diff --git a/aider/coder.py b/aider/coder.py
index 9523ccc51..10e356df1 100755
--- a/aider/coder.py
+++ b/aider/coder.py
@@ -63,6 +63,8 @@ class Coder:
         self.auto_commits = auto_commits
         self.dirty_commits = dirty_commits
         self.dry_run = dry_run
+        self.pretty = pretty
+        self.show_diffs = show_diffs
 
         if pretty:
             self.console = Console()
@@ -86,21 +88,21 @@ class Coder:
 
         if self.repo:
             rel_repo_dir = os.path.relpath(self.repo.git_dir, os.getcwd())
-            self.io.tool_output("Using git repo:", rel_repo_dir)
+            capabilities_msg = f"Using git repo {rel_repo_dir}, "
         else:
-            self.io.tool_error("No suitable git repo, will not automatically commit edits.")
+            capabilities_msg = "Not using git, "
             self.find_common_root()
 
-        self.pretty = pretty
-        self.show_diffs = show_diffs
-
-        if self.verbose:
-            rm_io = io
-        else:
-            rm_io = None
-
+        rm_io = io if self.verbose else None
         self.repo_map = RepoMap(map_tokens, self.root, self.main_model, rm_io)
 
+        if self.repo_map.has_ctags:
+            capabilities_msg += "using ctags."
+        else:
+            capabilities_msg += "not using ctags."
+
+        self.io.tool_output(capabilities_msg)
+
     def find_common_root(self):
         if self.abs_fnames:
             common_prefix = os.path.commonpath(list(self.abs_fnames))
diff --git a/aider/repomap.py b/aider/repomap.py
index ef78054d4..2906b23e0 100644
--- a/aider/repomap.py
+++ b/aider/repomap.py
@@ -58,9 +58,6 @@ class RepoMap:
     IDENT_CACHE_DIR = ".aider.ident.cache"
     TAGS_CACHE_DIR = ".aider.tags.cache"
 
-    # 1/4 of gpt-4's context window
-    max_map_tokens = 512
-
     def __init__(self, map_tokens=1024, root=None, main_model="gpt-4", io=None):
         self.io = io
 
@@ -71,7 +68,11 @@ class RepoMap:
         self.load_ident_cache()
         self.load_tags_cache()
 
-        self.map_tokens = map_tokens
+        self.max_map_tokens = map_tokens
+        if map_tokens > 0:
+            self.has_ctags = self.check_for_ctags()
+        else:
+            self.has_ctags = False
 
         self.tokenizer = tiktoken.encoding_for_model(main_model)
 
@@ -96,10 +97,13 @@ class RepoMap:
         return repo_content
 
     def choose_files_listing(self, chat_files, other_files):
+        if self.max_map_tokens <= 0:
+            return
+
         if not other_files:
             return
 
-        if self.use_ctags:
+        if self.has_ctags:
             files_listing = self.get_ranked_tags_map(chat_files, other_files)
             num_tokens = self.token_count(files_listing)
             if self.io: