diff --git a/bin/tokencut.mjs b/bin/tokencut.mjs
index 00ab99b..37a14f1 100644
--- a/bin/tokencut.mjs
+++ b/bin/tokencut.mjs
@@ -60,6 +60,10 @@ const numericFlag = (name, def) => {
   return value;
 };
 const price = numericFlag("--price", 3);
+if (!has("--compact") && (has("--max") || has("--max-tool"))) {
+  console.error("--max and --max-tool requires --compact");
+  process.exit(1);
+}
 const maxTokens = has("--max") ? numericFlag("--max", null) : null;
 const maxToolResultTokens = numericFlag("--max-tool", 500);
 let payload;
diff --git a/test/cli.test.mjs b/test/cli.test.mjs
index a686546..ebf4f97 100644
--- a/test/cli.test.mjs
+++ b/test/cli.test.mjs
@@ -67,3 +67,15 @@ test("--version prints package version", () => {
   const ver = JSON.parse(readFileSync(new URL("../package.json", import.meta.url), "utf8")).version;
   assert.equal(r.stdout.trim(), ver);
 });
+
+
+test("rejects compact budget flags without --compact", async (t) => {
+  for (const flag of ["--max", "--max-tool"]) {
+    await t.test(flag, () => {
+      const result = run(flag, "1");
+      assert.notEqual(result.status, 0);
+      assert.match(result.stderr, /requires --compact/);
+      assert.equal(result.stdout, "");
+    });
+  }
+});