How to cut usage in Claude Code by using Monitor instead of /loop polling

Claude Code cloud scheduled tasks (routines) draw down subscription usage on every run, the same way interactive sessions do. An hourly "anything new?" check spends usage even on runs that find nothing. When you're waiting for something to change inside a session, hand it to the Monitor tool instead of re-running a prompt on an interval.

1. Start /loop without an interval. Claude then picks the delay each iteration, and in a session where Monitor is available it may use Monitor directly.

/loop check whether CI passed and address any review comments

1. To use Monitor from the start, name what to watch. Monitor runs a small script in the background and passes each output line to Claude as it arrives. The docs say this avoids polling altogether and is often more token-efficient and responsive than re-running a prompt on an interval.

Watch this PR's CI status with Monitor and tell me when it changes

1. Every watch has a deadline: 5 minutes by default, at most 30 minutes, and at most 10 minutes in a non-interactive run with -p. Claude gets one notice at the deadline, so ask it to restart the watch if you still need it.

Since v2.1.310, the Monitor tool and plugin monitors also work on Bedrock, Vertex and Foundry, and when DISABLE_TELEMETRY or CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_NONESSENTIAL_TRAFFIC is set. From the same release, long foreground sleeps are blocked there too. Routines also have hourly run limits separate from subscription usage (100 scheduled runs per hour per account).