rtk-token-optimization

Purpose

Reduce LLM token consumption in Claude Code sessions by 60-90% without changing developer workflow.

All Bash commands are transparently rewritten to their rtk equivalents via a PreToolUse hook.

How It Works

Without rtk:                              With rtk:
Claude --git status--> shell --> git      Claude --git status--> RTK --> git
  ^        ~2,000 tokens (raw)    |        ^    ~200 tokens     |       |
  +-------------------------------+        +---- (filtered) ----+-------+

Four strategies applied per command type:

1. Smart Filtering - Removes noise (comments, whitespace, boilerplate)
2. Grouping - Aggregates similar items (files by directory, errors by type)
3. Truncation - Keeps relevant context, cuts redundancy
4. Deduplication - Collapses repeated log lines with counts

Supported Commands

| Category | Commands | Typical Savings |

|----------|----------|----------------|

| Files | ls, read, find, grep, diff | 70-80% |

| Git | status, diff, log, add, commit, push | 75-92% |

| GitHub CLI | pr list, issue list, run list | 80% |

| Test Runners | cargo test, npm test, pytest, go test, vitest, playwright | 90% |

| Build & Lint | cargo build, tsc, next build, eslint, ruff, clippy | 80-85% |

| Package Managers | pnpm list, pip list, bundle install | 80% |

| Containers | docker ps/logs, kubectl pods/logs | 80% |

| AWS | sts, ec2, lambda, logs, s3, cloudformation | 80% |

| Data | json, env, log, curl, wget | 70-80% |

Token Savings (30-min Session Estimate)

| Operation | Frequency | Standard | rtk | Savings |

|-----------|-----------|----------|-----|---------|

| ls / tree | 10x | 2,000 | 400 | -80% |

| cat / read | 20x | 40,000 | 12,000 | -70% |

| grep / rg | 8x | 16,000 | 3,200 | -80% |

| git status | 10x | 3,000 | 600 | -80% |

| git diff | 5x | 10,000 | 2,500 | -75% |

| cargo test / npm test | 5x | 25,000 | 2,500 | -90% |

| Total | | ~118,000 | ~23,900 | -80% |

Usage

After installation, rtk works automatically via the PreToolUse hook. No manual changes needed.

Analytics Commands

rtk gain                # Summary stats
rtk gain --graph        # ASCII graph (last 30 days)
rtk gain --daily        # Day-by-day breakdown
rtk discover            # Find missed savings opportunities
rtk session             # Show RTK adoption across recent sessions

Manual Usage

rtk git status          # Compact git status
rtk read file.rs        # Smart file reading
rtk test cargo test     # Show failures only
rtk lint                # ESLint grouped by rule/file
rtk docker ps           # Compact container list

Prerequisites

• rtk binary: brew install rtk or curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rtk-ai/rtk/refs/heads/master/install.sh | sh
• jq: required by the hook script

Integration

• Hook: hooks/rtk-rewrite.sh (PreToolUse:Bash, last in chain)
• Config: ~/.config/rtk/config.toml for customization
• Tee recovery: failed command full output saved to ~/.local/share/rtk/tee/

References

• rtk GitHub
• rtk Website
• Troubleshooting