The receipts, written out.
Engineering notes on recording agent runs, deterministic replay, and the token bill nobody reads until it arrives. Plain, sourced, no hype.
How to reduce AI agent token costs: a mental model for the recurring bill
Where tokens actually go on a recurring agent job, the formula behind the bill, and the one lever that takes the deterministic core to zero — the hub for Reelier's cost series.
How to Model Your AI Agent's Real Cost: A Field Guide to the Agent Cost Calculator
What each input on the agent cost calculator means, how to estimate calls and tokens per call from a real job, and why the replay column reads $0.00 — with cited prices and a real receipt.
What a Scheduled Claude Code Agent Actually Costs (and Why It Re-Reasons Every Run)
The token bill of a recurring Claude Code job, priced per model from a real benchmark, and how to replay the deterministic core at 0 tokens straight from Claude Code's own history.
OpenAI Codex Automations: How Scheduled Tasks Quietly Drain Your Token Credits
Codex scheduled tasks start a fresh chat every run, re-reading and re-reasoning the whole job from cold — here's the rate-card math, and how to replay the deterministic half at 0 tokens.
Cursor Background Agents on a Schedule: The Per-Run Token Bill Nobody Budgets For
Cursor's $20 Pro plan hides the real cost of a scheduled background agent — usage billed in arrears at model API rates. The formula, the caveats, and how to replay the deterministic half at 0 tokens.
Heartbeat Economics: Why Your Recurring Agent's Bill Is Set by the Schedule, Not the Work
The cost of any recurring poll or heartbeat agent is frequency × tokens/run × price/token — and on a schedule, two of those three are set by the timer, not the task. The formula, worked from cited inputs, and when to replay instead of re-reason.
The Model Update Broke My Agent: Catching Silent Regressions Before They Bill You
A provider bumps the model under your running agent and the bill and behavior move silently. Freeze the run, replay, and diff drift into a red CI check.
Your OpenClaw cron burns 2,880 LLM calls a month. Here's the same job at zero.
The documented cost of OpenClaw heartbeats, the first-principles math behind the bill, and how to replay the deterministic half of the job at 0 tokens.
Scheduled agents re-learn the job every run. Replay the part that never changes.
Claude Code Routines, Actions crons, and OpenClaw heartbeats made recurring agent runs normal. The token bill compounds on the part that never changes.
Windsurf Cascade Workflows on Repeat: What Your Weekly Quota Really Buys
Windsurf retired credits for a daily/weekly quota, with overage billed at API pricing. Here's what a repeated Cascade workflow actually spends — and how to replay its deterministic core off-quota at 0 tokens.