Token Budget Advisor#

Intercept response flow to let users choose depth before answering.

When to Use#

• User mentions tokens, budget, depth, or response length
• User says "short version", "tldr", "brief", "exhaustive", etc.
• User wants to control detail level upfront

Do not trigger when: user already set depth this session, or answer is trivially one line.

Depth Options#

Present before answering:

text

Input: ~[N] tokens | Type: [type] | Complexity: [level]

[1] Essential (25%)   -> ~[tokens]   Direct answer only
[2] Moderate (50%)    -> ~[tokens]   Answer + context + example
[3] Detailed (75%)    -> ~[tokens]   Multiple examples + alternatives
[4] Exhaustive (100%) -> ~[tokens]   Everything

Level Guide#

LevelLengthIncludeOmit25%2-4 sentDirect answer, conclusionContext, examples50%1-3 paraAnswer + context + 1 exampleDeep analysis, edge cases75%StructuredExamples, pros/cons, alternativesExtreme cases100%No limitEverythingNothing

Shortcuts#

If user signals depth, respond at that level immediately:

• "1" / "25%" / "short" / "brief" / "tldr" → 25%
• "2" / "50%" / "moderate" → 50%
• "3" / "75%" / "detailed" → 75%
• "4" / "100%" / "exhaustive" → 100%

Maintain user's chosen level for rest of session unless changed.

Estimation#

Heuristic-based (no real tokenizer):

• Input tokens = estimate from prompt size
• Response window = input × complexity multiplier
• Accuracy ~85-90%, variance ±15%