| name | Estimate Tokens |
| description | This skill should be used when the user says "estimate token usage", "how many tokens am I using", "token cost of my setup", "audit token budget", "what's eating my context", "token usage breakdown", or "how expensive is my session". |
| version | 1.0.0 |
Estimate Tokens
Audit and report approximate token usage across all context sources: claude.md, skills, memory files, plugins, and conversation history.
Token Estimation Formula
1 word ≈ 1.3 tokens
1 line of code ≈ 10-15 tokens
1KB of text ≈ 200-300 tokens
Audit Procedure
Step 1: Scan claude.md Files
wc -w ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md 2>/dev/null || echo "No global CLAUDE.md"
wc -w ./CLAUDE.md 2>/dev/null || echo "No project CLAUDE.md"
Report: CLAUDE.md: ~[words] words ≈ [words * 1.3] tokens
Step 2: Scan All Loaded Skills
find ~/.claude/plugins -name "SKILL.md" -exec wc -w {} \; 2>/dev/null | sort -rn | head -20
Sum the word counts. Multiply by 1.3 for token estimate.
Step 3: Scan Memory Files
wc -w ~/.claude/memory/*.md 2>/dev/null
find . -path ".remember/*.md" -exec wc -w {} \; 2>/dev/null
Step 4: Count Active Plugins
ls ~/.claude/plugins/ 2>/dev/null | wc -l
Each active plugin = at minimum plugin.json metadata overhead.
Step 5: Generate Report
Output formatted breakdown:
TOKEN USAGE AUDIT
=================
claude.md (global): ~[N] tokens
claude.md (project): ~[N] tokens
Skills loaded: ~[N] tokens ([X] skills)
Memory files: ~[N] tokens
─────────────────────────────────
TOTAL CONSTANT COST: ~[N] tokens per response
Top token consumers:
1. [skill-name]: ~[N] tokens
2. [skill-name]: ~[N] tokens
3. [memory-file]: ~[N] tokens
Recommendation: [action to reduce]
Optimization Priorities
Based on audit results, recommend in order:
- Skills > 3,000 tokens → Disable if not actively used
- claude.md > 500 words → Run optimize-claudemd skill
- Memory files > 1,000 words → Archive old entries
- 10+ active plugins → Disable project-irrelevant plugins
LTX Schema
Emit structured output as LTX rows when reporting per-source token estimates.
@v1:source|words|tokens|status
| Field | Description |
|---|
source | File or category (e.g. ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md, skills) |
words | Raw word count |
tokens | Estimated tokens (words * 1.3, rounded) |
status | ok, warn (approaching limit), critical (over limit) |
Example:
@v1:source|words|tokens|status
~/.claude/CLAUDE.md|850|1105|critical
./CLAUDE.md|320|416|ok
skills|2400|3120|warn
Additional Resources
references/token-benchmarks.md — Token cost benchmarks for common setups
