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RTK - Rust Token Killer

RTK is a high-performance CLI tool written in Rust that dramatically reduces LLM token consumption by filtering and compressing command outputs before they reach your AI coding assistant’s context.
Token Savings: RTK achieves 60-90% reduction in tokens on common development operations.A typical 30-minute Claude Code session goes from ~150,000 tokens down to ~45,000 tokens - a 70% reduction.

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Why RTK Matters

AI coding assistants like Claude Code, Cursor, and Copilot consume massive amounts of tokens when reading command outputs. Every git status, npm test, or ls -la sends verbose output into the LLM context - wasting tokens, hitting rate limits, and slowing down your workflow. RTK sits between your AI assistant and the shell, intelligently filtering outputs to preserve only what matters: 
Without RTK:
  ┌──────────┐  git status     ┌──────────┐  git status  ┌──────────┐
  │  Claude  │ ─────────────── │  shell   │ ──────────── │   git    │
  │   LLM    │                 │          │              │  (CLI)   │
  └──────────┘                 └──────────┘              └──────────┘
        ▲                                                      │
        │              ~2,000 tokens (raw output)              │
        └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

With RTK:
  ┌──────────┐  git status     ┌──────────┐  git status  ┌──────────┐
  │  Claude  │ ─────────────── │   RTK    │ ──────────── │   git    │
  │   LLM    │                 │  (proxy) │              │  (CLI)   │
  └──────────┘                 └──────────┘              └──────────┘
        ▲                           │  ~2,000 tokens raw       │
        │                           └──────────────────────────┘
        │  ~200 tokens (filtered)   filter · group · dedup · truncate
        └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────

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Key Benefits

Massive Token Savings

Save 60-90% of tokens on common operations like git log, cargo test, npm install.

Zero Workflow Changes

Install once with hooks, and all commands are automatically optimized - no manual prefixing needed.

Lightning Fast

Written in Rust with <10ms startup time. No performance overhead in your development workflow.

Analytics Built-In

Track your savings with rtk gain - see exactly how many tokens you’ve saved over time.

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Token Savings Examples (30-min Session)

Here’s what RTK saves you in a typical Claude Code coding session:
OperationFrequencyStandardRTKSavings
ls / tree10×2,000400-80%
cat / read20×40,00012,000-70%
grep / rg8×16,0003,200-80%
git status10×3,000600-80%
git diff5×10,0002,500-75%
git log5×2,500500-80%
npm test5×25,0002,500-90%
docker ps3×900180-80%
Total~99,400~22,880-77%
Name Collision Alert: There are TWO different projects named “rtk”:
  1. ✅ Rust Token Killer (this project) - LLM token optimizer from rtk-ai/rtk
  2. ❌ Rust Type Kit (reachingforthejack/rtk) - DIFFERENT PROJECT
Verify you have the correct one:
rtk --version   # Should show "rtk 0.24.0" or higher
rtk gain        # Should show token savings stats
If rtk gain doesn’t work, you installed the wrong package.

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How It Works

RTK applies four intelligent strategies based on command type:
1

Smart Filtering

Removes noise like comments, whitespace, boilerplate progress bars, and redundant metadata.
2

Grouping

Aggregates similar items - files by directory, errors by type, commits by author.
3

Truncation

Keeps relevant context, cuts redundancy. Show first/last 10 lines instead of 1000.
4

Deduplication

Collapses repeated log lines with counts: Error: timeout (×347) instead of 347 lines.

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Real-World Example

Standard git push output (15 lines, ~200 tokens): 
$ git push
Enumerating objects: 5, done.
Counting objects: 100% (5/5), done.
Delta compression using up to 8 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (3/3), done.
Writing objects: 100% (3/3), 342 bytes | 342.00 KiB/s, done.
Total 3 (delta 2), reused 0 (delta 0), pack-reused 0
remote: Resolving deltas: 100% (2/2), completed with 2 local objects.
To github.com:user/repo.git
   abc1234..def5678  main -> main
RTK git push output (1 line, ~10 tokens - 95% reduction): 
$ rtk git push
ok ✓ main

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Use Cases

AI Coding Sessions

Maximize your Claude Code, Cursor, or Copilot rate limits by sending 70% fewer tokens.

Monorepo Development

Work in large codebases without overwhelming your LLM with verbose ls, tree, or find outputs.

Test-Driven Development

See only test failures, not the 200+ lines of passing test noise. Works with cargo test, npm test, pytest, go test.

Git-Heavy Workflows

Condense git log, git diff, git status into compact summaries that preserve all critical info.

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Supported Commands

RTK optimizes 50+ commands across multiple ecosystems:

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Git Operations

git status, git diff, git log, git add, git commit, git push, git pull, git branch, git fetch, git stash

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Test Runners

cargo test, npm test, pytest, go test, vitest, playwright test

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Package Managers

npm install, pnpm list, pip install, cargo build

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Linters & Type Checkers

eslint, ruff check, tsc, mypy, golangci-lint, cargo clippy

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Containers

docker ps, docker logs, kubectl get pods, kubectl logs

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And More

ls, tree, grep, cat, curl, wget, gh pr list, prisma migrate, next build View full command reference →

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Next Steps

Install RTK

Get RTK installed in under 5 minutes with Homebrew, cargo, or pre-built binaries.

Quick Start

Follow our 5-minute guide to install, verify, and start saving tokens immediately.