Code agents are being tested as bounded workers, not code generators
The strongest signal is operational evaluation. 1GC-7RC, AgentKernelArena, and TOBench all score agents inside bounded work loops with tools, runtime checks, and resource limits.
Topic summary
Token Cost
Controlled code agent operations
Code agents are ready for narrower operational tests inside engineering workflows: fixed-budget acceptance runs, package-name checks before installs, and scoped code-editing pilots tied to token spend.
Practical limits are now the main story in AI coding research
Today’s coding research is strongest on practical limits. RealBench shows repo-level generation still breaks down on full projects, and the token-cost study shows agentic coding can be vastly more expensive than…
Code Change Control
The clearest near-term changes are operational. Coding-agent products need explicit token controls during execution, repo-scale generation needs dependency-ordered workflows once projects get larger, and maintenance…