rtk
rtk is a command-line proxy that shrinks the output of developer commands before an AI coding agent reads it, to cut token costs.
What it is good for
- Reducing the cost of long AI coding sessions
- Shortening verbose terminal output for an AI agent
- Trimming test failures and git logs before sending them to a model
- Lowering token use when an agent runs shell commands
At a glance
- Who it is for
- Setup
- Guided command-line setup
Level 4 of 5. You copy and paste commands into a terminal by following the instructions. Comfortable territory for vibe coders.
- Cost
- Free and open source
- Type
- Agent app
- Tasks
- Works with
- Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Codex, Windsurf
Momentum
- Rank this week
- Not ranked yet
- Best rank
- None yet
- GitHub stars
- 85,273
GitHub numbers as of Nov 2, 2026. Updated weekly.
Official links
Setup steps are on the official pages. We do not repeat them here, since they change.
Questions
- Is rtk free?
- Yes. It is free and open source (Apache-2.0 license).
- Do I need to know how to code to use rtk?
- You do not need to write code, but setup means copying and pasting commands into a terminal by following its instructions.
- What does rtk work with?
- According to its own documentation, it works with Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Gemini CLI, Codex, and Windsurf.
- What is rtk good for?
- Reducing the cost of long AI coding sessions, shortening verbose terminal output for an AI agent, trimming test failures and git logs before sending them to a model, and lowering token use when an agent runs shell commands.
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