tamp-setup

name	tamp-setup
description	Use when the user asks to "set up tamp", "configure tamp proxy", "install tamp", "start tamp", "tamp not working", or troubleshoot tamp token compression proxy issues.

Tamp Setup & Troubleshooting

Tamp is a token compression proxy that sits between coding agents and the API. It compresses tool_result blocks to reduce input tokens by ~52%.

Quick Setup

# Install
npm i -g @sliday/tamp

# Create config file
tamp init

# Start (interactive)
tamp

# Start (non-interactive, for scripts/services)
tamp -y

Point Your Agent at Tamp

# Claude Code
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=http://localhost:7778

# Aider/Cursor/Cline
export OPENAI_API_BASE=http://localhost:7778

Add the export to your shell profile (~/.zshrc, ~/.bashrc) for persistence.

Run as Service (Linux)

tamp init              # create config
tamp install-service   # systemd user service
tamp status            # verify

Config File

Location: ~/.config/tamp/config

Format: KEY=VALUE (same as env vars). Env vars override config file.

Key settings:

• TAMP_UPSTREAM — set this for Claude Max or custom API endpoints
• TAMP_STAGES — comma-separated list of compression stages
• TAMP_CACHE_SAFE=true — only compress newest block (preserves prompt cache)

Common Issues

"Model not found" with Claude Max

Set TAMP_UPSTREAM to your Claude Max API endpoint in config file or env var.

LLMLingua not available

Install uv: curl -LsSf https://astral.sh/uv/install.sh | sh Or skip it: set TAMP_STAGES=minify,toon,strip-lines,whitespace,dedup,diff,prune

Tamp not compressing

Check health: curl http://localhost:7778/health Verify ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=http://localhost:7778 is set.

CLI Commands

Command	Description
tamp	Start with interactive stage picker
tamp -y	Start non-interactive (use defaults/config)
tamp init	Create config file
tamp status	Check if running
tamp install-service	Install systemd service (Linux)
tamp uninstall-service	Remove service
tamp help	Show help