Agent loops for SWE burn a LOT of tokens.

I’m unfortunately temporarily disabled and can’t use my hands for another 2 months. So I’ve leaned heavily into AI based workflows to keep my job in the meantime.

Aside from the nightmare of keeping quality high, not atrophying skills, and avoiding a lack of domain knowledge. It works reasonably okay.

Token usage is insane though. A productive day might cost a few hundred dollars in tokens all things considered. Quality is expensive as well, a good 1/4 of that are automated systems that exist to identify defects, quality, coherence…etc issues early.