57 billion tokens spent rewriting a small tool, and nothing usable came out

57B tokens burned on an AI jq rewrite and nothing usable came out.

This one went wrong. Read what happened so you don’t hit the same problem.

How it works

57 billion tokens are burned on an AI rewrite of the tool
Nothing usable comes out

Why it’s worth knowing

57 billion is a national-grid unit of failure.

Where it’s from

Summarized from a public post on nial.se. See the original ↗

Upgraded prompt

A ready-to-use prompt for this idea, built from research on what makes AI agents do the job right: who the AI should be, the exact steps, and a check to make sure it was done the way you wanted.

1Who the AI should be

2The prompt, with the steps

3The check when it’s done

Upgraded prompts are coming soon.

Try next

WorkThe AI audited my eBay store, found 28 listings going nowhere, and sold a bundle for me WorkOne man released a whole movie with about 40 tools he built with AI WorkFind me 48 school-district customers and draft each pitch — one replied, booked and paid WorkAn agent now makes the promo posts for our 70 radio shows a month

Every idea is a real post from someone who tried it, summarized in our words, with a link to the original. App names are swapped for plain words.