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kayariyan28/ctxbudgeter

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

2PythonAudience · developerComplexity · 3/5Setup · easy

TLDR

A Python library that deterministically decides which pieces of context fit into an AI agent's token budget, with a full audit trail.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((ctxbudgeter))
    What it does
      Manages token budgets
      Selects context items
      Explains inclusions
    Tech stack
      Python
      pytest-style tests
    Use cases
      Deterministic prompts
      Cache-aware packing
      Testable context
    Audience
      AI agent builders
      Developers

Code map

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What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Fit system instructions, documents, and tool results into a fixed token budget without random dropping.

USE CASE 2

Write tests that assert a context pack always includes required items and stays under a token limit.

USE CASE 3

Automatically mark cache-stable items for Anthropic, OpenAI, LangChain, or PydanticAI prompt caching.

What is it built with?

Python

How does it compare?

kayariyan28/ctxbudgeter0-bingwu-0/live-interpreter0xkaz/llm-governance-dashboard
Stars222
LanguagePythonPythonPython
Setup difficultyeasymoderatehard
Complexity3/52/54/5
Audiencedevelopergeneralops devops

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 30min

Runs entirely locally and makes no AI calls itself.

In plain English

When you build AI agents, one of the hardest problems is managing what goes into each prompt. Language models have a limited context window, meaning you can only fit so many tokens (roughly, word pieces) in a single call. ctxbudgeter is a Python library that sits between your agent code and the AI model and decides, deterministically and with full audit trail, exactly which pieces of information to include, drop, compress, or mark for caching in each call. You give it a token budget and a collection of items: system instructions, documents, code files, memory notes, tool results, and the user's current request. Each item gets a priority and optional flags like required or cache-stable. When you compile the pack, the library selects what fits within the budget, explains why each item was included or excluded, and produces a context object ready to send to the model. Nothing is resolved at random, every run with the same inputs produces the same output, which makes it testable. The library includes a pytest-style assertion layer so you can write tests that check whether your context pack always includes certain required items, never includes sensitive data, stays under a token limit, and maintains a minimum quality score. It also provides cache-aware adapters that automatically set the right caching fields for Anthropic, OpenAI, LangChain, and PydanticAI. It works with LangGraph, CrewAI, PydanticAI, and your own agent loops. The core makes no AI calls itself, it runs locally and fast. The full README is longer than what was provided.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Show me how to define a token budget and priority items for ctxbudgeter in a LangGraph agent.
Prompt 2
Write a pytest using ctxbudgeter's assertion layer to check a context pack never includes sensitive data.
Prompt 3
Explain how ctxbudgeter decides what to drop when my context exceeds the token budget.
Prompt 4
Set up a cache-aware adapter in ctxbudgeter for Anthropic prompt caching.

Frequently asked questions

What is ctxbudgeter?

A Python library that deterministically decides which pieces of context fit into an AI agent's token budget, with a full audit trail.

What language is ctxbudgeter written in?

Mainly Python. The stack also includes Python.

How hard is ctxbudgeter to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is ctxbudgeter for?

Mainly developer.

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