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        <title><![CDATA[The Distillery Blog]]></title>
        <description><![CDATA[Token optimization insights for Claude Code developers]]></description>
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        <pubDate>Sun, 12 Jul 2026 14:18:11 GMT</pubDate>
        <copyright><![CDATA[2026 The Distillery]]></copyright>
        <language><![CDATA[en]]></language>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[AI Coding Assistant Total Cost of Ownership: The Real Numbers for 2026]]></title>
            <description><![CDATA[Sticker prices lie. Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Windsurf, real TCO with seat fees, usage costs, overages, and productivity adjusted ROI for teams of 1, 10, and 50.]]></description>
            <link>https://thedistillery.dev/blog/ai-coding-assistant-total-cost-ownership-2026/</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Context Engineering for Claude Code: The Ultimate 2026 Guide]]></title>
            <description><![CDATA[Accuracy drops over 30% when relevant info sits mid context. The static vs dynamic split, /compact timing, subagent patterns, and token growth curves for Claude Code.]]></description>
            <link>https://thedistillery.dev/blog/context-engineering-for-claude-code/</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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            <title><![CDATA[Prompt Caching for Claude: The Complete 2026 Guide]]></title>
            <description><![CDATA[Anthropic cut prompt-cache TTL from 1 hour to 5 minutes in early 2026. Cache reads cost 10% of base input. Patterns, math, and what changed.]]></description>
            <link>https://thedistillery.dev/blog/prompt-caching-claude-complete-guide/</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[The Complete CLAUDE.md Guide: Best Practices, Templates, and Token Cost in 2026]]></title>
            <description><![CDATA[5,000-token CLAUDE.md files cost $30+/month in overhead. Learn the cascade pattern, what belongs in CLAUDE.md, templates for solo/team/monorepo, and how to keep it lean.]]></description>
            <link>https://thedistillery.dev/blog/the-complete-claude-md-guide/</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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            <title><![CDATA[The True Cost of Claude Code for Teams: 2026 Operational Guide]]></title>
            <description><![CDATA[Teams with good habits spend $50-$80/dev/month. Teams without spend $150-$250. The 4 habits, plan comparisons, Opus 4.6 migration math, and ROI framework.]]></description>
            <link>https://thedistillery.dev/blog/true-cost-of-claude-code-for-teams/</link>
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            <pubDate>Mon, 11 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Claude Code Cost Optimization Guide: 30-60% Cost Reduction, Measured]]></title>
            <description><![CDATA[Claude Code costs drop 30-60% with context distillation — 40% measured on a reproducible standard-session benchmark. The methodology, the math, and the one-minute test.]]></description>
            <link>https://thedistillery.dev/blog/claude-code-cost-optimization-guide/</link>
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            <pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Claude Code Token Usage: Why Each Session Costs More Than the Last]]></title>
            <description><![CDATA[Turn 1 sends 1,000 tokens. Turn 20 sends 50,000+. Why every Claude Code session costs more than the last, and the math behind the curve.]]></description>
            <link>https://thedistillery.dev/blog/claude-code-token-usage-why-each-session-costs-more/</link>
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            <pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Cursor vs Claude Code (2026): real cost breakdown]]></title>
            <description><![CDATA[Cursor Pro: $20/mo flat. Claude Code at 4+ sessions/day: $300-500/mo. Break-even is 1-2 sessions/day, here is when each is actually cheaper.]]></description>
            <link>https://thedistillery.dev/blog/claude-code-vs-cursor-which-actually-costs-more/</link>
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            <pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Copilot vs Claude Code (2026): $120 vs $4,800/yr TCO]]></title>
            <description><![CDATA[Copilot: $120-228/year flat. Claude Code: $540-4,800/year metered. 12-month TCO compared at light, moderate, and heavy use, verdict by user type.]]></description>
            <link>https://thedistillery.dev/blog/claude-code-vs-github-copilot-total-cost/</link>
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            <pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[DISTILLERY_BYPASS: The One Env Var That Gives You Full Control]]></title>
            <description><![CDATA[DISTILLERY_BYPASS turns off all optimization with no warning. The #1 reason developers see no savings. How to check, unset, and verify.]]></description>
            <link>https://thedistillery.dev/blog/distillery-bypass-env-var/</link>
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            <pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[How The Distillery Reduces Claude Code Bills: A Technical Deep Dive]]></title>
            <description><![CDATA[Local Fastify proxy intercepts Claude Code, runs five distillers, forwards smaller payload to Anthropic. 30-60% cost cut, source on GitHub.]]></description>
            <link>https://thedistillery.dev/blog/how-the-distillery-reduces-claude-code-bills/</link>
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            <pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[How to Benchmark Your Claude Code Token Savings]]></title>
            <description><![CDATA[Measure your Claude Code token savings in under a minute. The benchmark corpus, the two numbers that matter, and how to read the result.]]></description>
            <link>https://thedistillery.dev/blog/how-to-benchmark-claude-code-token-savings/</link>
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            <pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[How to Read Your Claude Code Bill: What You're Actually Paying For]]></title>
            <description><![CDATA[80-90% of your Claude Code bill is input tokens, not output. What each line on the Anthropic invoice actually means and where the cost goes.]]></description>
            <link>https://thedistillery.dev/blog/how-to-read-your-claude-code-bill/</link>
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            <pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[How to Reduce Claude Code Costs for Your Team (Without Changing Anything)]]></title>
            <description><![CDATA[A 5-dev team on Claude Code burns $2,400/month in API tokens. The exact math and how to cut it 30-60% with no workflow change.]]></description>
            <link>https://thedistillery.dev/blog/how-to-reduce-claude-code-costs-for-your-team/</link>
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            <pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[The Same File Read 4 Times: How Claude Code Compounds Token Costs]]></title>
            <description><![CDATA[Claude re-reads package.json 4x per session. A 3,000-token file becomes 12,000 tokens billed, then compounds further. Why, and how to fix it.]]></description>
            <link>https://thedistillery.dev/blog/the-same-file-read-4-times/</link>
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            <pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[What Is Context Engineering? (Why It's the Biggest Driver of Your AI Bill)]]></title>
            <description><![CDATA[80-90% of your Claude Code bill is context you didn't need to send. Context engineering is how you fix that. Four levels, only one is hands off.]]></description>
            <link>https://thedistillery.dev/blog/what-is-context-engineering/</link>
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            <pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Why Claude Code Is So Expensive]]></title>
            <description><![CDATA[Why Claude Code costs $10-50/day: every API turn re-sends the full session context. Where the money goes and how to cut it 30-60% at the proxy.]]></description>
            <link>https://thedistillery.dev/blog/why-claude-code-is-so-expensive/</link>
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            <pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
        </item>
        <item>
            <title><![CDATA[Why LLMs Waste Tokens (And What You Can Do About It)]]></title>
            <description><![CDATA[Your LLM has no memory between requests, so every API call re-transmits everything. Why the waste compounds and the three practical fixes.]]></description>
            <link>https://thedistillery.dev/blog/why-llms-waste-tokens/</link>
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            <pubDate>Tue, 05 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT</pubDate>
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