How do you manage to run out of tokens so quickly? I probably run more threads every working day, usually on medium, and I'm still below the 5x limits.
Do you use the official harness? OpenAI's models are generally best in class for token efficiency. It seems to me like they push for that much more than their competitors.
I've long speculated this when I see these types of comments, because it's actually really difficult to hit usage caps with an efficient dev flow, even when running multiple threads for hours every day.
I think some combination of:
1) Using 1 thread for everything
2) Reviving old threads which are no longer in cache
3) Really broad prompts on badly vibecoded codebases, so model spends huge amount of time tracking down whatever you're trying to do.
4) Non-coding workflow which is more output than input heavy
5) (Less likely IMO) Intelligent use of many passive CI/cron-like scans. E.g. regular security, quality etc scans. Automated issue resolution/PR
Just a guess. I think 3 is likely the primary reason.
You can literally go all day every day with multiple threads with Sol on the Codex 100/month plan IME
That's my experience too. I've found OpenAI really quite generous with tokens. I sometimes wonder how some people manage to run out of them really. Do they just type prompts that much faster than me or use the highest reasoning mode for everything just because they can? Idk.
I generally agree with those reasons, although using a single thread may be less of an issue than it seems because of context compacting which should happen automatically when you're near the limit.
My use cases are iterative and sometimes require reading a lot of code or reevaluating work.
Token efficiency is near meaningless when the workload is input-heavy. It can't always just choose to read less, depending on the task.
I can have cheaper agents do the reading but it's not appropriate for all use cases because they'll misjudge and choose the wrong things to emphasize, summarize, extract for the bigger model.
Many threads.
I use new threads if relevant old one is uncached. (Often using a skill or doc for handoff instead of requiring full context gathering again.)
I get involved in architecture and specific implementation direction. The codebase is 8 years old and mostly handwritten.
Mostly coding. Some QA.
No cron/CI agents.