GitHub - rtk-ai/rtk: CLI proxy that reduces LLM token consumption by 60-90% on common dev commands. Single Rust binary, zero dependencies

High-performance CLI proxy that reduces LLM token consumption by 60-90%

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rtk filters and compresses command outputs before they reach your LLM context. Single Rust binary, zero dependencies, <10ms overhead.

Token Savings (30-min Claude Code Session)

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%
`git log`	5x	2,500	500	-80%
`git add/commit/push`	8x	1,600	120	-92%
`cargo test` / `npm test`	5x	25,000	2,500	-90%
`ruff check`	3x	3,000	600	-80%
`pytest`	4x	8,000	800	-90%
`go test`	3x	6,000	600	-90%
`docker ps`	3x	900	180	-80%
Total		~118,000	~23,900	-80%

Estimates based on medium-sized TypeScript/Rust projects. Actual savings vary by project size.

Installation

Homebrew (recommended)

Quick Install (Linux/macOS)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rtk-ai/rtk/refs/heads/master/install.sh | sh

Installs to ~/.local/bin. Add to PATH if needed:
echo 'export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"' >> ~/.bashrc  # or ~/.zshrc

Cargo

cargo install --git https://github.com/rtk-ai/rtk

Pre-built Binaries

Download from releases:

macOS: rtk-x86_64-apple-darwin.tar.gz / rtk-aarch64-apple-darwin.tar.gz
Linux: rtk-x86_64-unknown-linux-musl.tar.gz / rtk-aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu.tar.gz
Windows: rtk-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.zip

Verify Installation

rtk --version   # Should show "rtk 0.28.2"
rtk gain        # Should show token savings stats

Name collision warning: Another project named "rtk" (Rust Type Kit) exists on crates.io. If rtk gain fails, you have the wrong package. Use cargo install --git above instead.

Quick Start

# 1. Install hook for Claude Code (recommended)
rtk init --global
# Follow instructions to register in ~/.claude/settings.json
# Claude Code only by default (use --opencode for OpenCode)

# 2. Restart Claude Code, then test
git status  # Automatically rewritten to rtk git status

The hook transparently rewrites Bash commands (e.g., git status -> rtk git status) before execution. Claude never sees the rewrite, it just gets compressed output.

Important: the hook only runs on Bash tool calls. Claude Code built-in tools like Read, Grep, and Glob do not pass through the Bash hook, so they are not auto-rewritten. To get RTK's compact output for those workflows, use shell commands (cat/head/tail, rg/grep, find) or call rtk read, rtk grep, or rtk find directly.

How It Works

  Without rtk:                                    With rtk:

  Claude  --git status-->  shell  -->  git         Claude  --git status-->  RTK  -->  git
    ^                                   |            ^                      |          |
    |        ~2,000 tokens (raw)        |            |   ~200 tokens        | filter   |
    +-----------------------------------+            +------- (filtered) ---+----------+

Four strategies applied per command type:

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

Files

rtk ls .                        # Token-optimized directory tree
rtk read file.rs                # Smart file reading
rtk read file.rs -l aggressive  # Signatures only (strips bodies)
rtk smart file.rs               # 2-line heuristic code summary
rtk find "*.rs" .               # Compact find results
rtk grep "pattern" .            # Grouped search results
rtk diff file1 file2            # Condensed diff

Git

rtk git status                  # Compact status
rtk git log -n 10               # One-line commits
rtk git diff                    # Condensed diff
rtk git add                     # -> "ok"
rtk git commit -m "msg"         # -> "ok abc1234"
rtk git push                    # -> "ok main"
rtk git pull                    # -> "ok 3 files +10 -2"

GitHub CLI

rtk gh pr list                  # Compact PR listing
rtk gh pr view 42               # PR details + checks
rtk gh issue list               # Compact issue listing
rtk gh run list                 # Workflow run status

Test Runners

rtk test cargo test             # Show failures only (-90%)
rtk err npm run build           # Errors/warnings only
rtk vitest run                  # Vitest compact (failures only)
rtk playwright test             # E2E results (failures only)
rtk pytest                      # Python tests (-90%)
rtk go test                     # Go tests (NDJSON, -90%)
rtk cargo test                  # Cargo tests (-90%)

Build & Lint

rtk lint                        # ESLint grouped by rule/file
rtk lint biome                  # Supports other linters
rtk tsc                         # TypeScript errors grouped by file
rtk next build                  # Next.js build compact
rtk prettier --check .          # Files needing formatting
rtk cargo build                 # Cargo build (-80%)
rtk cargo clippy                # Cargo clippy (-80%)
rtk ruff check                  # Python linting (JSON, -80%)
rtk golangci-lint run           # Go linting (JSON, -85%)

Package Managers

rtk pnpm list                   # Compact dependency tree
rtk pip list                    # Python packages (auto-detect uv)
rtk pip outdated                # Outdated packages
rtk prisma generate             # Schema generation (no ASCII art)

Containers

rtk docker ps                   # Compact container list
rtk docker images               # Compact image list
rtk docker logs <container>     # Deduplicated logs
rtk docker compose ps           # Compose services
rtk kubectl pods                # Compact pod list
rtk kubectl logs <pod>          # Deduplicated logs
rtk kubectl services            # Compact service list

Data & Analytics

rtk json config.json            # Structure without values
rtk deps                        # Dependencies summary
rtk env -f AWS                  # Filtered env vars
rtk log app.log                 # Deduplicated logs
rtk curl <url>                  # Auto-detect JSON + schema
rtk wget <url>                  # Download, strip progress bars
rtk summary <long command>      # Heuristic summary
rtk proxy <command>             # Raw passthrough + tracking

Token Savings Analytics

rtk gain                        # Summary stats
rtk gain --graph                # ASCII graph (last 30 days)
rtk gain --history              # Recent command history
rtk gain --daily                # Day-by-day breakdown
rtk gain --all --format json    # JSON export for dashboards

rtk discover                    # Find missed savings opportunities
rtk discover --all --since 7    # All projects, last 7 days

rtk session                     # Show RTK adoption across recent sessions

Global Flags

-u, --ultra-compact    # ASCII icons, inline format (extra token savings)
-v, --verbose          # Increase verbosity (-v, -vv, -vvv)

Examples

Directory listing:

# ls -la (45 lines, ~800 tokens)        # rtk ls (12 lines, ~150 tokens)
drwxr-xr-x  15 user staff 480 ...       my-project/
-rw-r--r--   1 user staff 1234 ...       +-- src/ (8 files)
...                                      |   +-- main.rs
                                         +-- Cargo.toml

Git operations:

# git push (15 lines, ~200 tokens)       # rtk git push (1 line, ~10 tokens)
Enumerating objects: 5, done.             ok main
Counting objects: 100% (5/5), done.
Delta compression using up to 8 threads
...

Test output:

# cargo test (200+ lines on failure)     # rtk test cargo test (~20 lines)
running 15 tests                          FAILED: 2/15 tests
test utils::test_parse ... ok               test_edge_case: assertion failed
test utils::test_format ... ok              test_overflow: panic at utils.rs:18
...

Auto-Rewrite Hook

The most effective way to use rtk. The hook transparently intercepts Bash commands and rewrites them to rtk equivalents before execution.

Result: 100% rtk adoption across all conversations and subagents, zero token overhead.

Scope note: this only applies to Bash tool calls. Claude Code built-in tools such as Read, Grep, and Glob bypass the hook, so use shell commands or explicit rtk commands when you want RTK filtering there.

Setup

rtk init -g                 # Install hook + RTK.md (recommended)
rtk init -g --opencode      # OpenCode plugin (instead of Claude Code)
rtk init -g --auto-patch    # Non-interactive (CI/CD)
rtk init -g --hook-only     # Hook only, no RTK.md
rtk init --show             # Verify installation

After install, restart Claude Code.

OpenCode Plugin (Global)

OpenCode supports plugins that can intercept tool execution. RTK provides a global plugin that mirrors the Claude auto-rewrite behavior by rewriting Bash tool commands to rtk ... before they execute. This plugin is not installed by default.

Note: This plugin uses OpenCode's tool.execute.before hook. Known limitation: plugin hooks do not intercept subagent tool calls (upstream issue). See OpenCode plugin docs for API details.

Install OpenCode plugin:

What it creates:

~/.config/opencode/plugins/rtk.ts

Restart Required: Restart OpenCode, then test with git status in a session.

Manual install (fallback):

mkdir -p ~/.config/opencode/plugins
cp hooks/opencode-rtk.ts ~/.config/opencode/plugins/rtk.ts

Commands Rewritten

Raw Command	Rewritten To
`git status/diff/log/add/commit/push/pull`	`rtk git ...`
`gh pr/issue/run`	`rtk gh ...`
`cargo test/build/clippy`	`rtk cargo ...`
`cat/head/tail <file>`	`rtk read <file>`
`rg/grep <pattern>`	`rtk grep <pattern>`
`ls`	`rtk ls`
`vitest/jest`	`rtk vitest run`
`tsc`	`rtk tsc`
`eslint/biome`	`rtk lint`
`prettier`	`rtk prettier`
`playwright`	`rtk playwright`
`prisma`	`rtk prisma`
`ruff check/format`	`rtk ruff ...`
`pytest`	`rtk pytest`
`pip list/install`	`rtk pip ...`
`go test/build/vet`	`rtk go ...`
`golangci-lint`	`rtk golangci-lint`
`docker ps/images/logs`	`rtk docker ...`
`kubectl get/logs`	`rtk kubectl ...`
`curl`	`rtk curl`
`pnpm list/outdated`	`rtk pnpm ...`

Commands already using rtk, heredocs (<<), and unrecognized commands pass through unchanged.

Configuration

Config File

~/.config/rtk/config.toml (macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/rtk/config.toml):

[tracking]
database_path = "/path/to/custom.db"  # default: ~/.local/share/rtk/history.db

[hooks]
exclude_commands = ["curl", "playwright"]  # skip rewrite for these

[tee]
enabled = true          # save raw output on failure (default: true)
mode = "failures"       # "failures", "always", or "never"
max_files = 20          # rotation limit

Tee: Full Output Recovery

When a command fails, RTK saves the full unfiltered output so the LLM can read it without re-executing:

FAILED: 2/15 tests
[full output: ~/.local/share/rtk/tee/1707753600_cargo_test.log]

Uninstall

rtk init -g --uninstall     # Remove hook, RTK.md, settings.json entry
cargo uninstall rtk          # Remove binary
brew uninstall rtk           # If installed via Homebrew

Documentation

TROUBLESHOOTING.md - Fix common issues
INSTALL.md - Detailed installation guide
ARCHITECTURE.md - Technical architecture
SECURITY.md - Security policy and PR review process
AUDIT_GUIDE.md - Token savings analytics guide

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please open an issue or PR on GitHub.

Join the community on Discord.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE for details.