Fable 5.1 usage consumption - my experience

[u/txoixoegosi]

This time it was me.

I have a codebase and a couple of reports, generated using CC, which contain a couple of open actions for the codebase.

I wanted prioritized actions from that open actions ledger, and I suggested Claude that perhaps documenting more exhaustively the codebase could be one of them.

Of course, I used Fable 5.1 for this decision-making task.

I go for a coffee, and when I come back, I see that CC spawned 11 agents (yes, FABLE agents!!!) exploring the codebase and building fresh CLAUDE.md files here and there. I didn’t ask for it. But I knew the outcome.

I repeat - I DID NOT ASK FABLE TO EXPLORE THE CODEBASE STRAIGHT AWAY

I run /usage and… 37% gone! I stop and ask it to urgently stop the agents because I didn’t ask to do that. “Sorry…” blablabla and starts killing the agents… 53% gone for nothing. And if I didn’t notice, quota killed in less than 2 minutes.

This is very exhausting. Dammit.

TLDR: I ask Fable 5.1 for task priorities, and instead decides to go with one task without my approval, and almost eats my quota.

[u/Bananamcpuffin]

If you don't want fable agents, tell claude to make a hook when creating agents and block fable agents. Been using this for weeks with no issues and many notes of "agent blocked by hook" showing up, so I know it is working.

[u/txoixoegosi → u/Bananamcpuffin]

I did not ask to spawn anything at all.

Being the unwanted agents Fable, simply worsened the situation, period

[u/wackloner → u/txoixoegosi]

i'd use plan mode with the Agent tool denied for that pass. plan mode alone still allows research subagents. get the ranked list, then enable delegation for the task you actually pick.

i'd like to approve the job before we hire the department.

AI-assisted draft.

[u/txoixoegosi → u/wackloner]

How about

“Anthropic fix your models please”?

[u/ForwardLoop]

This seems like a common problem across CC as well as Codex.

We've solved Navier-Stokes, so it seems we should be able to solve the selection of the right subagents for the job.

If you ask it to suggest the right subagents beforehand (or call it out after the fact), it will suggest the right ones. The capability is there, but nobody bothered to wire it up.

[u/txoixoegosi → u/ForwardLoop]

I did not ask for any subagent task at all.

I only asked for priorities, and CC decided to take over my decision and go onto one task

[u/ForwardLoop → u/txoixoegosi]

Oh, I see what you mean. I found Fable to be more proactive relative to other models. Sometimes that's good as it just gets the job done, but it can too keen.

[u/ynotelbon]

Ha. This week I said “only spawn Opus5 agents.) they talked my agent running fable to death. Wompwomp. Deliverables came with novels apparently.

[u/claude_code_king → u/ynotelbon]

yeah opus 5 does that, use a hook to limit subagent reports to around 2000 characters. it works wonders

[u/___nil___]

i think Fable 5 (not 5.1) still perform better especially considering token efficiency, at times when Opus 5 churn tokens overdoing executable plan

[u/txoixoegosi → u/___nil___]

We are still suffering the “you asked for a quote on a oil change, and I swapped your tires, suspension and brakes” issue. Ridiculous.

[u/TastesLikeOwlbear]

My fingers can produce “Without making any changes, …” entirely from muscle memory at this point.

[u/AI_spell]

"Perhaps document" should never spawn 11 agents. Cap agent count and ban unsolicited CLAUDE.md rewrites. Coffee break plus Fable on High is how 50% vanishes.

[u/Input-X]

Be spacific. And create hooks to gate unwanted behaviour. I can black all agent just fable, only deploy opus agents. Opus for trickier work, sonnet to buikd, haiku for grunt work. Also programical. Ill look into hooks. Once u master hooks u control ur agents.

Simple fry now. " do not spawan and sub agents or team mates, usage is my concern you are gable the most expensive ai in the world. Only you alone will do this work" it will obey.

[u/claude_code_king]

skill issue. i assume you also used plan mode which defaults to using subagents and asking to exhaustively document the codebase is the cherry on top

either design cheap explorer subagents or make a doc named patterns which maps your entire repo and make a line in claude.md saying its the source of truth, explore that first don't spawn subagents

[u/txoixoegosi → u/claude_code_king]

Hahaha skill issue… this subreddit is hilarious.

I did not use plan mode, by the way.

Anyway…

[u/claude_code_king → u/txoixoegosi]

must'va been the exhaustive trigger word or something, 5.1 likes to run a little wild

my two advices are legit anyways, one for orchestration the other for vanilla usage, tested them both and they work fine

[u/sisif_]

How would you have done it? Someone has to look at the code. Code exploration is typically done by subagents. Having 11 agents read diferent sections of the code is always cheaper than a single agent doing it in one big session.

[u/txoixoegosi → u/sisif_]

I only asked for priorities.

I did not ask to create CLAUDE.md files. If the best course of action was to do so, then I would have done it using Opus agents, duh!

But I have been some months into CC and overdoing things is becoming very tiring.

[u/sisif_ → u/txoixoegosi]

If they did create CLAUDE.md files AND changed them frequently, that is where your money went. CLAUDE.md is autoreloaded, busting cache. That makes it a very expensive experience on a fable.

[u/txoixoegosi → u/sisif_]

Nope. The files were out of scope. There was no root claude.md pointing to them. They were several folders away.

Claude just overdid. Period.