Target Workflow
Daily AI Poem (daily-ai-poem.md) — selected as the highest-AIC workflow not optimized in the last 14 days. All higher-spend workflows (Daily AIC Usage Audit, Agentic Workflow AIC Usage Optimizer, Daily AI Research Digest, Daily XKCD Comic) were optimized within the last 14 days.
Analysis Period
2026-08-20 → 2026-08-26 · 7 runs analyzed
Spend Profile
| Metric |
Value |
| Total AIC |
111.57 |
| Avg AIC / run |
~15.94 |
| Total tokens (1 obs.) |
48,906 |
| Avg turns / run |
2 |
| Avg action time |
5 min |
| Conclusions |
7 / 7 success, 0 retries |
Token data available for 1 of 7 runs; per-run estimates are extrapolated from that observation. All 7 runs succeeded on first attempt with no retries.
Ranked Recommendations
1 · Remove the "Inspiration Note" output requirement
Est. savings: ~1.5 AIC/run (~9%)
The prompt requires a one-sentence "Inspiration Note" appended to every poem. This meta-commentary is invisible to most readers (GitHub Discussion body scrolls past it) and adds ~100–200 extra output tokens per run.
Action: Delete the following line from the ## Output section:
Write a one-sentence "Inspiration Note" explaining what sparked today's theme.
And remove the *{inspiration note}* line from the body template.
Evidence: The Inspiration Note appears in every run's output but adds no functional value to the poem itself.
2 · Compact the Theme Selection and Instructions sections (~25% prompt reduction)
Est. savings: ~1.2 AIC/run (~8%)
The current ## Theme Selection block lists each theme with a bold label and a separate plain-English description (~80 words). This can be condensed to a single numbered list without the verbose formatting. Similarly, the ## Instructions section repeats quality guidance ("A developer reading this should nod and smile", "not generic") that overlaps with the ## Theme Selection framing.
Action: Replace the current Theme Selection block with a compact inline list:
## Theme Selection
Use `(day_of_month % 7)` to pick a theme:
0 · agent habits · 1 · debugging · 2 · LLMs & humans · 3 · code review
4 · prompt engineering · 5 · developer tools · 6 · open source
Trim the Instructions bullet list by removing the final evaluative sub-bullets ("Be funny or touching, not generic — a developer reading this should nod and smile"; "A developer should be able to share this on their team Slack without embarrassment") — the introductory voice description ("playful, clever, and warm") already covers this intent.
Evidence: The current prompt body is ~340 words; this change removes ~80 words. Based on the 48,906-token run, input context makes up a significant share of per-turn cost.
3 · Cap poem to 3 stanzas (remove the "3–4" range)
Est. savings: ~0.5 AIC/run (~3%)
The current instruction asks for "3–4 stanzas (4 lines each)". When given a range, the model tends toward the upper bound. Pinning to exactly 3 stanzas trims ~16 lines of output.
Action: Change 3–4 stanzas to 3 stanzas in Instruction step 2.
Run evidence (7 runs)
AIC is remarkably stable (range: 15.86–16.06), indicating consistent token usage across runs.
Caveats
- Token counts available for only 1 of 7 runs; savings estimates assume proportional input/output distribution.
- AIC variance is low (~1.2%) so absolute savings per run are modest; changes are low-risk given 100% success rate.
- No tools are configured for this workflow, so no tool-usage optimizations apply.
- No inline sub-agent candidates: the workflow has a single atomic task (write and post a poem) with 2 turns and no parallelizable sub-tasks.
References:
§32947913666 · §32826749296 · §32706639947
Generated by Agentic Workflow AIC Usage Optimizer · 163 AIC · ⊞ 21.6K · ◷
Target Workflow
Daily AI Poem (
daily-ai-poem.md) — selected as the highest-AIC workflow not optimized in the last 14 days. All higher-spend workflows (Daily AIC Usage Audit, Agentic Workflow AIC Usage Optimizer, Daily AI Research Digest, Daily XKCD Comic) were optimized within the last 14 days.Analysis Period
2026-08-20 → 2026-08-26 · 7 runs analyzed
Spend Profile
Ranked Recommendations
1 · Remove the "Inspiration Note" output requirement
Est. savings: ~1.5 AIC/run (~9%)
The prompt requires a one-sentence "Inspiration Note" appended to every poem. This meta-commentary is invisible to most readers (GitHub Discussion body scrolls past it) and adds ~100–200 extra output tokens per run.
Action: Delete the following line from the
## Outputsection:And remove the
*{inspiration note}*line from the body template.Evidence: The Inspiration Note appears in every run's output but adds no functional value to the poem itself.
2 · Compact the Theme Selection and Instructions sections (~25% prompt reduction)
Est. savings: ~1.2 AIC/run (~8%)
The current
## Theme Selectionblock lists each theme with a bold label and a separate plain-English description (~80 words). This can be condensed to a single numbered list without the verbose formatting. Similarly, the## Instructionssection repeats quality guidance ("A developer reading this should nod and smile", "not generic") that overlaps with the## Theme Selectionframing.Action: Replace the current Theme Selection block with a compact inline list:
Trim the Instructions bullet list by removing the final evaluative sub-bullets ("Be funny or touching, not generic — a developer reading this should nod and smile"; "A developer should be able to share this on their team Slack without embarrassment") — the introductory voice description ("playful, clever, and warm") already covers this intent.
Evidence: The current prompt body is ~340 words; this change removes ~80 words. Based on the 48,906-token run, input context makes up a significant share of per-turn cost.
3 · Cap poem to 3 stanzas (remove the "3–4" range)
Est. savings: ~0.5 AIC/run (~3%)
The current instruction asks for "3–4 stanzas (4 lines each)". When given a range, the model tends toward the upper bound. Pinning to exactly 3 stanzas trims ~16 lines of output.
Action: Change
3–4 stanzasto3 stanzasin Instruction step 2.Run evidence (7 runs)
AIC is remarkably stable (range: 15.86–16.06), indicating consistent token usage across runs.
Caveats
References:
§32947913666 · §32826749296 · §32706639947