How to spend way fewer credits with Viktor

1. Start a new thread for every new topic.
Threads carry all prior context. The longer a thread runs, the more it costs per message. A 40-message thread can cost 5-10x what a fresh one does. New topic = new thread. Biggest single lever.

2. Wrap threads up.
After ~15 back-and-forths, ask for a summary and start fresh. Don't let one thread live for weeks.

3. Make it write skills.
Every time it figures something out, have it save the process as a skill. Next time it reads the skill instead of re-researching. Prior work is nearly free... research is not.

4. Ask for one deliverable at a time.
Vague requests make it explore. Specific requests make it execute. "Pull last week's ad spend by campaign" beats "look into how ads are doing."

5. Batch similar work.
Five clients to analyze? One thread, one research pass, five outputs. Not five threads.

6. Use the cheap model for routine stuff.
Deep analysis and writing = the smart model. Data pulls, daily checks, syncs = the fast one. Never run a heartbeat on the expensive model.

7. Put a gate in front of every frequent automation.
Any cron running more than hourly should have a small script that checks "is there anything new?" first. If nothing changed, the agent never spins up. This alone cut our automation overhead by more than half.

8. Make deterministic jobs scripts, not agents.
If a task has zero judgment in it (move file, push data, reschedule), it should be a script cron. Zero agent cost.

9. Drop the frequency.
Most "every 15 minutes" jobs work fine hourly. Most hourly jobs work fine daily. Check what you actually act on.

10. Set a spend threshold.
Ours: anything under $50 estimated, just do it, don't ask. Over that, flag it first. Stops both the nickel-and-diming and the surprise projects.

11. No speculative work.
If you didn't ask for it and it isn't a standing job, it shouldn't get built. "That's interesting" is not a work order.

Rough math: 1,000 credits = $2.50. A quick question is under a dollar. A solid research-and-write task is $2-7. If you're running way past that on normal work, it's almost always thread length or cron frequency.