| name | cost-optimizer |
| description | Trigger when the user asks to audit Claude Code costs, reduce token spend, says "my Claude bill is too high", "optimize my CLAUDE.md", "why is this project burning tokens", or "/cost-optimizer". Scans a project for the common Claude Code cost leaks and returns a prioritized fix list. |
Cost Optimizer
Audit a project's Claude Code setup for the handful of well-known cost leaks and output a prioritized remediation list. This is a static inspection — no pricing API calls, no guesswork about past spend.
When to use
- "My Claude Code bill doubled this month — what's going on?"
- "Audit this project for token waste"
- "Why is my session context always huge?"
- Post-mortem after a runaway agent run
What to check
Run each check and record PASS / WARN / FAIL with a short note.
1. CLAUDE.md size
wc -l CLAUDE.md .claude/CLAUDE.md 2>/dev/null
- PASS: under 100 lines
- WARN: 100-300 lines
- FAIL: >300 lines — this is prepended to every message, so every line costs tokens forever.
Fix: move reference material (API keys, runbooks, verbose examples) into skill files or docs/, and leave CLAUDE.md as a thin pointer.
2. Memory file bloat
find ~/.claude/projects -name 'MEMORY.md' -exec wc -l {} \;
find .claude/memory -type f -exec wc -l {} \; 2>/dev/null
- WARN if any memory file is >500 lines.
- FAIL if >1500 lines — memory should be a curated index with links to detail files, not a dump.
Fix: extract old sections into memory/<topic>.md detail files and link from the index.
3. Unused or shadowed skills
ls ~/.claude/skills/ .claude/skills/ 2>/dev/null
- Cross-reference with the skill invocations in the last 30 days of shell history or session logs if available.
- Skills that have never been invoked but have huge
SKILL.md bodies (>300 lines) are loaded into the skill index every turn — prune them.
4. Subagent fan-out patterns
Grep the project for Task/agent launch patterns:
grep -rn 'TaskCreate\|subagent\|parallel.*agent' --include='*.md' --include='*.js' --include='*.ts' .
- WARN if the repo spawns >5 parallel subagents per run without aggregation — each spins up its own context window.
- FAIL if subagents re-read the whole repo instead of receiving a scoped prompt.
Fix: pass a short brief + a handful of file paths to each subagent, not the entire CLAUDE.md context.
5. Prompt cache hygiene
Look for .claude/settings.json and check if the project sets an unusually short cache TTL, or if hooks invalidate the cache every message (e.g. a hook that echoes a timestamp into the system prompt).
- FAIL any hook that injects
date / uuidgen / random content into every turn — it kills the cache, 10x cost.
6. Model selection
Grep for explicit model pins:
grep -rn 'opus\|sonnet\|haiku\|claude-3\|claude-4' .claude/ CLAUDE.md 2>/dev/null
- WARN if Opus is pinned for routine tasks that Sonnet could handle. Recommend the
/model-cost-compare skill for a per-task estimate.
7. Session file size
du -sh ~/.claude/projects/*/sessions 2>/dev/null | sort -h | tail -5
Huge session dirs suggest you never /compact long-running threads. Suggest periodic compaction.
Output format
Print a ranked list. Top of the list = biggest win per effort.
Cost Optimizer — <project>
Priority 1 (FAIL)
[CLAUDE.md] 412 lines — prepended every turn. Extract sections into skills/.
[cache hygiene] .claude/settings.json hook injects `date +%s` on SessionStart. Remove it.
Priority 2 (WARN)
[memory] MEMORY.md is 820 lines. Index top, details linked.
[model pinning] Opus 4.6 pinned in 4 skill files — 2 could drop to Sonnet 4.6.
Priority 3 (nice-to-have)
[skills] 3 skills (haiku-card, foo, bar) never invoked in last 30 days.
Estimated impact: roughly halving per-turn overhead — validate with a before/after /cost check.
Do not invent dollar savings. You can estimate relative impact ("~30% smaller context") but not absolute currency unless the user provides their current bill.
Example invocations
/cost-optimizer- "Audit this project for Claude Code cost waste"
- "My CLAUDE.md feels too big — what should I cut?"
- "Why is my prompt cache missing every turn?"
