headroom

name

headroom

description

Token-reduction skill for coding agents. Compresses JSON tool output, build logs, grep/ripgrep search results, source code, and conversation history the same way the Headroom proxy does — but in-context, with no binary install. Use this skill whenever an agent is about to paste a large tool result (a 1000-row JSON array, a 5000-line pytest log, a 200-result grep, a 1000-line source file) into its next message, or when the agent's conversation is approaching the context limit, or when the user complains about token cost or latency. Also use it to shape the agent's own output: skip ceremony, don't restate code already on screen, drop reasoning on routine turns. Triggers: "compress this output", "this is too long", "trim", "summarize the log", "reduce tokens", "context is full", "running out of context", "too many tokens", "make it shorter", "be terse".

Headroom — portable token-reduction skill

This skill teaches any coding agent to apply the Headroom compression techniques in-context. It does not require the Headroom binary.

When to apply which transform

Pick the transform by content type. If a tool result is shorter than ~200 tokens, skip compression — the overhead isn't worth it.

Content the agent is about to use / paste	Apply	Helper script
JSON array of dicts / objects (tool results, API responses)	SmartCrusher	scripts/smart_crusher.py
Build / test logs (pytest, npm, cargo, make)	LogCompressor	scripts/log_compressor.py
grep / ripgrep / ag output (file:line:content)	SearchCompressor	scripts/search_compressor.py
Source code (Python, JS, TS, Go, Rust, Java, C/C++)	CodeCompressor