MCP token sprawl: the bill that surprises everyone

Multi-loop agents fail expensively: a tool call retries, context grows, costs compound. The failure is silent until finance forwards the invoice with a question mark.

The engineering work is execution trajectory state checks — verifying progress before the next loop — plus per-workflow budgets that halt, alert, and roll back. Training matters after the old door is closed; metering matters before the first loop runs.

Measure the spend, not the launch

Pick a number that can only move if the system got cheaper per outcome: cost per resolved ticket, per reconciled invoice, per shipped test run. Tokens consumed is not efficiency. It is consumption.

Define that number before the rollout. It changes what you ship. Loops that do not move it wait.