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Agents · Updated 29 Oct, 09:03 am IST

Claude Code secretly sends agent transcripts and burns ~15–20% of tokens

Image: Hacker News (100+ points)

Why it matters for readers: It shows how background agent features can quietly create significant API usage.

  • Every ~30 seconds Claude Code asks each background agent's model to 1
  • The model is asked to “describe your most recent action in 3–5 words,” and the reply only updates the agent status line, not the conversation.1
  • This periodic agent_summary telemetry consumed about 15–20% of token spend and ~20% of API requests before the fix was applied.1
  • The behavior has been on by default since version 2.1.232 (August 2026) and was revealed via OpenTelemetry traces (DRIM).1
  • A researcher published a Bun preload script and instructions to disable the agent_summary calls for Claude Code on Linux.1
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