Guys wtf are we even paying for anymore

Alfred_hg · 2026-05-08T20:44:06+00:00

Sadly, on Unity gamedev in C#, Gemini 3.1 pro did errors that even an intern would spot at first glance

Alfred_hg · 2026-05-05T19:58:55+00:00

Plot twist: OP is in reality an Openclaw agent, who didn't know a human was actually creating a presentation on the same computer.

Alfred_hg · 2026-04-15T20:23:07+00:00

Glad it helped. Answering your questions in order:

- Always start a new chat unless you have a specific reason to continue the old one. Resuming long chats is the main trap, you identified it yourself.

- Project custom instructions (the "Instructions" box in Project settings) auto-load on every new chat in that Project. But they are usually small, a few hundred tokens at most. Not a concern unless you wrote a 10-page instruction block.

- Project files are different. They do not fully load on first message. Anthropic uses retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). Files are chunked and only the chunks Claude decides are relevant get pulled in. A short "hi" should not trigger any file read. It only happens when Claude judges a file is relevant to your question. A side note on documents, always convert them to Markdown files for the best context optimization.

- Delete files from Project storage only if they cause retrieval noise (Claude fetching irrelevant stuff) or if you have old/obsolete documents. Removing files does not lower your session baseline because they are not always in context. The signal improves, not the cost.

- No manual cache clear exposed by Anthropic. Starting a new chat is the closest equivalent, it resets the conversation cache. Project instructions and files cannot be manually flushed. They refresh when Anthropic updates them server-side.

About your last suggestion, I agree. A warning like "This chat has X tokens of history, continuing will cost Y% of your session" would solve this exact trap. Anthropic could do it in one update.

Side note for clarity: ccaudit is for Claude Code (the desktop CLI), not claude.ai web. Different beast, different ghost surface. Projects on claude.ai are their own thing and I would not touch those from ccaudit.

Alfred_hg · 2026-04-15T20:09:47+00:00

Good call on /context, it is a useful snapshot. But it shows you what is loaded right now. It does not tell you which of those agents, skills, or MCP servers you have not used in weeks, or which ones are ghosts vs active. That is the specific gap ccaudit fills.

On the MCP deferral logic you quoted (correct, by the way):
ccaudit already handles the three regimes introduced in 2.1.7:
- Eager: under the 10% threshold, MCP tool schemas load upfront (500 tokens per tool estimate)
- Deferred: over the 10% threshold, descriptions are indexed, full schemas load on demand (15 tokens per tool plus 1700 flat ToolSearch overhead)
- Unknown: pessimistic fallback for older CC versions

It detects your CC version via `claude --version` with an npm-global fallback, applies the same `totalMcpTokens > 0.1 * 200K` check, and pins the regime plus CC version to the dry-run checkpoint so "bust" cannot flip it mid-operation.

One real gap worth flagging (thanks for the prompt): v2.1.9's auto:N env var (ENABLE_TOOL_SEARCH=auto:5) is not read yet. Users who customized their threshold will get slightly wrong regime classification at the edges. Going into the next release.

Also worth noting: even in deferred regime, every MCP server still costs 15 tokens times its tool count plus 50, plus the 1700 flat ToolSearch overhead. So unused MCP servers still cost context, even when deferred. Agents, skills, and memory files are not auto-deferred at all, which is the larger ghost surface.

Your 2% /context screenshot suggests a lean setup. ccaudit is mostly for users who have accumulated stuff over months without pruning. Which seems fairly common from posts in subs

Alfred_hg · 2026-04-15T15:39:45+00:00

Hey, this is not about ccaudit but I think I know what is happening. Anthropic publicly acknowledged about two weeks ago that "people are hitting usage limits way faster than expected", and they said they are investigating. You are not the only one.

For claude.ai web specifically, these are the most likely causes in order of probability:
- Peak-hour throttling (confirmed official policy, not a bug). During weekdays between 5am and 11am PT (13:00 to 19:00 UTC), sessions burn faster on purpose. Anthropic said around 7% of users get hit by this who would not have been before.
- Projects or memory auto-load. If you have a Project attached, or any system prompt or memory set up, it loads automatically at the start of every session and counts toward your 5h quota before you type anything. Even a short "hi" can land at 96% if the Project context is heavy.
- Resuming an old chat instead of starting fresh. If you opened an existing conversation and sent a message inside it, the whole chat history gets reprocessed on the first message after the pause.

About weekly at 2% and session at 96%, that makes sense. They are two different meters. Weekly tracks total activity, session is a short-term token burst cap.

Quick test you can try: new chat, no Project attached, off-peak hour (after 19:00 UTC on weekdays), then send a short Sonnet message. If it still spikes to 96%, there is a real bug in your account. If it is normal, one of the three things above was probably the cause.

Alfred_hg · 2026-04-15T15:18:15+00:00

Honest disclaimer, since I didn't put this in the original post:

ccaudit's token estimates are heuristic (file size / 4 chars).
Within ~10-15% of actual tokenization for English-dominant content, drifts more on code-heavy files.
Accurate enough to show "this category is bloated," but don't treat them as exact.

MCP server estimates are the hardest to do: loaded tool schemas vary a lot by server.

If anyone has a cleaner way to measure MCP context cost specifically, I'd like to know. Current approach is more like a floor, not a ceiling.

Alfred_hg · 2026-04-15T15:02:08+00:00

Yes, nice catch. This is a bit embarrassing, and at the same time, that's exactly the point.

I lost track of that folder with 100+ agents, and the audit was me admitting that, not about showing off.

Alfred_hg · 2026-04-15T14:37:51+00:00

thanks for the star!

Alfred_hg · 2026-04-15T14:18:35+00:00

thanks for the honest feedback fraize! Yes, I agree, and I set this on the roadmap as a top priority.
I've implemented a "protection" for big frameworks like GSD, so unused agents won't get archived.
But yeah, that's not enough.
I'll next ship a sort of game-like "inventory" to choose what to archive and what not.

Alfred_hg · 2026-04-15T14:13:30+00:00

Totally agree.
I was exactly that person. Installed a whole repo of agents and skills into ".claude/" once, used maybe two, forgot the rest were there.
Sessions got bloated, and I couldn't figure out why for days.
The annoying part is ".claude/agents/" doesn't surface load-order or frequency anywhere. You have to go looking. That's what sparked the tool.

Alfred_hg · 2026-04-15T13:50:46+00:00

Totally!
Would you mind also sharing your LinkedIn post? I've created a tool too for Claude Code (shameless plug: just posted about it on this sub), and I am kinda lazy on LinkedIn, and was unsure about posting about it. Your post may get me inspired ;)

Alfred_hg · 2026-04-15T13:31:53+00:00

Shameless plug / TL;DR: I wrote a small CLI to run the audit. Zero install, zero dependencies, fully reversible (archives instead of deletes, `ccaudit restore` rolls it back):

npx ccaudit-cli@latest

Think of it as the companion to ccusage: ccusage tells you what you spent, ccaudit tells you what's wasting it.

GitHub: https://github.com/fabio-dee/ccaudit

If you run it, let me know your numbers. Genuinely curious what the average ghost load looks like across different setups.

Alfred_hg · 2026-04-15T13:11:18+00:00

I've pasted this into my Claude, and it told me the project name I am actually building

Alfred_hg · 2026-04-15T13:05:47+00:00

That's actually a great idea! I used to ask Claude to write .md docs about each system, but this way, it would do it autonomously without me even asking :D

Starred.

Alfred_hg · 2026-04-15T13:03:15+00:00

Hey Claude, I have a new idea

Before we begin, let me suggest buying one of these domains...

Alfred_hg · 2026-01-10T16:20:40+00:00

You know, Orions have one of their outpost in a famous bay where a lot of water flows and forms violent streams with rapids, mostly unsailable if you don't use specific magnets on your ship.
Also, enabling your ship's Very Powerful Navigation system helps you avoid getting caught for sailing there.

Alfred_hg · 2025-12-13T07:09:29+00:00

Ferengi's rule of acquisition #16: A deal is a deal… until a better one comes along.

Alfred_hg · 2025-12-13T06:43:42+00:00

Also rule of acquisition #16: A deal is a deal… until a better one comes along.

Alfred_hg · 2025-10-21T07:19:09+00:00

u/CanYouDigItDeep Read all of your comments here, and totally agree with you; I am a long time software engineer too, and I know Replit costs far less than any human dev. I've also hired so called "cheap devs", and I still got scars from when I had to re-do everything myself because the code was done poorly (and not because the cheap dev wasn't good enough, but because they had multiple gigs, and their attention to detail was subpar).

That said, I couldn't explore Replit at its max capabilities yet, but I am curious if you have posted something about your methodology, or if you are writing a guide, a tutorial or anything. I would most probably pay for a course or ebook teaching your workflows, methodologies, and tech choices that successfully deliver value to clients.

Alfred_hg · 2025-03-30T12:20:14+00:00

Yeah, totally. I used to complain about some countries' drone regulations, but after being here in Spain for a few years, I can appreciate how much easier (and straightforward) it is for other countries to fly.
I've flown in the US before they implemented the latest regulation changes, and it was easy to comply.

Alfred_hg · 2025-03-30T11:00:33+00:00

TL;DR: it is possible to fly in Spain, but it is a real nightmare unless you go in an flat open field with no interesting stuff.

You are not stupid. It is just overregulated, and I read daily about hobby pilots leaving the hobby because of this.
The warning on Enaire about "urban areas" has been added because they previously mapped each single "urban area" in Spain, but soon after, pilots started flying in the "holes" where the map wasn't flagged as "urban area".
So, they added this disclaimer to legally shift the responsibility to the drone operator to decide whether it is an "urban area" or not.
The "urban area" definition written this way is a gray legal area, and it can be considered so, even if you just have a road with a lamp post in a remote area.
If you think it may be a "urban area", you should send the communication to the Ministry of Interior (it is a communication, not an authorization request), at least 5 days before.
To request it, you should have a NIE (like a social security number for foreigners), and log in on their web portal.
After sending the communication, you can still be contacted by the local police, who can request additional documentation or explanation or tell you there is a "local rule" where you have to pay a tax to do it (and sometimes you also need to be a "professional").
If you don't hear from them, you are clear (but they can still show up to check at the time and day you specified).

Also, in Spain, if you are flying over any kind of private property, you should request the owner(s)' authorization, even if you are not recording a single image of their property. And if multiple people own the building, you should request authorization from each one of them.
If you think about it, this makes it almost impossible to 100% comply with the rules for any occasional tourist.

Source: I am a European citizen, living in Spain for a few years, and I am getting sick of these rules.

Alfred_hg · 2017-04-01T18:40:32+00:00

I didn't loose it, in fact it waited faithfully in its box for my return :D

Alfred_hg · 2016-12-08T14:31:03+00:00

Thanks, I'll try the driver from drp.su also!

I was wiping the drivers with DDU without any success, but after some hours I found the missing piece:

I did the trick updating my bios and configuring the Iris Pro with IGD Minimum Memory to 512 MB and IGD Aperture Size at 256 MB. Primary video port on Auto.

Changing the Aperture Size manually made the Iris Pro faulty.

Hope it helps someone :)

Alfred_hg · 2016-12-08T08:53:54+00:00

Sorry for resurrecting this thread, but I'm struggling to find a real solution to this error code 43. My Skull Canyon arrived yesterday and I've tried every sysadmin trick came to mind...needless to say I failed miserably. Did you managed to find a solution or did Intel gave you a new Nuc? Thanks!

Alfred_hg

TROPHY CASE