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Claude Code burns 15-20% of tokens on background agents' 3-5 word status lines

Claude Code sends every background agent's full transcript to its model every 30 seconds, spending 15-20% of tokens on 3-5 word status lines that do not affect the conversation, according to a Hacker News-linked gist by flamerix-ai. The write-up states the behavior can be disabled with a Bun preload script, freeing token capacity and rate-limit headroom for production LLM deployments.

read1 min views2 publishedOct 29, 2026
Claude Code burns 15-20% of tokens on background agents' 3-5 word status lines
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Agents & Inference

Hacker News

Claude Code burns 15-20% of tokens on background agents' 3-5 word status lines

Which summary reads better? Pick one — models revealed after.Both summaries are AI-generated.

Summary A

Claude Code sends every background agent's entire transcript to its model every 30 seconds, consuming 15-20% of tokens on a 3-word status update that doesn't affect the conversation. Disabling this feature can be done via a Bun preload script, saving token capacity and rate-limit headroom for production LLM deployments. This tweak enables more efficient use of LLM resources for actual conversations.

Summary B

Mistral Large quota or rate limit — check usage and plan. Original headline: Claude Code regularly sends each background agent’s transcript to its model

0 picks

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