Installation

Installation

Name collision warning

Two unrelated projects share the name rtk. Make sure you install the right one:

• Rust Token Killer (rtk-ai/rtk) — this project, a token-saving CLI proxy
• Rust Type Kit (reachingforthejack/rtk) — a different tool for generating Rust types

The easiest way to verify you have the correct one: run rtk gain. It should display token savings stats. If it returns “command not found”, you either have the wrong package or RTK is not installed.

Check before installing

rtk --version   # should print: rtk x.y.z
rtk gain        # should show token savings stats

If both commands work, RTK is already installed. Skip to Project initialization.

Quick install (Linux and macOS)

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

Homebrew (macOS and Linux)

brew install rtk-ai/tap/rtk

Cargo

Name collision risk

cargo install rtk may install Rust Type Kit instead of Rust Token Killer — two unrelated projects share the same crate name. Use the explicit Git URL to guarantee the correct package:

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

Pre-built binaries (Windows, Linux, macOS)

Download from GitHub 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

Windows users: Extract the zip and place rtk.exe in a directory on your PATH. Run RTK from Command Prompt, PowerShell, or Windows Terminal — do not double-click the .exe (it prints usage and exits immediately). For full hook support, use WSL instead.

Verify installation

rtk --version   # rtk x.y.z
rtk gain        # token savings dashboard

If rtk gain fails but rtk --version succeeds, you installed Rust Type Kit by mistake. Uninstall it first:

cargo uninstall rtk

Then reinstall using one of the methods above.

Project initialization

Run once per project to enable the Claude Code hook:

rtk init

For a global install that patches settings.json automatically:

rtk init --global

Uninstall

rtk init -g --uninstall    # remove hook, RTK.md, and settings.json entry
cargo uninstall rtk         # remove binary (if installed via Cargo)
brew uninstall rtk          # remove binary (if installed via Homebrew)