The Zero Context Token Donor Protocol

Short summary

Teams using AI coding agents face uneven token consumption — some developers exhaust weekly caps by Thursday while others never come close. A novel workaround emerges: developers with surplus tokens execute well-specified issues from budget-exhausted colleagues, acting as 'token donors.' The zero-context requirement forces better issue specs, accidentally solving a problem thirty years of templates couldn't. Per-branch spend tracking via Claude Code logs makes surplus visible.

• •Token consumption varies wildly between developers on the same team
• •Surplus-token developers can execute well-specified issues from exhausted colleagues
• •Zero-context execution forces better issue specs than any template ever did

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.