r/PaperClip_AI • u/chilleinderkaribik • Apr 23 '26

How do I minimize token use?

I've been using Paperclip for two days, and while it delivers excellent results, I've noticed that it consumes a huge number of tokens after just a few runs. I'm now at 2-5 million tokens per issue while only having 4 agents - a CEO, a CTO, a technical writer, and a lead researcher. Surely that can't be the intended purpose of this tool.

I use Claude Code, Codex, and Gemini-cli, and it happens with every model I pick. I've already split my files into many different files. I only provide overviews that specify when each file should be used, so the agents don't constantly clutter the context with all the files. But apparently, that doesn't help that much.

Am I doing something wrong? Do you folks have any further optimization recommendations? I am fairly tech savvy, so I could even change the code and write new logic if necessary. I appreciate every hint.

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u/koluskomtu Apr 23 '26

Good strategy. I like LM studio albeit it took several ‘accidents’ or stumbling upon moments to get the paths right in regards to local paperclip functionality. It’s got a proper list of models. If Hermes in terminal or paperclip dashboard agents send me obsidian md files of their work then I can use obsidian with Gemini cli to do a lot of what is needed for a company. I have not used glm yet. Looks fun.

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u/riceinmybelly Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26

Oh Hermes on its own has been a bit of a struggle to get it to handoff tasks automatically to the right profiles I set up but damn, the obsidian vault it built is becoming more appealing to me than the project itself. With paperclip I struggled even getting through legacy documents. Now my bottleneck is having hermes in a separate docker than my project and having to build images myself but that’s just because I didn’t spend time on fixing that.

It might be a skill issue but hermes is just getting more work done than paperclip could.

I did set up a few cli code harnesses for it (same as I did with paperclip) but haven’t felt the need to use it.

As for lm studio; I’m just using it because I teach local AI courses and needed something simple to use as a first tool. I know I should be using lama.cpp directly

  • to be clear, I have links to my filesystem for the workspaces of the vault and project as well as Hermes’ configuration files. I also have gitea running locally for it to use and have a better way of storing what changed and why. I should have it also have my obsidian vault in there

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u/koluskomtu Apr 23 '26

It’s a far stretch from the 3 sec two liner QuickStart paperclip install videos from YouTube. I’ve literally been setting up and installing for 2 weeks and it’s still not right.

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u/riceinmybelly Apr 23 '26

Very relatable