Comment by jghiglia

I've been using Claude Code heavily for the last few weeks building out a multi-agent system, and the token economics caught me off guard — I hit 75% of my Pro weekly budget faster than expected. I don't code myself, so Claude Code handles all the actual implementation work.

What I've learned about cost management: the real decision isn't "should I code this myself or use Claude Code" — it's "should I spawn Claude Code or handle this through a different approach entirely?" For complex builds where I need something architected from scratch, Claude Code is worth it. For smaller tasks or iteration on existing code, I've started using Sonnet in the web interface with the file as context instead. The visual guide here is helpful because it shows you what Claude Code is actually doing under the hood — understanding that workflow helps you predict whether a task will be a quick fix or a deep exploration that burns through your budget.