

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.
AI Engineering
110
🗜️
2026/07/16

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.
AI Engineering
110
🗜️
2026/07/16

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.
AI Engineering
110
✂️
2026/07/16

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.
AI Engineering
110

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