rtk-ai/rtk

Project overview

RTK is a single Rust binary with zero dependencies that reduces LLM token consumption by 60-90% during agentic coding tasks by intercepting, filtering, grouping, truncating, and deduplicating terminal command outputs. It supports auto-rewrite hooks for various AI tools on Linux, macOS, and Windows without requiring a GPU or paid services.

Project type

AI Coding

Use cases

Coding & Development

Deployment

Refer to project documentation

License

Apache-2.0

Best for

• Developers using agentic coding tools who execute tasks via terminal or shell commands and want to reduce token consumption.

Key capabilities

• Intercepts and rewrites terminal commands, such as git, ls, and test runners, to provide compact, token-optimized outputs using smart filtering, grouping, truncation, and deduplication.
• Transparently intercepts Bash commands from supported AI coding tools and rewrites them to RTK equivalents before execution to enable zero-prompt token optimization.
• Provides commands to track and visualize token savings, view recent command history, and export usage statistics to JSON for dashboards.
• Automatically saves full unfiltered command output to disk when a command fails, allowing the LLM to read the complete error context without re-executing the command.

Limitations and risks

• Claude Code built-in tools like Read, Grep, and Glob bypass the Bash hook and are not auto-rewritten.
• A name collision exists on crates.io with another project named 'rtk' (Rust Type Kit).
• Some filters require ripgrep (rg) to be installed and available on the system PATH.

Getting started

• Setup difficulty is rated as easy. Users can install the binary via a package manager or script, such as Homebrew or curl, then run `rtk init -g` to set up the hook for their AI tool.

Evidence and sources

• GitHub project description: CLI proxy that reduces LLM token consumption by 60-90% on common dev commands. Single Rust binary, zero dependencies
• GitHub project description: Single Rust binary, zero dependencies
• README: High-performance CLI proxy that reduces LLM token consumption by 60-90%
• README: Four strategies applied per command type: 1. **Smart Filtering** - Removes noise (comments, whitespace, boilerplate) 2. **Grouping** - Aggregates similar items (files by directory…
• README: rtk filters and compresses command outputs before they reach your LLM context. Single Rust binary, 100+ supported commands, <10ms overhead.

Reviewed at: 2026-07-17T05:29:19Z