RTK

RTK (Rust Token Killer)

RTK is a token-optimized CLI proxy that wraps shell commands invoked through Claude Code's Bash tool. By trimming verbose output before it reaches the model, RTK cuts LLM token consumption by 60–90% on common dev commands (git, flutter, dart, melos, npm, etc.) without changing the user-facing behaviour.

It's shipped as part of the ufil plugin — auto-installed on first session — and works with any Claude Code project, plugin or not.

⚠️ Name collision: there is an unrelated tool also called rtk at reachingforthejack/rtk (Rust Type Kit). Make sure the binary you have is the one from rtk-ai/rtk — see RTK-Troubleshooting.

How it works

RTK installs a Claude Code hook that transparently rewrites Bash commands:

You ask Claude:  "run git status"
Claude calls:    Bash("git status")
Hook rewrites:   Bash("rtk git status")       # ← 0 tokens overhead
RTK runs:        git status, filters output, returns trimmed result

You never type rtk yourself — the rewrite is transparent. You also never lose information you actually need: RTK filters known-noisy output sections (file lists in git status, asset compilation logs in flutter build, etc.), not the parts a developer cares about.

Quick start

# 1. Install the binary (macOS via Homebrew is easiest)
brew install rtk
# or, cross-platform:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rtk-ai/rtk/refs/heads/master/install.sh | sh

# 2. Register the Claude Code hook globally (one-time)
rtk init -g

# 3. Restart Claude Code for the hook to take effect

# 4. Verify
rtk --version
rtk gain          # show token savings analytics

UFIL users get steps 1 and 2 done automatically on first session — see RTK-Usage-in-Plugins.

Read next

• Installation — manual install + verify.
• Commands — meta commands (gain, discover, proxy, init).
• Usage in Plugins — how UFIL auto-installs and exposes /rtk-* commands.
• Troubleshooting — name collision, hook not active, sentinel out of sync.