Classify Requests into Lanes Before Coding to Cut Claude Code Costs

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Every request sent to Claude Code looks identical at the API level, yet each one in a project represents a different kind of job. The article argues that teams waste money by routing all of these through the same workflow, so a simple question can balloon into a multi-file refactor. The proposed fix is to classify each request into a lane, such as quick question, bug, small feature, refactor, or discovery, and pick a suitable model for it before work begins. Lanes are kept separate because merging them, such as treating questions and bugs alike, sends work to the wrong model and wastes tokens. Routing the most frequent lanes to the cheapest model is described as the largest single cost saver, while stronger models are reserved for planning-heavy work.

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