# Line-Anchored Feedback Cuts Token Costs and Improves Correctness in AI Code Editing

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.12713 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.12713/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 12 of its 22 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 14 Jul 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 12 of 12)

- [Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.11903/) (2022)
- [SWE-bench: Can Language Models Resolve Real-World GitHub Issues?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.06770/) (2023)
- [Is Your Code Generated by ChatGPT Really Correct? Rigorous Evaluation of Large Language Models for Code Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.01210/) (2023)
- [Energy and Policy Considerations for Deep Learning in NLP](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.02243/) (2019)
- [Green AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.10597/) (2019)
- [Grounded Copilot: How Programmers Interact with Code-Generating Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.15000/) (2022)
- [Power Hungry Processing: Watts Driving the Cost of AI Deployment?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16863/) (2023)
- [Practical Program Repair in the Era of Large Pre-trained Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.14179/) (2022)
- [Automating Code Review Activities by Large-Scale Pre-training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.09095/) (2022)
- [A Large-Scale Survey on the Usability of AI Programming Assistants: Successes and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.17125/) (2023)
- [Using Pre-Trained Models to Boost Code Review Automation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.06850/) (2022)
- [Artificial Intelligence Policy Framework for Institutions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.02834/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Generated tokens are a direct driver of the cost, latency, and energy of generative AI (GAI) code editing. We show the format of feedback is a lever on all three. We compare two deliveries of the same requested changes: a holistic prompt (control) versus the structured, line-anchored export of FileMark (treatment). FileMark is a VSCodium extension for inline comments on any file. In a paired experiment line anchoring cut generated tokens by 22% (Claude Opus) and 58% (Claude Sonnet), reaching 24%-80% on files of 100 lines or more, with four of seven models generating significantly fewer tokens after multiple-testing correction. Correctness rose where models had headroom: +2.0 points pooled and +5 to +7 points for three of five local models. An exploratory experiment in which the harness, not the GAI model, applies function-level patches shows the correctness benefit grows further when the edit-application burden is lifted: local-model correctness on 100+ line files roughly triples under anchoring. Line-anchored feedback reduces what stronger models spend and improves what weaker models get right.