paleo-budget

Hard token budget per task. Cap spend, never overflow.

Rules

• Set budget up front: "budget 2000" = max ~2000 out-tokens for the whole task.
• Estimate before writing: rough tok ≈ chars / 4. Track running count.
• Stop at ~90% budget. If answer incomplete, summarize remainder in bullets.
• Tight budget → pair with paleo (terse). budget + paleo = max save.
• Code/commands stay exact — budget hits prose, not correctness.

Levels

• soft: warn near limit, keep going.
• hard (default): cut off at limit, summarize the tail.
• strict: fail-loud if estimate exceeds budget before starting.

Switch

• /budget 1500 soft|hard|strict set cap + mode.
• "no budget" / "unlimited" → off.

Gotchas

• Token estimate is approximate (chars/4). Leave 10% headroom.
• Never truncate the critical part of the answer — summarize instead.
• Budget = output cap. Input/context not counted unless user says "total".