What RTK Optimizes

What RTK Optimizes

Once RTK is installed with a hook, these commands are automatically intercepted and filtered. You run them normally — the hook rewrites them transparently before execution.

Note

RTK reduces bash output bytes — the only thing it controls. Those bytes are one contributor to input tokens, and input tokens are only part of a bill that also counts output tokens. See How RTK Savings Work.

Git

Command	What changes
git status	Compact stat format, grouped by state
git log	Hash + author + subject only
git diff	Context reduced, headers stripped
git show	Same as diff
git stash list	Compact one-line per entry
git ls-tree --name-only / --name-status	Consecutive paths grouped by directory; other formats pass through unchanged

For ls-tree, read src/ lib.rs main.rs as src/lib.rs and src/main.rs. ./ means no directory part in Git’s output; omit that prefix to rebuild the original paths. Paths with spaces or Git C-quoting stand alone in double quotes; Git’s escapes are preserved. Listings that would not shrink pass through unchanged. The hook keeps Git’s original lines when you pipe a foldable listing into head, tail, or cat.

GitHub CLI

Command	What changes
gh pr view	Removes ASCII art and verbose metadata
gh pr checks	Status + name only, failures highlighted
gh run list	Compact workflow run summary
gh issue view	Body only, no decoration

Graphite (Stacked PRs)

Command	What changes
gt log	Stack summary only
gt status	Current branch context

Cargo / Rust

Command	What changes
cargo test	Failures only, passed tests suppressed
cargo build	Errors and warnings only
cargo check	Errors and warnings only
cargo clippy	Lint warnings grouped by file

JavaScript / TypeScript

Command	What changes
jest	Failures only
vitest	Failures only
tsc	Type errors grouped by file
eslint	Violations grouped by rule
pnpm list	Compact dependency tree
pnpm outdated	Package + current + latest only
next build	Route summary + errors only
ng build	Compact Angular build tables; every bundle and diagnostic retained
prisma migrate	Migration status only
playwright test	Failures + trace links only

Python

Command	What changes
pytest	Failures only
ruff check	Violations grouped by file
mypy	Type errors grouped by file
pip install	Installed packages only, progress stripped

Go

Command	What changes
go test	Failures only
golangci-lint run	Violations grouped by file
go build	Errors only

Ruby

Command	What changes
rspec	Failures only
rubocop	Offenses grouped by file
rake test	Test task output, failures highlighted

.NET

Command	What changes
dotnet build	Errors and warnings only
dotnet restore	Restore summary, errors and warnings kept

Docker / Kubernetes

Command	What changes
docker ps	Essential columns (name, image, status, port)
docker images	Name + tag + size only
docker logs	Deduplicated, last N lines
docker compose ps	Container status and ports
docker compose logs	Deduplicated logs
docker compose build	Build output, warnings and errors highlighted
kubectl get pods	Name + status + restarts only
kubectl logs	Deduplicated entries

Build Tools

Command	What changes
make	Errors and warnings highlighted, noise stripped

Files and Search

Command	What changes
ls	Tree format with file counts
find	Tree format
grep	Truncated lines, grouped by file
ast-grep	Grouped by file, capped overflow; --json passes through
diff	Context reduced
wc	Compact counts
cat <file>	Smart file reading via rtk read
head <file>	First 10 lines via rtk read --head-lines 10
tail -n <N> <file>	Last N lines via rtk read --tail-lines <N>

Cloud and Infrastructure

Command	What changes
aws	JSON condensed, relevant fields only
psql	Query results without decoration
curl	Response body only, headers stripped
helm list	Release name, namespace, status, and chart columns
terraform plan	Planned changes summary, resource diffs condensed

Global flags

These flags apply to all RTK commands and must come before the subcommand:

Flag	Description
-v / --verbose	Show filtering details on stderr (-v, -vv, -vvv for increasing detail)

# Debug: see what RTK is doing
rtk -vvv git status

Commands that are not rewritten

If a command isn’t intercepted by the hook rules, RTK runs it through passthrough — the output reaches the LLM unchanged. You can explicitly track unsupported commands:

rtk bypass cargo run      # runs cargo run, tracks usage, no filtering

To check whether any command will be rewritten before running it:

rtk rewrite "<command>"   # prints the rewritten command, or exits 1 if left alone

To check which commands were missed opportunities: rtk discover.