what-rtk-covers.md

title	What RTK Optimizes
description	Commands and ecosystems automatically optimized by RTK, with typical bash output reduction
sidebar	order 1

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 bash output reduction: 60-99%.

:::note Every percentage below measures bash output bytes removed — the only thing RTK 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 before reading these numbers as cost figures. :::

Git

Command	Bash output reduction	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	Bash output reduction	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	Bash output reduction	What changes
gt log	75%	Stack summary only
gt status	70%	Current branch context

Cargo / Rust

Command	Bash output reduction	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	Bash output reduction	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pnpm outdated	70%	Package + current + latest only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	Bash output reduction	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	Bash output reduction	What changes
go test	80-90%	Failures only
golangci-lint run	75%	Violations grouped by file
go build	75%	Errors only

Ruby

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

.NET

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

Docker / Kubernetes

Command	Bash output reduction	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	Bash output reduction	What changes
ls	80%	Tree format with file counts
find	75%	Tree format
grep	70%	Truncated lines, grouped by file
ast-grep	85%	Grouped by file, capped overflow; --json passes through
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	Bash output reduction	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 the bash output reduction 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)

# 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:

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

To check which commands were missed opportunities: rtk discover.