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Optimizing Agentic Workflow Token Consumption

This prompt guides you, a coding agent, to reduce the AI token usage and cost of a GitHub Agentic Workflow (gh-aw).

How to Use This Prompt

There are two ways to invoke this optimization workflow:

Option A: Through Copilot

If your repository is configured with the agentic-workflows skill, use Copilot Chat:

agentic-workflows optimize https://github.com/OWNER/REPO/actions/runs/RUN_ID

Option B: Self-Contained (with URL)

Share this file's URL with any AI assistant or coding agent:

Optimize the agentic workflow token consumption using https://raw.githubusercontent.com/github/gh-aw/main/optimize.md

The workflow run is at https://github.com/OWNER/REPO/actions/runs/RUN_ID

The agent will follow the steps below to install gh aw, analyze the run, and apply cost-reducing changes.

Step 1: Install GitHub Agentic Workflows CLI Extension

Check if gh aw is installed by running

gh aw version

If it is installed, run:

gh extension upgrade aw

to upgrade to latest. If it is not installed, run the installation script from the main branch of the gh-aw repository:

curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/github/gh-aw/main/install-gh-aw.sh | bash

What this does: Downloads and installs the gh-aw binary to ~/.local/share/gh/extensions/gh-aw/

Verify installation:

gh aw version

You should see version information displayed. If you encounter an error, check that:

  • GitHub CLI (gh) is installed and authenticated
  • The installation script completed without errors
  • ~/.local/share/gh/extensions is in your PATH

Step 2: Optimize Token Consumption

Follow carefully the instructions in the appropriate prompt file. Read ALL the instructions in the prompt file before taking any action.

Below, ROOT is the location where you found this file. For example,

  • if this file is at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/github/gh-aw/main/optimize.md then the ROOT is https://raw.githubusercontent.com/github/gh-aw/main
  • if this file is at https://raw.githubusercontent.com/github/gh-aw/v0.35.1/optimize.md then the ROOT is https://raw.githubusercontent.com/github/gh-aw/v0.35.1

Prompt file: ROOT/.github/aw/optimize-agentic-workflow.md

Use cases:

  • "Why is this workflow consuming so many tokens?"
  • "Reduce the AI credit usage for workflow X"
  • "Optimize the run that hit the max-ai-credits guardrail"
  • "This workflow exceeded max_turns — how do I make it more efficient?"

Step 3: Apply Optimizations

After identifying the root cause:

  1. Edit the workflow markdown file (.github/workflows/<workflow-name>.md)
  2. Recompile the workflow:
gh aw compile <workflow-name>
  1. Check for syntax errors or validation warnings.

Step 4: Commit and Push Changes

Commit the changes, e.g.

git add .github/workflows/<workflow-name>.md .github/workflows/<workflow-name>.lock.yml
git commit -m "Optimize agentic workflow: <describe optimization>"
git push

If there is branch protection on the default branch, create a pull request instead and report the link to the pull request.

Instructions

When a user interacts with you:

  1. Extract the run URL or workflow name from the user's request
  2. Fetch and read the optimization prompt from ROOT/.github/aw/optimize-agentic-workflow.md
  3. Follow the loaded prompt's instructions exactly
  4. If uncertain, ask clarifying questions

Quick Reference

# Audit a specific workflow run (includes token usage)
gh aw audit <run-id> --json

# Diff two or more workflow runs to measure improvement
gh aw audit <base-run-id> <optimized-run-id>

# Download and analyze workflow logs
gh aw logs <workflow-name>

# Compile workflows after optimizing
gh aw compile <workflow-name>

# Show status of all workflows
gh aw status