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.

Typical savings: 60-99%.

Git

Command	Savings	What changes
`git status`	75-93%	Compact stat format, grouped by state
`git log`	80-92%	Hash + author + subject only
`git diff`	70%	Context reduced, headers stripped
`git show`	70%	Same as diff
`git stash list`	75%	Compact one-line per entry

GitHub CLI

Command	Savings	What changes
`gh pr view`	87%	Removes ASCII art and verbose metadata
`gh pr checks`	79%	Status + name only, failures highlighted
`gh run list`	82%	Compact workflow run summary
`gh issue view`	80%	Body only, no decoration

Graphite (Stacked PRs)

Command	Savings	What changes
`gt log`	75%	Stack summary only
`gt status`	70%	Current branch context

Cargo / Rust

Command	Savings	What changes
`cargo test`	90%	Failures only, passed tests suppressed
`cargo nextest`	90%	Same as test
`cargo build`	80%	Errors and warnings only
`cargo check`	80%	Errors and warnings only
`cargo clippy`	80%	Lint warnings grouped by file

JavaScript / TypeScript

Command	Savings	What changes
`jest`	94-99%	Failures only
`vitest`	94-99%	Failures only
`tsc`	75%	Type errors grouped by file
`eslint`	84%	Violations grouped by rule
`pnpm list`	70-90%	Compact dependency tree
`pnpm outdated`	70%	Package + current + latest only
`next build`	80%	Route summary + errors only
`prisma migrate`	75%	Migration status only
`playwright test`	90%	Failures + trace links only

Python

Command	Savings	What changes
`pytest`	80-90%	Failures only
`ruff check`	75%	Violations grouped by file
`mypy`	75%	Type errors grouped by file
`pip install`	70%	Installed packages only, progress stripped

Go

Command	Savings	What changes
`go test`	80-90%	Failures only
`golangci-lint run`	75%	Violations grouped by file
`go build`	75%	Errors only

Ruby

Command	Savings	What changes
`rspec`	80-90%	Failures only
`rubocop`	75%	Offenses grouped by file
`rake`	70%	Task output, build errors highlighted

.NET

Command	Savings	What changes
`dotnet build`	80%	Errors and warnings only
`dotnet test`	85-90%	Failures only
`dotnet format`	75%	Changed files only

Docker / Kubernetes

Command	Savings	What changes
`docker ps`	65%	Essential columns (name, image, status, port)
`docker images`	60%	Name + tag + size only
`docker logs`	70%	Deduplicated, last N lines
`docker compose up`	75%	Service status, errors highlighted
`kubectl get pods`	65%	Name + status + restarts only
`kubectl logs`	70%	Deduplicated entries

Files and Search

Command	Savings	What changes
`ls`	80%	Tree format with file counts
`find`	75%	Tree format
`grep`	70%	Truncated lines, grouped by file
`diff`	65%	Context reduced
`wc`	60%	Compact counts
`cat` / `head` / `tail <file>`	60-80%	Smart file reading via `rtk read`
`rtk smart <file>`	85%	2-line heuristic code summary (signatures only)

Cloud and Data

Command	Savings	What changes
`aws`	70%	JSON condensed, relevant fields only
`psql`	65%	Query results without decoration
`curl`	60%	Response body only, headers stripped

Global flags

These flags apply to all RTK commands and can push savings even higher:

Flag	Description
`--ultra-compact`	ASCII icons, inline format — extra token reduction on top of normal filtering
`-v` / `--verbose`	Show filtering details on stderr (`-v`, `-vv`, `-vvv` for increasing detail)

bash

# Ultra-compact: even smaller output
rtk git log --ultra-compact

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

:::note Use --ultra-compact (long form) rather than -u when working with Git commands. Git's own -u flag means --set-upstream and the short form can cause confusion. :::

Commands that are not rewritten

If a command isn't in the list above, RTK runs it through passthrough — the output reaches the LLM unchanged. You can explicitly track unsupported commands:

bash

rtk proxy make install    # runs make install, tracks usage, no filtering

To check which commands were missed opportunities: rtk discover.