A Practical Guide to Reducing Token Spend
TLDR Dev
A developer shows how to reduce AI token costs by replacing skills-based agent workflows with swamp workflows, cutting token usage 8x and runtime in half for a code review task. The Garfield code review skill used 4.5 million tokens across 23 sub-agents in 12 minutes, while the swamp version used 500 thousand tokens across 3 agents in 6.5 minutes. By moving coordination logic into deterministic code and using LLMs only where their intelligence adds value, developers can build more efficient agent systems.
Why it matters
A 'swamp workflow' method optimizes AI agents by structuring complex tasks into deterministic code, reducing resource consumption while decreasing token usage by 8 times and cutting execution time in half compared to traditional skills-based approaches.
