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Cursor removed cost information from the usage page and CSV export

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Re: Cursor removed cost information from the usage page and CSV export

#121

Post by tosh »

bermudi wrote: post #118
tosh wrote: post #22

I can only recommend to regularly measure how many tokens a harness+model combination uses for a certain task There are huge token efficiency/bloat differences between agents while working on the same tasks, using the same model, in the same environment Yesterday I ran 10 agentic tasks using GPT 5.6 Sol in an ubuntu 26.04 vm a couple of times with different harnesses and got vastly different token usage. +-----------…

If you're working on smol? How complex is your work? The agent has to do everything using sed? Did you write your own tools? I guess my question is, why aren't you using pi? The difference in tokens between the two also makes super curious. The system prompt can't be that different (I'd even bet Pi's shorter) and the 4 tools shouldn't make as much of a difference. I'm gonna have to try it.

smol only has 1 tool: sh

the system prompt of smol is shorter than the system prompt of Pi

smol has no system prompt

system prompt of Pi 0.83.0

""" You are an expert coding assistant operating inside pi, a coding agent harness. You help users by reading files, executing commands, editing code, and writing new files.

Available tools: - read: Read file contents - bash: Execute bash commands (ls, grep, find, etc.) - edit: Make precise file edits with exact text replacement, including multiple disjoint edits in one call - write: Create or overwrite files

In addition to the tools above, you may have access to other custom tools depending on the project.

Guidelines: - Use bash for file operations like ls, rg, find - Use read to examine files instead of cat or sed. - Inspect PI_* environment variables for current model and session details. - Use edit for precise changes (edits[].oldText must match exactly) - When changing multiple separate locations in one file, use one edit call with multiple entries in edits[] instead of multiple edit calls - Each edits[].oldText is matched against the original file, not after earlier edits are applied. Do not emit overlapping or nested edits. Merge nearby changes into one edit. - Keep edits[].oldText as small as possible while still being unique in the file. Do not pad with large unchanged regions. - Use write only for new files or complete rewrites. - Be concise in your responses - Show file paths clearly when working with files

Pi documentation (read only when the user asks about pi itself, its SDK, extensions, themes, skills, or TUI): - Main documentation: /usr/local/lib/node_modules/@earendil-works/pi-coding-agent/README.md - Additional docs: /usr/local/lib/node_modules/@earendil-works/pi-coding-agent/docs - Examples: /usr/local/lib/node_modules/@earendil-works/pi-coding-agent/examples (extensions, custom tools, SDK) - When reading pi docs or examples, resolve docs/... under Additional docs and examples/... under Examples, not the current working directory - When asked about: extensions (docs/extensions.md, examples/extensions/), themes (docs/themes.md), skills (docs/skills.md), prompt templates (docs/prompt-templates.md), TUI components (docs/tui.md), keybindings (docs/keybindings.md), SDK integrations (docs/sdk.md), custom providers (docs/custom-provider.md), adding models (docs/models.md), pi packages (docs/packages.md), environment variables (docs/environment-variables.md) - When working on pi topics, read the docs and examples, and follow .md cross-references before implementing - Always read pi .md files completely and follow links to related docs (e.g., tui.md for TUI API details) Current working directory: /workspace """

Re: Cursor removed cost information from the usage page and CSV export

#122

Post by michimagdesign »

est31 wrote: post #106
slashdave wrote: post #8

Cursor achieved fast adoption by making it simple to move from Visual Studio code. Double-edged sword. It is also simple to move back to VS code and agent extensions.

Cursor has an import assistant from vs code settings. Ahere is no assistant for the inverse. Not even for moving between computers (at least a couple of months ago when I had the need haha).

But doesn’t vscode’s settings.json have most if not all settings stored inside it? Should be a simple copy and paste.

Re: Cursor removed cost information from the usage page and CSV export

#123

Post by tosh »

applfanboysbgon wrote: post #120
tosh wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

smol is also prefix caching the uncached tokens are also from runs where smol finished a task below 1024 tokens (the minimum amount of tokens needed to activate caching) which is less tokens than other harnesses are using for their system prompt (!) > GPT-5.6 and later models: Caching is available for prefixes containing at least 1,024 tokens. This is a strict minimum. https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/pr…

Yes, I do agree that avoiding compactions is extremely desirable, just make sure you're actually testing for how well that happens and the results!

will do!

Re: Cursor removed cost information from the usage page and CSV export

#124

Post by tosh »

xienze wrote: post #103
tosh wrote: post #22

I can only recommend to regularly measure how many tokens a harness+model combination uses for a certain task There are huge token efficiency/bloat differences between agents while working on the same tasks, using the same model, in the same environment Yesterday I ran 10 agentic tasks using GPT 5.6 Sol in an ubuntu 26.04 vm a couple of times with different harnesses and got vastly different token usage. +-----------…

> There are huge token efficiency/bloat differences between agents while working on the same tasks, using the same model, in the same environment Be careful here. Remember these are non-deterministic models at the end of the day, and even with everything being "the same" you can have two runs where the same model, same harness, same tools can arrive at the same conclusion through a wildly different sequence of events…

agree, that makes it a bit tricky to compare (esp if you also want to add different models and reasoning levels into the mix)

I will add more tasks (esp longer ones) and think more about grading, the current tasks were easy to grade because the desired outcomes are well specced but I will also look into more open ended tasks and how to grade those

thank you!

Re: Cursor removed cost information from the usage page and CSV export

#125

Post by tosh »

zuzululu wrote: post #98
tosh wrote: post #22

I can only recommend to regularly measure how many tokens a harness+model combination uses for a certain task There are huge token efficiency/bloat differences between agents while working on the same tasks, using the same model, in the same environment Yesterday I ran 10 agentic tasks using GPT 5.6 Sol in an ubuntu 26.04 vm a couple of times with different harnesses and got vastly different token usage. +-----------…

this benchmark is a very misleading because it doesn't necessarily point to these harnesses saving usage and much of the harness that comes with codex for example is designed at cross functional agentic usage which you will be leaving behind by using a different harness. openai spends a lot of time as does claude. also note that cached is what makes up bulk of the total and codex and claude has huge discounts in that…

smol currently is very simple so it definitely does less things, like no subagent orchestration

I will look into how token usage looks like for longer sessions and more complex tasks

re caching: the cache ratio for this bench looks 'bad' for smol because it often finishes a task before caching kicks in (caching starts at 1024 tokens)

thank you for flagging this

Re: Cursor removed cost information from the usage page and CSV export

#127

Post by tosh »

growt wrote: post #76
tosh wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

smol is basically this 9 line python agent re-implemented in Go https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49006862 I'll have more about it in the next hours/days, you can follow me on twitter in the meantime ( https://x.com/__tosh )

So smol is your agent? Do you have a GitHub link?

coming in a few hours

you can follow this org in the meantime https://github.com/smol-env

or on twitter here: https://x.com/__tosh

Re: Cursor removed cost information from the usage page and CSV export

#128

Post by nzxt210 »

aroman wrote: post #5

I was an early and passionate adopter and paying customer of Cursor (since 2023!), but it’s probably been 6 months since I opened it. These days I “write” code with claude code and codex, and read/review it on GitHub. If I need to read it locally, I use a plain text editor. Can someone help me understand what value cursor offers in 2026?

Cursor in agent mode is the same thing as claude code and codex. And now Grok 4.5 included into subscription. It gives you more value, since grok is cheaper and faster version of the Opus.

Re: Cursor removed cost information from the usage page and CSV export

#129

Post by try-working »

tosh wrote: post #22

I can only recommend to regularly measure how many tokens a harness+model combination uses for a certain task There are huge token efficiency/bloat differences between agents while working on the same tasks, using the same model, in the same environment Yesterday I ran 10 agentic tasks using GPT 5.6 Sol in an ubuntu 26.04 vm a couple of times with different harnesses and got vastly different token usage. +-----------…

that's why i recommend running everything through a router.

Re: Cursor removed cost information from the usage page and CSV export

#130

Post by nzxt210 »

nzxt210 wrote: post #128
aroman wrote: post #5

I was an early and passionate adopter and paying customer of Cursor (since 2023!), but it’s probably been 6 months since I opened it. These days I “write” code with claude code and codex, and read/review it on GitHub. If I need to read it locally, I use a plain text editor. Can someone help me understand what value cursor offers in 2026?

Cursor in agent mode is the same thing as claude code and codex. And now Grok 4.5 included into subscription. It gives you more value, since grok is cheaper and faster version of the Opus.

I also want to believe that Cursor team working on harnesses for much longer then openAI and Anthropic can deliver better results overall. Claude code is being pretty much vibe-coded slop doesn’t give a feel of a good product.
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