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from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(name="estimator", instructions="Preview token usage before heavy runs.")
agent.start("Estimate how many tokens this prompt will use.")
Control token estimation mode from the CLI — choose fast heuristics or accurate tiktoken counts when debugging context usage. The user runs CLI token estimation to preview context size before starting an expensive chat session.

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How It Works

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Quick Start

1

Run an agent with accurate token counts

from praisonaiagents import Agent

agent = Agent(
    name="Assistant",
    instructions="Answer questions concisely.",
)

agent.start("Explain token estimation in one paragraph")
Then check counts from the CLI:
praisonai chat --context-estimation-mode accurate
# In session: /context stats
2

Enable mismatch logging for debugging

praisonai chat \
  --context-estimation-mode validated \
  --context-log-mismatch
Validated mode compares heuristic vs accurate estimates and logs when they diverge by more than 15%.

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CLI Flags

FlagValuesDefaultDescription
--context-estimation-modeheuristic, accurate, validatedheuristicHow tokens are counted
--context-log-mismatchflagoffLog when heuristic differs from accurate
# Fast heuristic (default)
praisonai chat --context-estimation-mode heuristic

# Accurate with tiktoken
praisonai chat --context-estimation-mode accurate

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Interactive Commands

> /context config   # View estimation mode
> /context stats    # Token counts per segment

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config.yaml

context:
  estimation:
    mode: heuristic
    log_mismatch: false
    mismatch_threshold_pct: 15.0
Environment variables: PRAISONAI_CONTEXT_ESTIMATION_MODE, PRAISONAI_CONTEXT_LOG_MISMATCH.

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Best Practices

Heuristic mode is fastest and sufficient for compaction triggers in normal use.
If compaction fires too early or too late, run with --context-estimation-mode accurate and check /context stats.
Enable validated + log-mismatch for a short session to calibrate heuristic accuracy for your model and prompt style.

Context Budgeter CLI

Allocate token budgets per segment

Context Management

Full context system overview