Analyzing and Mitigating Cost-Inefficient Behaviors in Coding Agents
Quick summary
arXiv:2609.30725v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Although effective, coding agents often incur substantial monetary costs. Their recurring cost-inefficient behaviors remain underexplored. We conduct the first study of behavioral cost inefficiencies in coding agents, analyzing 1,200 trajectories from Claude Code and Mini-SWE-Agent across four configurations on SWE-bench Verified. We identify three cost-inefficient behaviors: subsumed retrieval, similar script generation, and test re-execution. We then evaluate three mitigation strategies: structure-aware retrieval, agent-synthesized skills, and
Key takeaways
- arXiv:2609.30725v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Although effective, coding agents often incur substantial monetary costs.
- Their recurring cost-inefficient behaviors remain underexplored.
- We conduct the first study of behavioral cost inefficiencies in coding agents, analyzing 1,200 trajectories from Claude Code and Mini-SWE-Agent across four configurations on SWE-bench Verified.
Why it matters
The value of this work lies as much in how it was tested as in the claim itself. Sample design, baselines, uncertainty and replication help separate a laboratory result from real-world impact.
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