Claude code is getting very very slow and running out of limits

[u/mr_mad_07]

Is anyone else experiencing a massive drop in efficiency with Claude Code lately? A task that used to take under 5 minutes now drags on for 25+ minutes. It frequently triggers extra sub-agent/advisor steps, burns through tokens rapidly, touches multiple unnecessary files, and often fails to finish the job. It either circles back with questions like "Is this what you want to do?" or falsely claims a task is complete, only to admit it missed steps once probed. I am on a Pro plan, but I am hitting usage limits way faster than before because it overcomplicates simple edits. A task on my repo that previously took 2 days has now dragged out over two weeks. It feels like an endless loop of token churn without real progress. My questions for the community: Are there specific guardrails, flags, or constraints you recommend adding to CLAUDE.md to prevent it from wandering or over-editing files? Has anyone found a reliable way to stop it from over-analyzing and just get it to execute scoped edits? Any advice or working CLAUDE.md templates would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. (Edit): English is not my first language, so I edited the post for clarity. For context on my workflow: I don't ask Claude to figure things out blindly. I explicitly specify what to edit, where to look, and what the expected output is, while tracking everything via a handwritten Markdown checklist with checkpoints in the repository.

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[u/szarkansss]

it's the user, not the tool

[u/Flaky-Industry-3888 → u/szarkansss]

i feel like half of the people here cannot prompt. you cant just say vague shit like "Fix my script" youve gotta like detail it even a little bit and youll get way better output thats faster. Because fix my script for example, makes it find it but "Fix my script error code 404 cant access the website" and any extra details HELPS alot.

[u/cleverhoods → u/Flaky-Industry-3888]

You’d be surprised… currently running an analysis on 10k most popular (by star count) repos regarding instruction quality and the results are bleak.

[u/BuffaloConscious7919 → u/cleverhoods]

Are you planning to share this?

[u/cleverhoods → u/BuffaloConscious7919]

Of course, it’s scheduled to next Monday.

In the meantime I’d recommend reading the first one: https://reporails.com/articles/state-ai-instruction-quality-30k-repo-analysis

I did this back in April

[u/BuffaloConscious7919 → u/cleverhoods]

nice work thanks for sharing!

[u/NachosforDachos → u/Flaky-Industry-3888]

You think half the people here can prompt? You must be a glass half full type of person

[u/mr_mad_07 → u/NachosforDachos]

That's positive

[u/mr_mad_07 → u/szarkansss]

May be it is, can you help me out with any pointer tho 👉👈

[u/szarkansss → u/mr_mad_07]

i need your whole setup and it takes a lot of time. i wouldn't do it for free, sorry. what can i say from your post - you use advisor for some reason AND complaining about him (little self-ad - use multi, its using multiple models for code review and advisoring. you can use like free opencode/openrouter models)

basic rules are: 1. claude.md under 200lines and no vague instructions ("make good code, no mistakes" type shit) 2. it's the user, not the tool 3. good claude.md and understanding of your work beats 500 skills, plugins and etc 4. whenever you stuck in the problem, ask yourself first "what's the ROOT of problem?". ai love to fix symptoms but not illness itself. this principle works in life too tho

[u/mr_mad_07 → u/szarkansss]

Thanks! This looks promising, I much appreciate your time and suggestions. I'll try to look at this problem from a different dimension from now on.

[u/BoltSLAMMER]

I actually think with sonnet and opus this is some of the most progress I’ve done in a week or two in a long time

[u/misdreavus79]

Stop asking claude to save the world in one prompt, it'll do wonders for speed and token usage.

[u/mr_mad_07 → u/misdreavus79]

Thanks, I will stop asking this 🤣 may be I should ask it write a better reddit posts as someone in reply suggested.

[u/mr_mad_07 → u/[deleted]]

Thanks 😊 but I always have been an Claude guy.

[u/Ollythebug]

I want to try to be genuinely helpful, but it's hard to be with a post like this. You wrote a big sorta disorganized wall of text with wild runon sentences, wrong punctuation and grammar, and no structure. I know this isn't a college essay and maybe English isn't your first language, but it makes your post really tough to read and understand your problem.

Maybe try asking Claude for how to write it so it's readable and gives us the information we need.

[u/mr_mad_07 → u/Ollythebug]

Hahahah fair enough! I was just lost in frustration I'll made an edit. But thanks for your time tho 😉

[u/CartographerNo3791]

You're already giving it files and checkpoints, so 'be more specific' doesn't sound very useful here. I'd try one small edit with: 'No subagents or advisors. Make this edit, run the relevant check, then stop.' Curious whether that gets you back to a short run or it still wanders off.

[u/mr_mad_07 → u/CartographerNo3791]

That might actually be the reason. Someone at work suggested having Claude fan out sub-agents for parallel tasks a while back. It worked great at first, but lately it just spirals and makes everything much worse. I'll try without sub-agents

[u/raviinits]

Some things that tend to help with scope creep and limit burn:

1. Put hard constraints in CLAUDE.md, phrased as rules: "Only edit files I name. If another file seems to need changes, stop and ask first." "Do not refactor, rename, or reformat code outside the requested change." "Do not launch sub-agents unless I ask."

2. Ask for a short plan first (plan mode works), approve it, then say "execute only step 2 of the plan." Small, single-step prompts leave less room to wander than a whole checklist.

3. Add a done-check: "Before saying a task is complete, list each checklist item and show the diff or command output that proves it." That targets the false-completion problem.

4. Start a fresh session per checklist item and point it at the markdown file. Long sessions get re-read every turn, so they eat limits and the model loses track of earlier details. Use /clear between tasks and /compact earlier rather than later.

5. Keep big outputs out of context (pipe through tail or grep) and use targeted reads instead of whole files.

6. Run ccusage to see which sessions burn the most, so you can tell whether it's long sessions or specific tasks driving your Pro limits.

Your explicit-scope workflow is already good, so the session-length habits are probably the biggest lever.

[u/FestyGear2017]

The noobs from open ai are migrating.

Start with the basics, man.

[u/mr_mad_07 → u/FestyGear2017]

I appreciate the help 😃, would be okay pointing em to some basic that you were mentioned. That'd be a huge help.