[Bug] Is Claude blowing through Max plans due to removing token output constraints?

Bug Description

Many people have reported blowing through their Claude Code plans. It's _definitely_ impacted me—and at a terrible time as I've been running a prompt injection benchmark suite in preparing an upcoming publication on mlld's effectiveness at prompt injection defense which chews through tons of tokens anyway.

During this same period, I have seen Claude seriously producing way too much output compared to how it would provide replies in the past. Historically, Claude has been very constrained in its answers in Claude Code. That has _absolutely_ changed in Claude Code. Set aside the token usage—I find interactive sessions to be much more mentally taxing because every answer feels 5x longer than it needs to be. That is a real change. One of the first things I remember striking me when I first used Claude Code was how much more constrained its prose was than in the web app.

Claude thinks _forever_. I'm sitting waiting longer for it to think about most questions than I have seen it think when I used to use ultrathink!

And to be clear: I'm not even using high effort! I changed to 'auto' because high was producing massive amounts but that didn't reduce it.

<img width="321" height="52" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ef4828e9-4dc5-4e2e-8c29-afe6527371cf" />

Rather than speak anecdotally, I have two recent cases where I've captured a section of output in gists.

1. Claude double answers

In this example, you can see Claude answer the same question _twice_ at significant length to what was a trivially easy-to-answer question. I have this double-answer thing happen frequently.

2. Claude loses it

In this example, Claude goes off the rails (it's not even responding with anything close to what the topic of the conversation was) and is also unable to stop.

It's pages of this nonsense, but something Claude said in the middle of that nonsense actually made me realize that is what I'm seeing: Claude is just over-outputting _everything_ lately.

<img width="912" height="729" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/ab9dd5d5-8fd8-42fb-ba61-50f3968ef4fe" />

Shared here for visibility and entertainment purposes:

https://x.com/sockdrawermoney/status/2042550449417654759?s=20

Environment Info

• Platform: darwin
• Terminal: ghostty
• Version: 2.1.98
• Feedback ID: 0bce4945-99ad-4e9a-b85c-fa22a8e52297