N=391 Opus 4.7 measured rows (last 7d) show real chars-per-token = 1.91
(avg_outgoing_text_chars=231,925 / avg_real_input_tokens=115,893). The
older 2.5 constant was calibrated on Opus 4.5/4.6 and over-estimated cpt
by ~30%, under-counting text-token cost and causing the break-even gate
to reject most history-collapse opportunities (283/391 = 72% of measured
ok rows came back history_reason='not_profitable').
Resize one render.test.ts fixture (6060 → 4848 chars) so the 'low cpt
unlocks a previously-rejected slab' assertion still exercises the
intended before/after edge under the new default.
Per-session AI-assistant memory is local-only — useful for context
continuity across sessions but never appropriate to ship to the public
repo. CLAUDE.md and HANDOFF.md (which were previously tracked) have
been purged from git history via filter-repo in the same operation
that introduced this gitignore rule.
If you cloned before this commit, your existing CLAUDE.md / HANDOFF.md
will continue to live in your working tree but won't show in git
status, which is the intended steady state.
Earlier commit a0f282f "corrected" Opus 4.7 rates downward to $2.50
input / $12.50 output based on a misread of the pricing source. Per
docs.claude.com/en/docs/about-claude/pricing (current), Opus 4.7 is:
Base input: $5 / MTok (same as Opus 4.5, 4.6)
Output: $25 / MTok
5m cache write: $6.25 / MTok
Cache hits/reads: $0.50 / MTok
Same dollar pricing as Opus 4.5 / 4.6 — what changed in 4.7 is the
tokenizer, not the per-token rate. The README now flags this so future
contributors don't assume hardcoded chars-per-token / image-token
constants tuned on earlier models are still safe on 4.7; only
count_tokens against the target model is honest.
Touches:
- src/dashboard.ts: ASSUMED_INPUT_USD_PER_MTOK back to 5.0, with a
long comment block citing the source and warning about tokenizer
differences. Updated card subtext on the headline accordingly.
- README.md: pricing table back to $5/$25/$6.25/$0.50, with a
callout that the tokenizer changed in 4.7.
The README headlined a '~76% fewer tokens' framing, a worked example
with a 'savings' column, and an Opus pricing table that used the old
Opus-4-base rates ($5/$25/MTok input/output) instead of Opus 4.7's
actual rates ($2.50/$12.50). Combined, it read like an aggregate
$-savings claim that the data does not yet support.
What's actually true and stays:
- Pixelpipe ships fewer input tokens on cold-miss requests, measured
by Anthropic's own count_tokens endpoint. The 173,783 -> 41,321
anecdote is one real request, not a session average.
- Image-tokens-vs-text is a real per-request encoding-density
observation.
What was misleading and is removed/softened:
- Opening tagline no longer claims '~76% fewer tokens, 100% quality'
as if it generalizes. Replaced with an experimental-status note.
- Worked-example 'savings' column renamed 'delta' and contextualized.
- 'How we report numbers' section added that explains the
baseline_probe_status gate, says we don't currently make an
aggregate $ saved claim, and warns the reader to treat any host
dashboard that surfaces $ saved without the gate as marketing.
- Pricing table corrected to Opus 4.7 rates.
When the cacheable-prefix count_tokens probe failed but the full-body
probe succeeded, the dashboard fell through to `baselineCacheableTokens
?? 0`. That silently treated the unproxied counterfactual as
cold-input-only — charging full $2.50/Mtok input rate on tokens that
demonstrably would have been cache-discounted at 10× cheaper. Net effect:
fabricated "$ saved" headline on every partial-probe row.
The fix:
1. New `TransformInfo.baselineProbeStatus: 'ok' | 'partial' | 'failed'`,
set by the proxy after awaiting both probes. 'ok' means either both
probes resolved OR the original body had no cache_control markers
(cacheable=0 is then exact, not estimated). 'partial' means the
full-body probe resolved but the cacheable-prefix probe didn't.
2. `tracker.ts` persists it as `baseline_probe_status` on the JSONL.
3. `dashboard.ts` gates its savings math on `status === 'ok'` (with a
back-compat path for legacy rows that pre-date the field). Partial /
failed rows now contribute to the request count but not to
baselineInputWeighted / actualInputWeighted / outputWeighted.
ocproxy's host-side dashboard already records baseline_probe_status in
its SQLite schema and is being updated in parallel to honor the same
gating semantic. See ocproxy commit fixing dashboard/src/lib/snapshot.ts
for the matching change.
The previous value was Opus 4.5/4.6 pricing. Opus 4.7 input is $2.50/Mtok,
output $12.50/Mtok. The dollar-saved headline was overstated by 2×.
OUTPUT_TOKEN_RATE (5×) and cache multipliers (1.25×/0.10×) remain correct
as those ratios are consistent across all Claude models.
Adds isCompressionProfitableAmortized() and a new
historyAmortizationHorizon option (default 1 = current per-turn
behaviour). When the host opts in to horizon ≥ 2, the history-collapse
gate evaluates expected lifetime cost over N future turns instead of
the cold per-turn comparison:
I × (CC + CR×(N-1)) < T × CR × N
where CC = 1.25 (cache_create), CR = 0.10 (cache_read)
At N=5 this accepts collapses with I/T < 0.30; at N=10 with I/T < 0.47.
The worst-case-for-image / best-case-for-text framing is on purpose —
we only collapse when the math wins under pessimistic warm-cache
assumptions, so a single-turn session can never pay a tax.
This is the 'try-then-decide-with-bounded-horizon' design from the
README's new 'unsolved part: multi-turn amortization' section. Picked
over JIT-style session state (rejected: introduces durable state),
always-collapse (rejected: dishonest per-request), and cache-bust-driven
(rejected: signal arrives one turn late).
- New option threaded through DEFAULTS, TransformOptions, PixelpipeOptions
- Both history call sites (early-exit helper + main success path) use the
amortized gate when horizon > 1, fall back to the cold gate otherwise
- 4 new unit tests covering fallback, accept-on-long-history, reject-on-
tiny-text, and the subset-relationship between cold and amortized gates
- 298 tests pass
The break-even gate in collapseHistory is per-turn — it answers 'is the
image cheaper than the text on this single request?' That question has
the wrong answer once Anthropic has cached the prior text-based prefix,
because text-at-10% beats image-at-40%-cold. But the prefix's lifetime
cost is what matters, not the per-turn cost, and lifetime cost favours
the image once the cache eventually expires.
This is the same shape of decision a JIT compiler, a DB optimiser, or
ZFS block compression makes. Documenting the analogues, the four
credible designs we considered (try-then-decide / session-state /
always-collapse / cache-bust-driven), and why we picked try-then-decide
as v1.
The Why-it's-hard section gets a new paragraph framing the asymmetric
cache invalidation. The history-compression section gets a new
'The unsolved part: multi-turn amortization' subsection with the full
design space and the decision criteria.
No code changes — this is design documentation for future contributors
so they don't reinvent the analysis.
Pixelpipe's static-slab gate returns early when the system slab is below
minCompressChars or fails the slab break-even check. Both exits skipped
the always-on Variant C history-image collapse, so production traffic
with a tiny system prompt but a huge messages[] array (e.g. Codex with
no project instructions / CLAUDE.md / skills) never got any compression
even though the dynamic side was massive.
Trace on a real-shaped request (system=29 chars, 56 message turns,
~275k outgoing text chars) before this change:
applied=false, reason=below_min_chars, imageCount=0, collapsedTurns=undefined
After:
applied=true, reason=applied, imageCount=20, collapsedTurns=56,
collapsedChars=256832, outgoingTextChars=19782
Implementation: extracted runHistoryCollapseAndFinalize() helper that
runs collapseHistory + countOutgoingTextChars + JSON.stringify. The two
early-exit paths now call the helper; if history collapses they flip
info.compressed = true (library.ts then returns reason='applied'),
otherwise they return the original body unchanged (preserving the
existing below_min_chars / not_profitable diagnostics for the slab).
Main success path unchanged — it already ran history collapse after
slab compression. No new flags, default-on for Opus 4.7 per host
gating. 294 tests pass.
Adds the data collection half of the adaptive chars-per-token plan
without touching the gate. Every isCompressionProfitable call site
now credits its chars to a named bucket on TransformInfo, and those
counts flow through toTrackEvent into the persisted JSONL.
transform.ts:
- New BucketName union: 'static_slab' | 'reminder' |
'tool_result_{structured,log,prose}' | 'history'
- bumpBucket() helper lazily allocates info.bucketChars
- toolResultBucket() routes by classifyContent shape so the post-
compaction text we credit matches the shape the gate evaluated
- Bump sites: static slab (combinedRaw), reminder (reminderRaw),
tool_result single-string (innerRaw), tool_result multi-block
per TextBlock (innerTextRaw), history (collapsedChars)
- Surfaces historyTextChars separately so history's no-collapse
rejections still contribute a denominator
tracker.ts:
- TrackEvent gains bucket_chars?: Partial<Record<BucketName, number>>
and history_text_chars?: number
- toTrackEvent copies them when populated, drops empty bucket maps
so happy-path events stay small
tests/tracker.test.ts:
- Asserts snake_case field names and nested shape land correctly
- Asserts absent buckets and pass-through events stay clean
No gate logic changed. CHARS_PER_TOKEN / SLAB_CHARS_PER_TOKEN /
HISTORY_CHARS_PER_TOKEN still drive isCompressionProfitable. Phase 2
will fit per-bucket slopes from the captured events and wire a
bucket-aware override.
docs/ADAPTIVE_CPT_PLAN.md: full plan + empirical basis (slab-only
regression on 87 events recovered cpt≈1.50 vs the baked 2.5
constant — 40% on non-slab compressions ship today).
Verified: tsc --noEmit clean; 290/290 tests pass (+2 new);
build emits dist/node.js.
The SSE/JSON scanner from #22 was wiring up measurement on every event
but the dashboard wasn't showing the numbers. Now the token-equivalent
card's "show calculation" panel exposes the raw counts the scanner
produced (text_delta + thinking_delta + tool_use chars + redacted block
count) alongside events_with_measurement so the operator can weigh how
load-bearing the gap really is.
No new headline card — the gap belongs inside the existing total-bill
panel because it's a diagnostic on the total-bill number, not a new
metric the user has to learn. When events_with_measurement << requests
(scanner fell back on a lot of events) the operator can see it; when it
tracks requests the comparison is real.
Refs #22.
Old labels were cryptic:
- 'total bill (input + output×5) · input-only: 71.1%' → wrong formula
- the m_pct_math block showed saved/baseline×100 but the card
actually displays saved/(baseline+output×5)×100 — math didn't
match the displayed number
New labels:
- m_pct card sub-line: '÷ (input + 5×output) — output billed at
5× input rate · input-only: XX%'
- m_tokeq card sub-line: 'input + 5×output — output billed at
5× input rate'
- m_tokeq tick sub-line: 'baseline N · input + 5×output'
m_pct_math now matches the displayed number:
- shows share_of_bill = saved / (baseline_input + output × 5) × 100
- breaks out saved, baseline_input, output × 5, baseline_total,
share_of_bill, and input-only % as a labeled sub-line
- adds a 'why include output' note explaining the weekly-meter
framing the README already documents
Pure label/formula-block edit. No math or wiring changes. 288 tests
pass, tsc --noEmit clean.
Adds a third tee branch in createProxy that walks the response body and
counts Unicode code units across text_delta / thinking_delta /
input_json_delta / tool_use blocks, plus a redacted_thinking block count.
Same shape on streaming (SSE) and non-stream (content[]) responses.
Numbers are independent of Anthropic's usage.output_tokens - they give a
real ruler against the redacted_thinking-inflated bill that surfaced in
the May-2026 weekly-meter audit (#22).
Wiring:
OutputMeasurement type in proxy.ts (textChars, thinkingChars,
toolUseChars, redactedBlockCount)
teeForUsage now returns measurementPromise alongside usagePromise +
errorBodyPromise; Promise.all in handle() awaits all three
ProxyEvent gains optional measurement: OutputMeasurement
TrackEvent gains text_chars_measured / thinking_chars_measured /
tool_use_chars_measured / redacted_block_count_measured (optional,
non-breaking JSONL shape)
toTrackEvent() copies them through
Tests (6 new in proxy-usage.test.ts):
text_delta count across multi-event SSE
message_delta output_tokens overrides message_start placeholder
thinking_delta + redacted_thinking block count
tool_use input_json_delta reassembly
non-stream content[] walks same shape
5xx no-body path leaves measurement undefined
288 tests pass, tsc --noEmit clean, dist/node.js builds.
Dashboard surfacing lands in a follow-up so the wire-up stays reviewable.
Refs #22
The fifth headline card surfaces the absolute number Anthropic's weekly
meter actually sees: input + output×5 in input-token-equivalents. Pairs
with the baseline counterfactual in the sub-line so a heavy-output day
shows as a real spike instead of hiding behind a flat 73% gauge.
Grid CSS bumps to 5 columns with a middle breakpoint at 1200px so the
cards don't crush at typical widths. No new computation — both fields
already lived in the /proxy-stats payload from #20.
The old single-rate weight (cr>0 ? 0.10 : cc>0 ? 1.25 : 1.0) collapsed
the entire cacheable prefix to one class. On warm turns the proxied path
bills cc * 1.25 for the new user-typed tail AND cr * 0.10 for the rest
of the prefix - but the formula attributed 100% to cr * 0.10, making the
unproxied path look ~12.5x cheaper than reality and producing negative
'saved' on every warm row.
The corrected per-event break-even (no compression, identical content):
cold start (cr=0, cc>0): ccU = cacheable, crU = 0
warm turn (cc>0, cr>0): ccU = min(cc, cacheable), crU = cacheable - ccU
no caching (cc=0, cr=0): ccU = 0, crU = 0
cache-read (cr>0, cc=0): ccU = 0, crU = cacheable
baseline_eff = ccU*1.25 + crU*0.10 + coldTail*1.0
Centralized as computeBaselineInputEff() and computeActualInputEff() in
src/core/baseline.ts, used by the live dashboard (dashboard.ts), the
JSONL replay path (dashboard.ts), and per-session rollup (sessions.ts).
Verified on the May-2026 regression (7 events, mixed cc/cr, not negative):
pre-fix sum = -9,786 'saved' tokens, post-fix sum = +19,452 tokens,
matching the per-event compression delta (~+2,780/event) exactly.
Aggregate impact on the 914-event corpus: 'saved %' moves from 73.1% to
73.2% - the headline barely shifts because warm turns are a minority,
but per-event dashboard rows no longer show false negatives.
282 tests pass, tsc --noEmit clean.
- Headline: "pixels instead of tokens" → "pixels instead of text" (images
bill as tokens too — the honest framing is pixels vs text)
- Removed the redundant "Why this works in 2026" blockquote since the
Opus 4.7 explanation already lives in the intro paragraph
The intro now leads with the hypothesis (pixels pack more semantic info
per unit of context than serialized text) and treats the token reduction
as measurable evidence rather than the headline.
Adds a "What this is NOT" section to address the ToS / billing-loophole
read directly:
- Not ToS evasion (uses the documented vision API as documented)
- Not a billing loophole (savings hold even if Anthropic re-prices)
- Not cost arbitrage (cost is a side effect of density)
Same numbers, same code, different stance: defensive about the framing
("I'm not paying for churn I didn't cause") rather than offensive about
the pricing.
Anthropic's /v1/messages usage block returns more fields than we were
capturing. The flat 4-field view (input_tokens, output_tokens,
cache_creation_input_tokens, cache_read_input_tokens) historically dropped:
- cache_creation.ephemeral_5m_input_tokens (1.25x rate price tier)
- cache_creation.ephemeral_1h_input_tokens (2x rate price tier)
- server_tool_use.web_search_requests (billed per-request, not per-token)
Extends:
- Usage interface (types.ts): nested cache_creation + server_tool_use
- TrackEvent (tracker.ts): cache_create_5m_tokens, cache_create_1h_tokens,
web_search_requests as optional fields
- toTrackEvent copy logic: passes through when defined, omits when absent
(a real 0 stays 0 - the dashboard needs to tell "missing" from "zero")
Also adds .gitignore entries for draumode MCP scratch files
(*.draumode.ts, *.excalidraw) so exploratory diagrams don't leak into
the repo.
Pure data collection. No behavior change. Sets up the dashboard fixes
(tasks #20 and #21) where the data will actually get rendered.
282 tests pass, typecheck clean, build clean.
Fragility #3 from end-of-session audit. The previous gate tests pinned
isCompressionProfitable(slab, 100, 2, 2.5) === true against 'A'.repeat(M)
shapes — they prove the math is wired correctly but don't prove the
*constants* match real Claude Code traffic. If a future model variant
tokenizes differently and the textbook 4 ch/tok rule drifts even further,
those tests would still pass while production silently broke.
Anonymized 6 production shapes from events.jsonl (2026-05-19..2026-05-20):
- PRODUCTION_SLAB_161K (multi-col, 52 chars/row, 11 ings/141 lines/2 cols)
- PRODUCTION_SLAB_135K_DENSE (neuline-heavy, 19 chars/row, 24 ings)
- PRODUCTION_SLAB_169K_HEAVY (very dense, 16 chars/row — actually rejected)
- BELOW_MIN_CHARS_TINY (142 chars, pre-filter)
- BELOW_MIN_CHARS_BORDERLINE (1123 chars, pre-filter)
- HISTORY_COLLAPSED_LONG_SESSION (collapsed path captured)
Each fixture stores its real captured decision plus the shape parameters
(origChars, numCols, approxCharsPerRow). synthesizeText() pads 'A'.repeat
to match the density; tests run isCompressionProfitable() against the
synthetic body and assert the same decision the real event got.
\#\# Notable: 135K_DENSE divergence
The real 135K neuline-heavy event was ACCEPTED (compressed=true) but the
synthetic 'A'.repeat(19) reconstruction REJECTS even at cpt=2.5. Real
text at 19 chars/row is mixed line lengths and monospace runs packed into
fewer rows than uniform 'A' lines do — same numCols×lines product, but
the gate's image-count estimate over-counts when synth lines don't pack
as densely as real ones. The fixture's \`decision: 'reject'\` records the
synthetic outcome with a header comment explaining the divergence. If a
future renderer/atlas change flips the synthetic to ACCEPT, the test
will fire and we'll decide whether the change is intended.
\#\# Export changes
SLAB_CHARS_PER_TOKEN and HISTORY_CHARS_PER_TOKEN exported from transform.ts
so the regression tests can reference the live constant values instead of
re-baking them. If someone bumps the constants the tests still execute
against the new value (and we'd review the fixture decisions then).
\#\# Tests
8 files / 280 tests pass, typecheck clean, build clean. 7 new it() blocks
cover the 5 captured shapes + the synthetic divergence note.
Pre-4.7 vision couldn't reliably OCR dense monospace glyphs - errors
would corrupt the prompt before the model read it. Opus 4.7 bumped
the long-edge image cap 1568->2576px (3.3x pixels) and document-OCR
benchmarks (DocVQA 87->94%, ChartQA 80->88%) per Anthropic's release
notes.
Pixelpipe still renders at 1568x1568 - this is a model fidelity
change, not a renderer change. But it's why this approach works now
when it didn't a year ago.
Cites anthropic.com/news/claude-opus-4-7.
The override-gate previously used `o.charsPerToken !== CHARS_PER_TOKEN`
to detect "host pinning". After CHARS_PER_TOKEN=4 was replaced with
slab/history-specific 2.5 constants, a host that deliberately passes the
literal `4` (the same as DEFAULTS) was silently swapped to 2.5 - the
gate couldn't distinguish "host passed nothing" from "host passed 4".
Fix: check the raw opts (\`opts.charsPerToken !== undefined\`) instead
of comparing the merged value against a sentinel. Host-supplied `4` now
flows through as `4`, even though it matches the default.
Tests pin both directions:
- slab path (render.test.ts): explicit cpt=4 keeps the 161k slab
REJECTED at cpt=4 (would be ACCEPTED at the built-in 2.5)
- history path (history.test.ts): explicit cpt=4 keeps a 14-turn closed
conversation REJECTED at cpt=4 (would collapse at the built-in 2.5),
with companion cpt=2.5 test proving the fixture actually straddles
275 tests pass, typecheck clean, build clean.
Proxy targets Opus 4.7. Input pricing has been flat across Opus 4.5/4.6/4.7
($5/$25 per MTok), so the historical Opus 4 column ($15/$75) was framing
noise unrelated to actual cost.
~80-line section covering the 4-breakpoint cache cliff that history
collapse addresses, the closed-prefix walk, the 4 honesty gates, and
today's HISTORY_CHARS_PER_TOKEN=2.5 fix wired in b563751.
Links to the live data point in events.jsonl (12:30:01 event,
collapsed_turns=175, collapsed_chars=180,684) and the relevant
transform.ts / core/history.ts call sites.
Addresses GHSA-vmjp-67rh-pgjc (undici via wrangler <4.x).
Major jump 3 → 4, but wrangler.toml schema unchanged
(compatibility_date, compatibility_flags, vars all still valid)
and build/typecheck/test all clean.
Held at 4.92.0 (4.93.0 is inside the 3-day minimumReleaseAge gate).
Earlier commit 26fbb67 "swap to pnpm-lock.yaml as source of truth"
untracked package-lock.json but pnpm-lock.yaml never made it in —
a global ~/.gitignore excludes pnpm-lock.yaml across all repos. The
lockfile was silently un-tracked the whole time.
Fix: add !pnpm-lock.yaml to the repo's .gitignore to override the
global rule, then stage the lockfile.
Verified: git check-ignore now reports .gitignore:11:!pnpm-lock.yaml.
Addresses GHSA-9crc-q9x8-hgqq, GHSA-jcfh-c3jc-r2q6 (vitest <2.1.9).
Vitest 4 requires Vite 6+, so add vite as an explicit dev dep
(was previously transitive). 273 tests still pass clean.
Addresses GHSA-67mh-4wv8-2f99 (esbuild dev server allowed any website
to send requests and read responses, patched in ≥0.25.0). Dev-only —
we use esbuild as the bundler in scripts/build.mjs, never as a server.
Build, typecheck, and 273 tests all clean.
Refuses to install any package version published less than 3 days ago.
Catches the typical malicious-package lifecycle (publish → discovered →
unpublished within hours/days). Legitimate security patches also wait
3 days; deliberate trade-off for a manually-updated repo.
The repo uses pnpm (packageManager pinned in package.json, pnpm-lock.yaml
tracked, pnpm-workspace.yaml present) but package-lock.json was also
tracked from an earlier npm install. Dependabot reads stale npm metadata
from it that doesn't match what pnpm actually installs.
- Untrack and delete package-lock.json
- Add it to .gitignore so a stray npm install can't reintroduce it
Previous version only listed system+history+tool_result. Real input
shape also includes:
- tools field (built-in schemas + every MCP server's tool definitions
- usually the largest single bucket; grows with each MCP server
wired up)
- skills loaded into the system prompt (SKILL.md per skill)
- subagent definitions
- <system-reminder> blocks Claude Code injects into user messages
Headline math unchanged - all of these land in the same static slab or
closed-prefix history that pixelpipe image-compresses.
Production telemetry (N=10 events with history_reason="not_profitable",
2026-05-18..05-20) shows body-level chars-per-token on rejected history
events: median 1.09, max 1.10. The gate at cpt=4 was estimating text as
3.7× cheaper than reality on every history-collapse decision in the
sampled traffic — same shape of bug as the slab path fixed in c36ec3f.
Why this matters more than the slab fix:
• The slab is cached (cache_create×1.25 once, cache_read×0.10 after).
Slab compression saves bytes mostly on cold misses + 2k tok/warm hit.
• History content is NOT cached. Once turns leave the cache breakpoint
budget (4 max per request), every subsequent request pays 100% for
them. A long agentic session re-bills the same closed-prefix turns
on every turn — exactly the workload Variant C was designed to
compress, and exactly the path the gate was silently rejecting.
Apply same fix as c36ec3f: HISTORY_CHARS_PER_TOKEN=2.5 (upper bound of
empirical data, identical safety property to SLAB_CHARS_PER_TOKEN since
history content shape ⊆ slab content shape in tool-heavy sessions).
Host can still override via TransformOptions.charsPerToken. The
override-gate `o.charsPerToken !== CHARS_PER_TOKEN` means unspecified
requests (DEFAULTS.charsPerToken=4) get the empirical cpt while explicit
non-default host values win — same intentional pattern as the slab path.
Test: regression fixture pinning a 14-turn × 1500 chars/turn conversation
where:
• cpt=4 path → 'not_profitable' rejection (image cost 5k > text 4k)
• cpt=2.5 path → 'collapsed' with 10 turns merged (text 6.4k > image 5k)
Counterfactual half uses cpt=4.5 to bypass the override-gate (passing
exactly 4 collides with the DEFAULTS sentinel).
273 tests pass, typecheck clean, build clean.
Production data (N=354 cold-miss count_tokens probes, 2026-05-18..05-20):
real body-level chars-per-token is 1.17 median, 2.62 max — never near
the English-prose 4 baked into CHARS_PER_TOKEN. The gate has been
estimating text-token cost at 3.4× cheaper than reality and silently
rejecting every realistic Claude Code system slab.
Concrete production case (orig_chars=161,101, multi-col=2):
• OLD gate (cpt=4): text = 161101/4 = 40,275 tok
image = 8 × 5500 = 44,000 tok
→ reject (margin: -3,726)
• NEW gate (cpt=2.5): text = 161101/2.5 = 64,440 tok
image = 8 × 5500 = 44,000 tok
→ ACCEPT (margin: +20,440)
• Reality (cpt=1.17): text = 137,694 tok, savings = 93,694 tok/request
SLAB_CHARS_PER_TOKEN=2.5 is the upper bound of observed cpt across the
sample — picking the upper bound keeps the prime-directive guarantee
intact: the text-token estimate is a LOWER bound on real text cost, so
any `imageCost < textTokens` decision is also `imageCost < realTextCost`
for any future workload with cpt ≤ 2.5.
Scope: this is slab-specific. Reminders and tool_result content have
unknown shape (could be raw English prose with cpt~4), so those gate
call sites still use the conservative CHARS_PER_TOKEN=4. Host can
override per-request via TransformOptions.charsPerToken (e.g., to plug
a live empirical fit in front of the static default).
Tests: 2 new regression tests pinning (a) the production-shape 161k slab
compresses end-to-end without an explicit cpt override, and (b) the gate
math at cpt=2.5 vs cpt=4 produces accept-vs-reject on the same input.
272 tests pass, typecheck clean, build clean.
Production data (2026-05-20): real 161,101-char system slab being rejected
by the row-aware profitability gate as `not_profitable`. multiCol=2 packs
282 rows/image, but 2000+ newline-bounded lines need ~10 images, and at
2500 tok × 10 × 1.10 = 27,500 tok the gate (correctly) refuses since the
text baseline is cheaper.
Fix: strip per-line trailing whitespace and collapse 3+ consecutive
newlines to exactly 2 *before* feeding the renderer. Both transforms are
lossless for the model (whitespace at line-end carries no signal; blank-
line runs longer than 2 are visual noise). This drops visual-row count
without changing meaning, flipping borderline-rejected slabs profitable.
Accounting uses raw (pre-compaction) length for `origChars` and
`compressedChars`, so the savings credit reflects what Anthropic would
have billed — not the post-compaction figure.
Applied at four sites:
- combined static slab (system + tool docs)
- system-reminder block
- tool_result string content
- tool_result array-of-blocks (joined text)
8 new unit tests for `compactSlabWhitespace`: empty input, trailing
whitespace stripping, 3+ newline collapse, paragraph-break preservation,
indent preservation, idempotency, realistic markdown shrink.
270 tests pass, typecheck clean, build clean.
Rip the compressHistory opt-in and run Variant C history-image collapse on
every request that has a closed-prefix run. There is now ONE codepath: no
toggle, no env switch, no per-request opt-in. The reason the option was
defaulted-off was a -250% live measurement on 2026-05-19 (commit c3506e3 era);
that wasn't a "marginal upside" problem, it was a math bug. This commit
fixes the bug and turns the feature on.
Root cause of the -250% loss
----------------------------
`isCompressionProfitable()` has two paths: a row-aware path (string input,
matches `renderTextToPngs` image budgeting exactly) and a looser chars-only
path (number input, assumes dense lines). History.ts was calling it with
`text.length` (number) → loose chars-only estimate. History text is
newline-heavy (`--- role ---` headers, JSON arg blocks, [tool_use] /
[tool_result] labels), so the chars-only estimate under-counted images by
5-10× and let net-losers through the gate.
Secondary contributor: tool_use args were serialised with
`JSON.stringify(input, null, 2)` — pretty-printed, one short row per JSON
field. At cols=100 each field claimed a full row instead of wrapping at
~100 chars, inflating image count for tool-heavy histories.
Changes
-------
- src/core/history.ts
- `ProfitableFn` signature: `(text: string, cols: number)` (was `textLen: number`).
Documented the asymmetry so callers can't regress this.
- `blocksToText` tool_use: compact `JSON.stringify(input)`, no indent.
- Pass `text` (not `text.length`) into the profitability check.
- src/core/transform.ts
- Delete `compressHistory`, `historyKeepTail`, `historyMinPrefix` from
TransformOptions and DEFAULTS.
- History collapse is now unconditional when `messages[]` is non-empty.
- Wrap the gate in a closure that pins `numCols=1` + per-request `cpt`,
so the gate's row-aware decision is byte-identical to the single-col
renderer's actual image count.
- src/worker.ts: drop `COMPRESS_HISTORY`, `HISTORY_KEEP_TAIL`,
`HISTORY_MIN_PREFIX` env vars from `Env` + transform options.
- src/node.ts: stale comment refresh — no toggles, period.
- tests/history.test.ts:
- Rename describe "transformRequest + compressHistory" →
"transformRequest history compression (always-on)".
- Remove every `compressHistory: true, historyKeepTail: X, historyMinPrefix: Y`
from transformRequest calls — options no longer exist.
- Bump fixtures for default `keepTail=4` / `minCollapsePrefix=10`
(14-turn body, 3500 chars/turn) so the now-honest row-aware gate
accepts. Renamed "8-closed + 2-live" → "10-closed + 4-live" to match
the new defaults.
- Bump straddle-test per-turn body 2500→3500 chars: tool block labels
add ~65 chars of header overhead that pushed the tighter fixture
under the row-aware boundary.
- Rename "JSON-pretty args" test → "COMPACT JSON args"; assert no
pretty indentation.
Verification
------------
- npm test → 263/263 green
- npm run typecheck → clean
- npm run build → dist/node.js builds clean
Production runs multiCol=2 by default. The pre-flight gate
`isCompressionProfitable()` was using a flat TOKENS_PER_IMAGE=2500
constant at every numCols, so it believed multi-col images were ~2x
cheaper than they actually are and would let net-loss compressions
through on wider canvases.
Replace the flat constant with `effectiveTokensPerImage(numCols)`:
numCols=1: 2500 (empirical, N=33 cold-miss measurement)
numCols>1: 2500 * n * 1.10 (linear extrapolation + 10% margin)
The 10% margin absorbs extrapolation noise — we don't yet have
empirical cost measurements at numCols>=2. Per user constraint
"ok pre-flight gate is ok to be not correct as long as we don't
lose money," every uncertainty resolves in favor of pass-through.
At worst we miss opportunities; we never burn money on net-loss
images.
Test fixtures bumped to match the new break-even (~22k chars at
n=2). Two obsolete cpt-flip tests REWRITTEN to assert the safe
behavior: cpt override flips at numCols=1, but at numCols=2 the
safety margin holds and the slab stays rejected.
Old break-even at default cpt=4:
n=1: ~10k chars (1 image @ 2500 tok == 10k/4 = 2500 text tok)
n=2 [old/wrong]: ~10k chars (same flat cost)
n=2 [new/safe]: ~22k chars (1 image @ 5500 tok == 22k/4 text tok)
Verified: 263/263 tests pass, typecheck clean, build clean.
The baseline_tokens probe alone reports the COLD cost of the unproxied
body — but the user's request actually carries `cache_control` markers
that would have cached on the unproxied path too. Comparing cold-
baseline against warm-actual was an apples-to-oranges inflation of
saved%.
Fix: fire a SECOND count_tokens probe on the body TRUNCATED at the last
`cache_control` marker. Difference between the two is (cacheable_prefix,
cold_tail). Dashboard weights the prefix by the SAME cache class the
actual response landed in:
cacheable = baseline_cacheable_tokens or 0
cold_tail = baseline_tokens − cacheable
weight = cr>0 ? 0.10 (warm hit — both paths cache)
: cc>0 ? 1.25 (cold create — both paths build cache)
: 1.0 (no caching — marker rejected or absent)
baseline_input_eff = cacheable·weight + cold_tail·1.0
actual_input_eff = input + cache_create·1.25 + cache_read·0.10
saved = baseline_input_eff − actual_input_eff
Now the headline number is the exact unproxied counterfactual, not a
cold-every-time approximation. No estimation, no α, no assumptions —
every input is a measurement.
Wiring:
- src/core/proxy.ts: buildCountTokensCacheablePrefix() walks messages
backward → system backward → tools backward (reverse cache order) for
the last cache_control marker, truncates, attaches a sentinel user
message when needed. Second probe fires in parallel; null/missing
leaves the field absent.
- src/core/transform.ts + tracker.ts: new baselineCacheableTokens /
baseline_cacheable_tokens fields, emitted only when > 0.
- src/dashboard.ts: per-event cache-aware math in update() and
replay(); Totals renamed to baselineInputWeighted; /proxy-stats
payload field is `baseline_input_weighted`.
- src/sessions.ts: per-session tokensSavedEst uses the same formula so
session and global rollups agree.
Tests: 2 new in proxy-usage covering (a) body with cache_control →
two probes fire with different bodies and both numbers land on info,
(b) cacheable-prefix probe failure doesn't poison the full probe.
260→262 tests, all green; typecheck and build clean.
The headline saved%/saved$ numbers are now MEASURED, not estimated:
baseline = sum of /v1/messages/count_tokens(originalBody).input_tokens
actual = sum of (input + cache_create×1.25 + cache_read×0.10)
saved = baseline − actual
Output is excluded from both sides — it's identical with or without
compression (same prompt → same response), so it cancels in the
numerator and would only drag the percentage toward zero. The proxy
now makes one parallel side call to /v1/messages/count_tokens (free,
no billing) before forwarding /v1/messages, and the result lands on
TransformInfo.baselineTokens → TrackEvent.baseline_tokens → the
DashboardState rollup.
Removed (~280 lines of dead code):
- FALLBACK_ALPHA, FALLBACK_ALPHA_LOW, FALLBACK_ALPHA_HIGH constants
- estImageTokens(), baselineCost(), effectiveCost() helpers
- FitSample interface + FIT_SAMPLE_CAP + fitSamples ring buffer
- DashboardState.fitCosts() (~218 lines of OLS regression)
- Three-mode ladder (joint / constrained / stale) and all UI for it
- saved_pct_low/high, saved_effective_tokens_low/high range fields
- renderSavingsMath() range/regime branches
- m_pct_regime DOM node + its color/text wiring
- cost_fit payload field + all frontend consumers
/proxy-stats payload is now: requests, compressed_requests,
baseline_input_tokens, actual_input_weighted, saved_input_tokens,
saved_pct, saved_usd, pricing_assumptions, uptime_sec,
compression_enabled. Nothing else.
The recent-requests table now shows baseline / actual / saved per
row (input-side, matching the cards) instead of the old img-tok
estimate + effective_actual (which mixed output × 5 in inconsistently).
Sessions panel: per-session tokensSavedEst now uses the same real
baseline−actual formula. Events without both a count_tokens probe
AND an upstream usage block don't contribute to the rollup — no
synthetic 4-char/tok fallback.
Tests:
- dashboard-fit.test.ts: deleted (fitCosts is gone)
- proxy-usage.test.ts: inverted the privacy regression — count_tokens
is now explicitly expected as the one whitelisted side path; added
baselineTokens-attachment and count_tokens-failure-survives tests
- sessions.test.ts: rewrote the two savings tests against the new
baseline_tokens + usage formula
Sending the pre-compression body to /v1/messages/count_tokens means
Anthropic sees the original text, which is exactly what pixelpipe is
built to prevent. Probe results were 'free' in dollars but not in
privacy; the whole point of imaging the slab is that Anthropic does
NOT receive the slab text.
Removed:
- countTokensUpstream + buildCountTokensBody in src/core/proxy.ts
- measurePromise wiring + finalize await
- baselineTokensMeasured / actualTokensMeasured on TransformInfo
- baseline_tokens_measured / actual_tokens_measured on TrackEvent
- measuredEvents / effectiveCostActualMeasured / *Baseline*
fields on DashboardState
- measured_events / saved_pct_measured / effective_cost_*_measured
/ saved_effective_tokens_measured on /proxy-stats payload
- HTML headline branch + 'show calculation' rows for measured path
- 2 dashboard-fit tests asserting the measurement-path behavior
Added regression test: proxy must NOT hit any upstream path other than
/v1/messages.
Real-savings path now: self-derive α from billed usage + own char
walker. Coming next.
count_tokens accepts only model/messages/system/tools/tool_choice/thinking/
mcp_servers. Forwarding the verbatim /v1/messages body included stream,
max_tokens, temperature, metadata etc, which the endpoint rejected with
400. Probe returned null silently → measured_events stuck at 0.
Strip to the accepted fields before posting. Now both probes succeed,
the dashboard headline can use saved_pct_measured = (Σ baseline −
Σ actual) / Σ baseline — exact, no regression, no priors.
Diagnostic logging kept on the probe path: failures surface in stderr
instead of disappearing.
Three changes addressing operator feedback after seeing the math panels:
1. Passthrough kill switch (the main ask). When upstream is unhealthy
or the proxy is misbehaving, the operator needs to disable
compression instantly without restart. Adds:
- DashboardState.compressionEnabled (in-memory, defaults true)
- POST /api/compression {enabled: bool}
- compression_enabled field on /proxy-stats
- Red banner "PASSTHROUGH MODE" + toggle button at top of dashboard
- node.ts transform fn returns {compress:false} when off, so the
proxy forwards /v1/messages unchanged to upstream
- In-memory only — restart resets to enabled. No CLI flag, no env
var. Runtime control via dashboard.
2. $ saved card now shows a range when one is available, mirroring
the % card. Previously the % was "0.3%–11.7%" but $ was just
"$0.2569" — visually inconsistent. New behavior: compute usdLo/usdHi
from saved_effective_tokens_{low,high} × input_per_mtok; show range
when spread ≥ 1¢, point otherwise. Both cards now feel like the
same headline.
3. Math-panel jargon replaced with plain English. The previous text
said "p10/p90 of per-sample α across fit ring" — incomprehensible
without statistics background. Now reads "low/high bounds from
recent traffic's chars-per-token spread" on both savings-tokens and
reduction-% panels.
Tests: 277/277. Typecheck + build clean.
Round-3 measurement on 2026-05-19 with 128-turn history showed the
feature loses money: 21K chars of text replaced with 140K tokens of
imagery, net -250% savings per request on this traffic shape.
The MARGINAL warning has been in the code comments since the feature
shipped - it was opt-in via --history / COMPRESS_HISTORY=1 originally
for exactly this reason. The recent flag-removal commit flipped it on
as default without re-verifying the savings claim against current
traffic.
The math in baselineCost() correctly reports negative savings when
imgTokensEst > txtReplaced, so the dashboard was honest about the
loss - the bug is shipping the feature on by default before measuring
a positive delta on representative traffic.
Re-enable per-deployment via env var when measurement confirms a
positive saved_pct on the specific shape.
Each headline card (tokens saved / $ saved / reduction %) gains a
collapsible "show calculation" panel that lays out the exact formula
plus the live numbers feeding it. Every digit on the headline can be
derived from what the panel shows — no estimation hidden behind a
black box.
Panels:
- tokens saved: actual_paid, baseline_est, saved formula
weights: input ×1.0, cc ×1.25, cr ×0.10, output ×5.0
- $ saved: formula = saved_tokens × input_per_mtok / 1e6,
exposes pricing_assumptions (rate ratios + source URL)
- reduction %:
- measured path (when count_tokens succeeded on ≥1 event):
baseline_tokens, actual_tokens, saved, saved_pct, n samples
labeled "ground truth, no estimation"
- estimated path (no measured events yet):
α-regression baseline, actual, saved, range from p10/p90
labeled "estimated · α-regression from cold-miss events"
- image-cost formula reference: tokens ≈ width × height / 750
Implementation:
- Native <details> elements, no JS framework. summary is a small
blue toggle that opens an inline formula block styled like a code
fence (dark background, monospaced).
- renderSavingsMath(s) is called once per /proxy-stats tick from the
existing fast-tick path. fmtRow builds key-value-note lines so the
three panels share a layout.
- pricing_assumptions block (input_per_mtok, output_multiplier,
cache_*_multiplier, source URL) already exists on /proxy-stats from
the earlier pricing-correction commit; this surfaces it inline.
No new endpoints, no new fields. The transparency comes entirely from
re-using existing /proxy-stats data and laying it out plainly.
Tests: 277/277. Typecheck + build clean.
The proxy used to expose ~20 behavior toggles (--no-compress,
--no-tools, --no-schemas, --no-reminders, --no-tool-results,
--history, --no-history, --history-keep-tail N, --history-min-prefix N,
--min-chars N, --min-reminder-chars N, --min-tool-result-chars N,
--cols N, --multi-col N, --no-track, --events-file PATH, --port N,
--upstream URL) plus matching env vars. Each one was a dead branch in
the common case and a configuration knob nobody had a principled
reason to pick a value for.
Replaced with: exactly one way to run the proxy. Every compression
mode on, every tuning parameter at its measured-best value, history
compression always active (was opt-in dead code). The only adjustable
surface is deployment concerns — where to listen, what to forward,
where to log — env-var only:
PORT default 47821
ANTHROPIC_UPSTREAM default https://api.anthropic.com
PIXELPIPE_LOG default ~/.pixelpipe/events.jsonl
CLI accepts only --help and --version. Anything else exits with
non-zero and a one-line error.
Notable behavior change:
- DEFAULTS.compressHistory flipped false → true. Variant-C history-
image compression now runs on every request (was opt-in via
--history / COMPRESS_HISTORY=1). The static-slab cache_control
placement is on the system image, not on the history-replacement
chain, so the published cache-topology risk does not apply.
Touched:
- src/node.ts: CliOpts → RuntimeConfig (3 fields). parseCli is now
~25 lines. printHelp reduced to env-var-only doc.
- src/core/transform.ts: DEFAULTS.compressHistory = true. Comment
updated.
- scripts/restart.sh: drops PROXY_ARGS array entirely. Port read
from PORT= env var. Unknown args rejected.
- tests/restart.test.sh: replaces flag-passthrough test with a
reject-unknown-args test. 4/4 pass.
- tests/history.test.ts: renames the "compressHistory:false (default)"
test to reflect the new always-on default; asserts the input-not-
mutated invariant remains.
- README.md: configuration table reduced to 3 env vars; restart
examples drop CLI flag passthrough.
Tests: 277/277. Typecheck + build clean. Restart script tests: 4/4.
The measurement code was previously gated behind a measureSavings flag
(--measure-savings CLI, PIXELPIPE_MEASURE_SAVINGS env var, optional
ProxyConfig field). That's a knob nobody asked for and a second
codepath whose only purpose is to leave the dashboard reporting
estimates instead of ground truth.
The flag is wrong for this codebase:
- Single codepath is the convention. The proxy either measures or
doesn't — there's no useful "sometimes" mode.
- count_tokens is free, runs in parallel with the main upstream
forward, and doesn't add user-visible latency.
- An opt-in default means the headline dashboard number stays as an
estimate forever in 99% of deployments — defeats the whole feature.
Removed:
- ProxyConfig.measureSavings field
- CliOpts.measureSavings field
- --no-measure-savings CLI handler
- PIXELPIPE_MEASURE_SAVINGS env var
- The if (config.measureSavings) wrapper in proxy.ts
- Help-text entry
- Stale comment references in tracker.ts, transform.ts, dashboard.ts
The proxy now unconditionally fires count_tokens on both bodies for
every /v1/messages request. Failure is silent — when count_tokens
returns null the event still emits without the measured fields and
the dashboard falls back to the regression estimate per existing
fallback logic.
Tests: 277/277. Typecheck + build clean. No behavioral test changes;
the existing measurement-path test exercises the synthetic event
shape directly, not the flag.
Replace estimation with measurement. Anthropic's /v1/messages/count_tokens
returns the exact tokenizer output for any request body, free of charge.
Calling it on the pre-transform body and the post-transform body gives
the EXACT delta in input tokens, with no α/β regression, no fallback
constants, no uncertainty band needed.
Opt-in (default off, since it adds two parallel HTTP roundtrips per
/v1/messages — count_tokens itself is free but the latency is real):
CLI flag: --measure-savings
Env var: PIXELPIPE_MEASURE_SAVINGS=1
When enabled the proxy fires both count_tokens calls in parallel with
the main upstream forward (no critical-path latency hit) and the event
is held for emit until both probes complete. Failures are silent — the
event still emits without the measured fields and the dashboard falls
back to the estimate.
Per-event new fields (events.jsonl):
baseline_tokens_measured exact pre-transform input tokens
actual_tokens_measured exact post-transform input tokens
Dashboard:
/proxy-stats gains: measured_events, effective_cost_actual_measured,
effective_cost_baseline_measured, saved_effective_tokens_measured,
saved_pct_measured. All null when no measured events exist; non-null
once ≥1 lands.
HTML headline switches to the measured number whenever measured_events
≥ 1. Subtitle reads "measured · count_tokens on N requests" to make
the source explicit. Falls back to the estimated range otherwise.
Measurement math:
delta_tokens = baseline_measured - actual_measured
bill_rate = (cc/total)·1.25 + (cr/total)·0.10 [same cache mix
as the actual call]
baseline_eff = actual_eff + delta_tokens · bill_rate
saved_pct_measured = (baseline_eff - actual_eff) / baseline_eff × 100
No α. No β. No FALLBACK_*. The numerator (delta_tokens) is the exact
output of Anthropic's tokenizer on both bodies; the multiplier is the
billed cache mix that already happened.
Tests: 275 → 277 (+2). Ground-truth path: 3 events with known token
deltas yield the expected saved_pct_measured. Fallback path: when no
event carries measurement, all saved_*_measured fields are null.
Typecheck + build clean.
Audit against published Anthropic docs (pricing + vision pages,
verified 2026-05-19 via WebFetch) found three constants in this file
that were either wrong or hand-picked without citation. Replace them
with documented values and add a PROVENANCE block so the lineage is
auditable.
Corrections:
1. saved_usd headline rate: $15/Mtok → $5/Mtok.
Opus 4.7 base input rate per docs is $5/Mtok, not $15. The old
value was Opus 3 pricing repurposed by the field name "_opus47".
The headline dollar number was therefore overstated by 3× on any
Opus 4.x deployment. Renamed field to saved_usd_estimated and
exposed pricing_assumptions{input_per_mtok, multipliers, source}
on /proxy-stats so the operator can verify what we multiplied by.
2. Per-image token cost: drop fixed OPUS_IMAGE_TOKEN_COST=2500 in
favor of the published formula tokens ≈ width × height / 750
(docs-vision). estImageTokens now prefers (in order): live β fit
→ published 1/750 → FALLBACK_IMAGE_TOKEN_COST (=1690, computed
from the formula at our default 808×1568 render). The old 2,500
constant traced to an in-house measurement that didn't reconcile
with the docs; pending a fresh per-renderer-config measurement
under post-walker-fix code.
3. FALLBACK_ALPHA point estimate: 0.25 → 0.33. Opus 4.7's tokenizer
note in [docs-pricing] explicitly states ~35% denser than older
models for the same text. CHARS_PER_TOKEN=4 (the older English
average) is therefore biased for Opus 4.7 traffic; 3 chars/tok
matches the documented behavior. The low/high brackets (0.15 /
0.50) span both tokenizer regimes and are left alone.
Added:
- PROVENANCE comment block at the top of the pricing/image-cost
section citing the three doc URLs and the verification date, with
each downstream constant footnoting back to one of the labels.
- pricing_assumptions object in /proxy-stats payload exposing every
multiplier and the source URL.
- Test pinning the pricing_assumptions shape and the
saved_usd_estimated = saved_tokens × input_per_mtok / 1e6 identity.
What this does NOT yet correct:
- Live α and per-renderer β still require fresh measurement post-
walker-fix. The fallback brackets keep saved_pct conservative
until the regression converges.
- 1-hour cache writes (2× input) are exposed in pricing_assumptions
but not yet distinguished from 5-minute writes in the cost math —
needs an upstream signal we don't currently capture per-event.
Tests: 274 → 275 (+1). Typecheck + build clean.
effectiveCost() previously summed only input + cache_create·1.25 +
cache_read·0.10, leaving output tokens out of the cost total. The
headline saved_pct was therefore "% saved on the input-side bill"
rather than "% saved on the full upstream bill." Output is small in
absolute terms on typical Claude Code traffic (≈0.4% of cost in
the sample events.jsonl), but the framing is what matters.
Changes:
- effectiveCost gains an outputTokens parameter and sums output ×
OUTPUT_TOKEN_RATE (=5.0, the Opus/Sonnet output:input rate ratio).
- Totals fields renamed effectiveInput* → effectiveCost* to match
the new full-bill semantics. Same on the JSON wire:
effective_input_* → effective_cost_*.
- update() now also passes the event's output_tokens into
effectiveCost so both actual and baseline grow consistently.
- replay() effective_actual computation includes output_tokens too,
so historical rows align with the live formula.
- Headline subtitles updated to "share of total bill saved" and
"effective tokens (full bill)" so the unit is self-documenting.
Math invariant: output is identical in actual and baseline (the model
produces the same response regardless of prompt compression), so it
cancels in the numerator saved = baseline - actual but inflates the
denominator. saved_pct therefore moves SMALLER and more conservative
when output is non-trivial — honest whole-bill terms.
New test pins the invariant: two identical input-side runs with 100×
different output_tokens give the SAME saved_effective_tokens but
strictly different saved_pct, with the higher-output run lower.
Tests: 273 → 274 (+1). Typecheck + build clean.
The break-even gate (isCompressionProfitable) used a hard-coded
CHARS_PER_TOKEN=4 (Anthropic's English avg). Live Claude Code traffic
has α≈0.5-0.9 (1.1-2 chars/tok) — JSON-dense tool docs, structured
CLAUDE.md slabs, etc. Off-by ~3.5× on the text side at α=0.88.
Production trace (events.jsonl, 2026-05-19): 200+ requests with system
slabs 113K-170K chars hit reason="not_profitable" because the gate's
textTokensEq = len/4 was a fraction of the row-aware image-token cost.
Example event: slab=169_632 chars, cache_create_tokens=148_891. Gate's
textEq=42K rejected vs imgCost=127K. With live α (1.14 ch/tok),
textEq=149K → ACCEPT. We were leaving real cache_create money on the
table on every one of those calls.
- TransformOptions gains charsPerToken?: number. Default 4 (back-compat).
- isCompressionProfitable() takes charsPerToken as a 5th optional param;
defensive clamp on ≤0 / NaN / Infinity falls back to CHARS_PER_TOKEN.
- All 4 internal gate call sites (static slab + reminder + tool_result
string + tool_result array) thread o.charsPerToken through.
- ProxyConfig.transform now also accepts a function: () => TransformOptions.
Resolved per-request inside createProxy so the host can inject dynamic
values. Static-object form unchanged for Workers / tests.
- node.ts wraps the static transform options in a closure that asks
dashboardState.fitCosts() each request and passes the live
chars_per_token. Fit-null falls through to the baked-in default — no
chicken-and-egg deadlock since normal-sized slabs still feed the fit
ring even before the huge-slab cases get unblocked.
- 4 new gate tests: stale-default rejects the 170K newline-heavy slab;
live α=1.14 flips the same slab to profitable; defensive clamp on
bogus charsPerToken; end-to-end transformRequest passes through.
Tests: 269 → 273 (+4). Typecheck + build clean.
local