T | TERSE | ISSUE 009 · AUGUST 2026 |
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THE TERSE LETTER · 4 MIN READ Keep the main thread
cheap with subagentsOffload the messy searching. Bring back only the answer. Your context stays lean. |
The most expensive thing in a long coding session is the main context window — because everything in it is re-billed every single turn. Subagents are the fix: they do the noisy work in their own throwaway context and hand back only the conclusion. Here's the pattern. |
| 01 | The problem with searching inline |
A grep can dump 10K tokens you keep forever.Search the codebase in your main thread and every match, every file excerpt, every false hit lands in your window — and stays. You wanted one answer; you're now carrying the entire search. |
Codebase-wide search · context impact | Inline search | 11K tokens kept |
| → Across a heavy session, roughly $150/year. |
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Fan out the mess. Keep only the answer.Hand broad searches and multi-file sweeps to a subagent. It reads dozens of files in its own context, then returns a one-paragraph conclusion. Your main thread never sees the raw dump — and never pays to re-read it. |
✗ MAIN-THREAD COST All grep matches Every file excerpt False positives Re-billed each turn |
| ✓ SUBAGENT COST Just the conclusion One short summary Noise discarded Paid once |
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Terse shows per-source token use so you can see your main thread staying lean. |
Three things to do right now. |
1 | Delegate broad searches "Find where X is configured" across many files? Send it to a subagent, not your main thread. |
2 | Ask for conclusions, not dumps Tell the subagent to return the answer and the file:line — not the raw matches. |
3 | Track it in Terse Watch the agent source in Statistics to confirm your main context stays small. |
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macOS · Free forever tier · 1,500 optimizations/week |
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NEXT WEEK Real numbers from real users. Next issue I'm sharing anonymized savings from Terse users — including one team that cut their monthly AI bill by four figures. |
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Until then — stay terse. — James
Builder of Terse · terseai.org |
