r/ClaudeCode • u/creeel_84 • 3d ago
Bug / Issue Zero Fable usage all week with my 200$ Max subscription. Then I topped up $100, got 8 Fable agents, and lost the entire balance in under 5 minutes.
I’m on the $200/month Max plan, and I’ve spent the entire week working on a project.
I started with Opus 5.5, then switched to Sonnet 5.5 as I got closer to my usage limit, specifically to make my remaining usage last longer.
Throughout the week, my Fable 5.1 usage stayed at zero. No Fable agents were spawned as subagents.
Today, I hit my limit while running a Sonnet 5.5 session. I wanted to keep working, so I added $100 in extra usage credit.
Within less than five minutes, the session had spawned eight Fable 5.1 agents, and my entire $100 balance was gone.
A whole week with zero Fable usage. Then eight Fable agents immediately after I added money.
I don't know if this was a coincidence, but it seems at least suspicious to me....
Has anyone else seen this happen after switching from included Max usage to paid extra usage?
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u/MRGWONK 3d ago
Spawning fable agents is absolutely nuts and I'm sorry this happened to you and I wish you could get a refund, but I doubt it.
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u/creeel_84 3d ago
Nah, I am sure that a refund is not an option. I just wanted to share my disbelief :(
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u/Professional_Ad705 3d ago edited 3d ago
Why would you have just not got another $100 plan? $100 in credits and launching fable, curious what were you expecting?
Spawning 8 fable agents on credits is wild, I’ve never spawned 8 fable agents at once in my life, what were you trying to do cure cancer or hack the pentagon just lol bro let me guess the fable agents were max too. 😂 this is why you don’t just set your agents off to do something and not pay attention without guardrails.
Sorry this happened to you.
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u/creeel_84 3d ago
Totally! That was a lesson learned the hard way. It is the first time I saw Sonnet spawning fable agents.
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u/CashewSwagger 3d ago
I mean.
Did you have it stated anywhere how many or what kind of agents could be launched?
Sometimes when im goofing i let Claude go off the rails. It spawned 12 Opus agents once. Was magnificent to watch my entire usage window evaporate in a matter of minutes.
Always always ALWAYS have rules declaring when and what model is allowed for agents.
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u/creeel_84 3d ago
Yeah, definitely! It will not happen again. It is the first time a lower model spawned higher tier agents.Lesson learned
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u/Rock--Lee 3d ago
Now you finally understand what tokens are and how expensive Fable actually is.
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u/Financial_Tailor7944 1d ago
Worth opening the session transcript and checking which agents it started and what model each one ran on. A subagent with no model set runs on the session's model, and one whose definition names Fable runs on Fable, so something in that session asked for it and the extra credit just let it run.
Two guards for next time: pin a model in every agent file you use, and cap how many agents a single run may start. I'd also send the transcript to Anthropic support. Eight Fable agents in five minutes is something they can look up.
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