rtk-commands

name	rtk-commands
description	Use when you need a quick reference for which RTK commands exist, what they do, expected token savings per command, and which flags affect compression behavior

RTK Commands Reference

Overview

RTK supports 100+ commands across all major development ecosystems. This skill is a quick-reference cheat sheet so you know exactly which commands to route through rtk_run.

Core principle: If a command produces text output and is non-interactive, RTK almost certainly supports it. When unsure, use rtk_should_use to check.

Command Categories

📁 Files (replaces ls, cat, find, grep)

RTK Command	Replaces	Savings	Notes
rtk ls .	ls, tree	~80%	Token-optimized directory tree
rtk read file.rs	cat, head, tail	~30%	Smart file reading, minimal filter
rtk read file.rs -l aggressive	cat	~74%	Signatures only, strips function bodies
rtk read file.rs -l none	cat	0%	No filtering, raw output
rtk smart file.rs	—	~95%	2-line heuristic code summary
rtk find "*.rs" .	find, fd	~80%	Grouped by directory
rtk grep "pattern" .	grep, rg	~80%	Grouped by file
rtk diff file1 file2	diff	~60%	Condensed diff
rtk wc	wc	~50%	Compact word/line count

🔀 Git

RTK Command	Savings	Output Example
rtk git status	~80%	main | 3M 1? 1A + file list
rtk git log -n 10	~80%	One-line per commit: abc123 Fix bug
rtk git diff	~75%	file.rs (+5/-2) + changed lines
rtk git show	~80%	Commit summary + stat + compact diff
rtk git add	~92%	ok
rtk git commit -m "msg"	~92%	ok abc1234
rtk git push	~92%	ok main
rtk git pull	~92%	ok 3 files +10 -2
rtk git fetch	~90%	ok fetched (N new refs)
rtk git branch	~70%	Compact branch list
rtk git stash	~80%	Compact stash operations

Passthrough: Unsupported git subcommands (rebase, cherry-pick, tag, etc.) are passed to git unchanged, output tracked.

🐙 GitHub CLI

RTK Command	Savings
rtk gh pr list	~80%
rtk gh pr view 42	~87%
rtk gh pr checks	~79%
rtk gh issue list	~80%
rtk gh run list	~82%
rtk gh api <endpoint>	~26%

🧪 Test Runners

RTK Command	Savings	Strategy
rtk cargo test	~90%	Failures only
rtk cargo nextest run	~90%	Failures only
rtk jest	~99%	Failures only
rtk vitest	~99%	Failures only
rtk playwright test	~94%	Failures only
rtk pytest	~90%	Failures only
rtk go test	~90%	NDJSON parsing
rtk rake test	~90%	Failures only
rtk rspec	~60%+	JSON parsing
rtk test <any command>	~90%	Generic wrapper — failures only
rtk err <any command>	~80%	Errors/warnings only

🔨 Build & Lint

RTK Command	Savings
rtk cargo build	~80%
rtk cargo check	~80%
rtk cargo clippy	~80%
rtk tsc	~83%
rtk lint / rtk lint biome	~84%
rtk next build	~87%
rtk prettier --check .	~70%
rtk ruff check	~80%
rtk mypy	~70%
rtk golangci-lint run	~85%
rtk rubocop	~60%+
rtk dotnet build	~70%

📦 Package Managers

RTK Command	Savings
rtk pnpm list	~70%
rtk pip list / pip outdated	~60%
rtk bundle install	~60%
rtk prisma generate	~80%
rtk cargo install	~70%

🐳 Containers & Cloud

RTK Command	Savings
rtk docker ps	~80%
rtk docker images	~70%
rtk docker logs <container>	~60%
rtk docker compose ps	~70%
rtk kubectl pods	~70%
rtk kubectl logs <pod>	~60%
rtk kubectl services	~70%
rtk aws sts get-caller-identity	~70%
rtk aws ec2 describe-instances	~70%
rtk aws lambda list-functions	~80%
rtk aws s3 ls	~60%

📊 Data & Analytics

RTK Command	Savings	Notes
rtk json config.json	~70%	Structure without values
rtk deps	~60%	Dependencies summary
rtk env -f AWS	~80%	Filtered env vars
rtk log app.log	~70%	Deduplicated logs
rtk curl <url>	~50%	Truncate + save full
rtk wget <url>	~50%	Download, strip progress
rtk summary <cmd>	~80%	Heuristic summary
rtk proxy <cmd>	0%	Raw passthrough + tracking

📈 Token Savings Analytics

RTK Command	Purpose
rtk gain	Summary stats
rtk gain --graph	ASCII graph (last 30 days)
rtk gain --history	Recent command history
rtk gain --daily	Day-by-day breakdown
rtk gain --all --format json	JSON export
rtk discover	Find missed savings opportunities
rtk session	RTK adoption across recent sessions

Flag-Aware Behavior

RTK respects user intent via flags:

Scenario	Behavior
Default (no flags)	Aggressive compression
--nocapture / --verbose	Preserves more output (user asked for detail)
-u / --ultra-compact	Extra compression with ASCII icons
-v / -vv / -vvv	Shows filtering details on stderr

Passthrough / Fallback

If RTK doesn't recognize a command or subcommand, it executes the raw command unchanged and tracks the event. RTK never blocks command execution.

Custom Filters

Users can add custom TOML filters in:

• ~/.config/rtk/filters/ — Global filters
• <project>/.rtk/filters/ — Project-local filters

[filter]
command = "my-cmd"
strip_lines_matching = ["^Verbose:", "^Debug:"]
keep_lines_matching = ["^error", "^warning"]
max_lines = 50

Common Mistakes

Mistake	Fix
Not using RTK for git status	One of the highest-savings commands (~80%)
Using RTK for dev servers	Dev servers are interactive — use native shell
Forgetting rtk test <cmd> wrapper	Wraps any test runner for failures-only output
Not checking rtk discover	Shows which commands you missed
Using raw cat instead of rtk read	rtk read is always shorter