Baseline: what a session receives for one ordinary comment

Captured before any change of this work item, on 68570a6 (v10.2.2), for testing-plan row T8.

Command

uv run python docs/specs/issue-243/evidence/measure_prompt.py

Output

the-loop version          : the_loop.webhook.dispatcher @ tree under test
raw webhook payload       :   6335 chars
payload excerpt delivered :   4014 chars
  parses as JSON          : NO — Invalid control character at at char 4000
  truncated               : True
whole rendered prompt     :   6676 chars
  the instruction itself  :     61 chars
  the-loop constant text  :   2290 chars
  graph context           :    372 chars

---- the excerpt as delivered ----
{
  "action": "created",
  "sender": {
    "login": "reviewer",
    "id": 42,
    "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjU4MzIzMQ==",
    "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/42?v=4",
    "gravatar_id": "",
    "url": "https://api.github.com/users/reviewer",
    "html_url": "https://github.com/reviewer",
    "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/reviewer/followers",
    "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/reviewer/following{/other_user}",
    "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/reviewer/gists{/gist_id}",
    "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/reviewer/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
    "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/reviewer/subscriptions",
    "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/reviewer/orgs",
    "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/reviewer/repos",
    "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/reviewer/events{/privacy}",
    "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/reviewer/received_events",
    "type": "User",
    "user_view_type": "public",
    "site_admin": false
  },
  "comment": {
    "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/o/r/issues/comments/9876543210",
    "html_url": "https://github.com/o/r/issues/243#issuecomment-9876543210",
    "issue_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/o/r/issues/243",
    "id": 9876543210,
    "node_id": "IC_kwDOAAA",
    "user": {
      "login": "reviewer",
      "id": 42,
      "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjU4MzIzMQ==",
      "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/42?v=4",
      "gravatar_id": "",
      "url": "https://api.github.com/users/reviewer",
      "html_url": "https://github.com/reviewer",
      "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/reviewer/followers",
      "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/reviewer/following{/other_user}",
      "gists_url": "https://api.github.com/users/reviewer/gists{/gist_id}",
      "starred_url": "https://api.github.com/users/reviewer/starred{/owner}{/repo}",
      "subscriptions_url": "https://api.github.com/users/reviewer/subscriptions",
      "organizations_url": "https://api.github.com/users/reviewer/orgs",
      "repos_url": "https://api.github.com/users/reviewer/repos",
      "events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/reviewer/events{/privacy}",
      "received_events_url": "https://api.github.com/users/reviewer/received_events",
      "type": "User",
      "user_view_type": "public",
      "site_admin": false
    },
    "created_at": "2026-08-16T16:02:10Z",
    "updated_at": "2026-08-16T16:02:10Z",
    "author_association": "OWNER",
    "body": "the-loop execute\n\nPlease keep the anchor for inline comments.",
    "reactions": {
      "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/o/r/issues/comments/9876543210/reactions",
      "total_count": 0,
      "+1": 0,
      "-1": 0,
      "laugh": 0,
      "hooray": 0,
      "confused": 0,
      "heart": 0,
      "rocket": 0,
      "eyes": 0
    },
    "performed_via_github_app": null
  },
  "issue": {
    "url": "https://api.github.com/repos/o/r/issues/243",
    "repository_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/o/r",
    "labels_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/o/r/issues/243/labels{/name}",
    "comments_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/o/r/issues/243/comments",
    "events_url": "https://api.github.com/repos/o/r/issues/243/events",
    "html_url": "https://github.com/o/r/issues/243",
    "id": 3456789012,
    "node_id": "I_kwDOAAA",
    "number": 243,
    "title": "optimize tokens by stripping out meta-data",
    "user": {
      "login": "octocat",
      "id": 583231,
      "node_id": "MDQ6VXNlcjU4MzIzMQ==",
      "avatar_url": "https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/583231?v=4",
      "gravatar_id": "",
      "url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat",
      "html_url": "https://github.com/octocat",
      "followers_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/followers",
      "following_url": "https://api.github.com/users/octocat/following{/other_user}",
      "gists_url": "https://api.gith
… (truncated)

What this says

Part of the delivered prompt	Chars	Share
The instruction itself (comment.body)	61	0.9%
The rest of the payload excerpt	3,953	59.2%
the-loop's own constant text (template shell + interaction directive)	2,290	34.3%
Graph context (this item's live process state)	372	5.6%
Whole delivered prompt	6,676	100%

Two facts the numbers make concrete:

1. The excerpt hit its 4,000-character cap on an ordinary comment, and the cut landed inside issue.user.gists_url — so the delivered "JSON" does not parse (Invalid control character at char 4000). Everything after that point, including the whole tail of the issue object, was noise the session paid for and could not read.
2. The instruction was 0.9% of what was delivered. The remaining 59% of the excerpt is two user objects (18 API URLs each), two reactions blocks, the label objects, and the issue object the comment's own URL already identifies.