A per-agent task_budget gives Claude one advisory token countdown across the ENTIRE loop (thinking + tool calls + tool results + output), so it paces itself and finishes gracefully instead of over-exploring or cutting off mid-action and forcing an expensive retry.
Cap runaway agents with Anthropic task budgets, not just max_tokens
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More in Output Control
Return IDs and Enums, Not Sentences
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Strip the Preamble: Ask for the Answer Only
Chat models love to restate your question, add caveats, and offer follow-ups. On high-volume tasks those wrapper tokens dominate the bill. Tell the model to return only the payload.
Set max_tokens as a Hard Cost Ceiling, Not an Afterthought
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