HELPER 02 · JUST ONE MORE TURN

Cumulative spend vs turn count (with rot-zone knee)

Each turn re-reads the whole context. Past the knee, cost per turn climbs faster than output value.

Cumulative session cost versus turn count, with annual rollup A cost curve rising gradually from turn 1 to turn 40 in the pre-rot zone, then accelerating steeply after turn 50 where estimated context crosses 300 thousand tokens. Below the curve, an annual projection rolls up the per-session cost at one session per workday over 250 workdays. $0 $4 $10 $18 $28+ Cumulative $ spent 1 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 Turn number (context grows ~3K tokens/turn) ROT ZONE · ~300K EST. CONTEXT Knee · turn ~50 cost-per-turn climbs faster Pre-rot (linear growth) Post-rot (accelerating)
At turn 20
~$2.40
~60K ctx
At knee (turn 50)
~$5.60
~300K ctx
At turn 80
~$28
rot zone
Annual projection · 1 session/day × 250 workdays
Ride into rot zone
$7,000/yr
turn-80 session × 250
Split at the knee
$1,250/yr
turn-50 session × 250
Saved per dev
~$5,750/yr
by splitting at the knee