Stop burning your usage limit on your best model. Build a loop in Claude Code where your top model plans and judges, and a cheaper, faster model does the grunt work. Better results, way less usage.
This works with whatever your top model is, Fable 5 or Opus 4.8. Either way, it is too powerful to waste on tiny tasks. So you use it as your planner and judge, and let a cheaper, faster model like Haiku or Sonnet do the actual labor.
In Claude Code, run /model and pick your most powerful model (Fable 5, or Opus 4.8). Set /effort high for planning. This model writes the plan and reviews the final result, it does not do the grunt work.
Make a subagent that runs on a cheap model to do the implementation. Just ask Claude to create one for you, or add a file at .claude/agents/executor.md with this inside:
Now your top model plans, hands the work to the executor, and reviews it. Kick it off like this:
Your expensive model only spends tokens on the two things that matter, the strategy and the quality check, while the cheap model does the heavy lifting.
Two more Claude Code commands turn this into a hands-off system:
/goal
Sets the finish line so it keeps working until the job actually hits your criteria, and it auto-checks completion with a separate cheaper model. Example: /goal all requirements are met and the code passes its own review.
/loop and /schedule
/loop re-runs it on an interval on your computer. /schedule moves it to the cloud so it keeps running even when your laptop is closed.
Bonus Savers
Use /effort low for simple steps, /clear between unrelated tasks, and put standing context in a CLAUDE.md file so you are not re-explaining yourself.
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