Local-Splitter: A Measurement Study of Seven Tactics for Reducing Cloud LLM Token Usage on Coding-Agent Workloads
We present a systematic measurement study of seven tactics for reducing cloud LLM token usage when a small local model can act as a triage layer in front of a frontier cloud model. The tactics are: (1) local routing, (2) prompt compression, (3) semantic caching, (4) local drafting with cloud review, (5) minimal-diff edits, (6) structured intent extraction, and (7) batching with vendor prompt caching. We implement all seven in an open-source shim that speaks both MCP and the OpenAI-compatible HTTP surface, supporting any local model via Ollama and any cloud model via an OpenAI-compatible endpoint. We evaluate each tactic individually, in pairs, and in a greedy-additive subset across four c...
| Authors | Justice Owusu Agyemang, Jerry John Kponyo, Elliot Amponsah et al. |
|---|---|
| Primary category | cs.DC |
| Published | 14 April 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 14 April 2026 |
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