Features like 'codebase' auto-retrieval and automatic open-file context silently attach extra tokens to every message. Switch them off for narrow tasks and attach context explicitly.
Turn Off Auto Codebase Context When You Don't Need It
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More in Coding Assistants
💻Coding Assistants
Often cuts output tokens 40-70% on edits to large files, varies by file size
Ask for the Patch, Not the Whole File
When editing an existing file, tell the assistant to return only the changed lines as a diff or snippet instead of regenerating the entire file.
💻Coding Assistants
often 30-60% on long sessions
Run /clear Between Tasks in Claude Code Instead of Letting Context Pile Up
Claude Code resends the whole conversation every turn. Finishing one task and starting an unrelated one in the same thread means you keep paying for stale tool output and dead files.
💻Coding Assistants
10-30% on context-heavy chats
Add a .cursorignore So Cursor Stops Indexing Your node_modules
Cursor's @codebase and automatic context can pull in build artifacts, lockfiles, and vendored dependencies. A .cursorignore file keeps that noise out of every prompt.