rtk-ai/rtk

Installation

Then check you have the right package — another project named "rtk" exists on crates.io:

brew install rtk                                              # macOS / Linux
winget install rtk-ai.rtk                                     # Windows
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rtk-ai/rtk/refs/heads/master/install.sh | sh

What You Install

RTK ships as three downloads. The two rtk editions install a binary with the same name — hooks, scripts and agent config work unchanged across both — so they cannot be installed together. Uninstall one before installing the other.

Production use is free, engine and daemon included. What the BUSL grant does not cover is offering RTK or a derivative to third parties as a commercial product or service — for that, contact [email protected].

• rtk- — Apache-2.0 + BUSL-1.1 — Hook core, every command filter, and the compression engine
• rtk-oss- — Apache-2.0 only — Hook core and every command filter. No engine.
• rtk-proxy- — BUSL-1.1 — The RTK Proxy daemon. Never bundled with either rtk.

flowchart TD
    agent["Your coding agent"]

    subgraph editions["Pick one · both install a binary named rtk"]
        direction LR
        full["<b>rtk</b><br/>Apache-2.0 + BUSL-1.1<br/>hooks · filters · engine"]
        oss["<b>rtk-oss</b><br/>Apache-2.0 only<br/>hooks · filters"]
    end

    proxy["<b>rtk-proxy</b><br/>BUSL-1.1<br/>compresses API traffic"]

    agent -->|"command output"| full
    agent -->|"command output"| oss
    agent -.->|"API traffic"| proxy

    classDef apache stro

Quick Start

The agent receives compact output without ever calling rtk explicitly.

The hook only fires on Bash tool calls. Built-in tools like Read, Grep and Glob do not pass through it. Use shell commands (cat, rg, find) or call rtk read, rtk grep, rtk find directly.

# 1. Install for your AI tool
rtk init -g                     # Claude Code / Copilot (default)
rtk init -g --gemini            # Gemini CLI
rtk init -g --codex             # Codex (OpenAI)
rtk init -g --agent cursor      # Cursor
rtk init -g --agent windsurf    # Windsurf
rtk init --agent cline          # Cline / Roo Code
rtk init --agent kilocode       # Kilo Code
rtk init --agent antigravity    # Google Antigravity
rtk init --agent kimi           # Kimi AI
rtk init -g --agent pi          # Pi

How It Works

• Smart Filtering - Removes noise (comments, whitespace, boilerplate)
• Grouping - Aggregates similar items (files by directory, errors by type)
• Truncation - Keeps relevant context, cuts redundancy
• Deduplication - Collapses repeated log lines with counts

What RTK Does

RTK intercepts shell commands and compresses their output before your agent reads it.

• ls / tree — Tree format with file counts instead of one line per entry
• cat / read — Smart file reading: signatures and structure over full bodies
• grep / rg — Truncates long lines, groups matches by file
• ast-grep — Groups structural matches by file, caps overflow
• git status — Compact stat format, grouped by state
• git diff — Reduced context, headers stripped
• git log — Hash, author and subject only
• git add/commit/push — Confirmation line instead of full progress output
• cargo test / npm test — Failures only, passing tests collapsed to a count
• ruff check — Grouped by rule and file
• sqlfluff lint — Grouped by rule and file
• pytest — Failures only, traceback trimmed
• go test — NDJSON parsed, failures only
• docker ps — Essential fields only

Supported AI Tools

RTK supports 18 AI coding tools. Each integration rewrites shell commands to rtk equivalents, reducing the bash output the agent reads where the agent supports command interception.

For per-agent setup details, override controls, and graceful degradation, see the Supported Agents guide. The Hermes plugin source and tests live in hooks/hermes/; installed Hermes runtime files still live under ~/.hermes/plugins/rtk-rewrite/.

• Claude Code — rtk init -g — PreToolUse hook (native binary)
• GitHub Copilot (VS Code) — rtk init -g --copilot — PreToolUse hook — transparent rewrite
• GitHub Copilot CLI — rtk init -g --copilot — PreToolUse deny-with-suggestion (CLI limitation)
• Cursor — rtk init -g --agent cursor — preToolUse hook (hooks.json)
• Gemini CLI — rtk init -g --gemini — BeforeTool hook
• Codex — rtk init -g --codex — PreToolUse hook (updatedInput) + AGENTS.md
• Windsurf — rtk init -g --agent windsurf — .windsurfrules (project-scoped)
• Cline / Roo Code — rtk init --agent cline — .clinerules (project-scoped)
• OpenCode — rtk init -g --opencode — Plugin TS (execute.before / tool.execute.before), needs 1.18.29 or newer
• OpenClaw — openclaw plugins install ./openclaw — Plugin TS (beforetoolcall)
• Pi — rtk init -g --agent pi (global) — TypeScript extension (toolcall)
• Oh My Pi (OMP) — rtk init -g --agent omp (global) / rtk init --agent omp (project) — TypeScript extension (toolcall, shared with Pi)
• Hermes — rtk init --agent hermes — Python plugin adapter (terminal command mutation via rtk rewrite)
• Mistral Vibe — rtk init -g --agent vibe — pretool hook (hooks.toml)

概述

Agent-agnostic token optimization: compress, route, filter, and more. One composable pipeline across everything your AI agent reads and sends — built on RTK's battle-tested bash-output compression (up to 90% smaller).

Website • Install • Troubleshooting • Architecture • Discord

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rtk filters and compresses command outputs before they reach your LLM context. Single Rust binary, 100+ supported commands, <10ms overhead.