The Concise output style
AutoMode's optional Concise output style: short sentences, the answer first. Measured at 10% fewer output tokens, with code and quotes kept exact.
An optional output style, automode:Concise. It has nothing to do with routing.
/output-style automode:ConciseIt writes prose at 80% of the way to ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English: short sentences, active voice, the answer first. It keeps code, commands, file paths and quoted text exactly as they are.
What we measured
bench/style-check.mts runs 20 prompts three times each, with and without the style, on Sonnet 5.5, and checks the answers with code.
| What we checked | Result |
|---|---|
| Code and commands stay exact. Six prompts. Two answers were run in a sandbox. | Same as without the style. |
| Verbatim text stays verbatim. A sentence with em dashes, a Spanish reply, a warm customer email. | Same as without the style. |
Warnings and honesty survive. rm and force push keep their warnings. When a file is missing, the model says so. | Same as without the style. |
| Facts stay in explanations. Six prompts, 3 to 5 required facts each. | 99% against 100% without the style. |
| Output tokens. | 10% fewer in total. Shorter on 11 prompts, the same on 7, longer on 2. |
What it does not show
- The saving is modest. Explanations get up to 30% shorter. Short writing tasks can get longer: a commit message took 179% of the tokens, and a customer email 124%.
- It covers short single-turn prompts with no tools, one model and 20 cases. Long agentic sessions are not covered.
- Three cases failed in the first run because of our own test setup. We fixed it and reran those cases. Read run 1 and the rerun.
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Environment variables
AutoMode environment variables: turn off the router, bar or guardian, force a policy, override the thinking guard, and the provider variables it reads.
Review it before you install it
Every mods API call AutoMode makes, and why: what it reads and writes, the four commands it runs, the calls it never makes, and how to check it yourself.