governor

Governor started as a Claude Code plugin for context hygiene, tool-output filtering, memory compression, telemetry, and drift guardrails.

As of v0.2.3, Governor's core behavior — content-aware tool-output filtering and context hygiene — works with any AI coding agent via prompt-based skills. No hooks or MCP required.

Keep long coding sessions efficient without making the model dumber.

The Claude Code command namespace is /governor:*.

Quick Start

Claude Code (full plugin)

bash install.sh --force

Restart Claude Code, then run:

/governor:status
/governor:audit
/governor:compress CLAUDE.md

Other Agents (prompt-based skill)

bash install.sh --project /path/to/project --agents all

This copies a Governor rules file into your project for each agent. The rules teach the agent to self-filter noisy tool output, preserve unique data, and maintain context hygiene — automatically, every session.

Multi-Agent Support

Governor works at two levels:

Agent	Integration	What You Get
Claude Code	Plugin with hooks	Full: auto-filtering, telemetry, compression, drift guard, /governor:* commands
Cursor	.cursor/rules/governor.mdc	Self-filtering, compact mode, context hygiene
Windsurf	.windsurf/rules/governor.md	Self-filtering, compact mode, context hygiene
Cline	.clinerules/governor.md	Self-filtering, compact mode, context hygiene
Codex CLI	AGENTS.md	Self-filtering, compact mode, context hygiene
Gemini CLI	GEMINI.md	Self-filtering, compact mode, context hygiene

How it works for non-Claude agents: Governor's rules file teaches the agent to apply content-aware filtering itself. When tool output has >40% duplicate lines (test failures, log spam, build warnings), the agent compresses it — keeping the first error, file:line, and exit code. When output is unique (API responses, JSON, code), it passes through intact. No external dependencies.

Claude Code gets the deepest integration because it supports plugin hooks. Other agents get the core behavior via prompt engineering.

Why Governor

Long coding sessions usually do not fail because the AI writes one extra paragraph.

They fail because context gets polluted:

• verbose test, build, and MCP output floods the transcript
• bloated recurring files like CLAUDE.md, notes, and rules tax every session
• broad prompts trigger repo-wide scans and retries
• scope drift compounds over time

Governor is designed for that failure mode — in Claude Code and beyond.

What It Does

Capability	What it does	Where it works
Tool-output filtering	Compacts noisy output when content is repetitive; preserves unique data	All agents
Compact mode	Keeps responses concise and professional	All agents
Context hygiene	Avoids re-reads, broad scans, and context waste	All agents
Memory compression	Rewrites bloated prompt files into denser, safer forms	Claude Code
Telemetry	Reports measured savings, failures, compactions, and waste heat	Claude Code
Drift guardrails	Adds planning and scope checks for broad tasks	Claude Code

Why It Feels Different

Most token-saving tools optimize one layer:

• shorter replies
• shorter command output

Governor is built for the broader session problem:

• tool spam
• recurring context tax
• MCP-heavy workflows
• long-task drift
• wasted retries

That is why Governor's benchmark story starts with valid-context loss and decision preservation, not only token counts.

Benchmarks

V2 Sonnet Fixture Run

Recent measured Sonnet run with Claude decision grading:

Condition	Avg token savings	Avg VCLR	Decision preserved	Wrong decision
Caveman	69.1%	0.14	87.5%	12.5%
Governor	45.5%	0.00	100.0%	0.0%

What this means:

• Caveman still wins on raw compression.
• Governor preserved more valid context in this run.
• Governor won on decision quality in the latest Sonnet pass.

Artifacts:

• benchmarks/v2-fixture-results.md
• benchmarks/v2-fixture-results.json
• benchmarks/sonnet-v2-report.md

Early Multi-Turn Pilot

Same machine, fresh Claude CLI Sonnet sessions, same multi-turn task, same starting repo snapshot.

Condition	Output Tokens	Cost	Turns	Intent Preserved	Obvious Regression Found
Control	10,997	$0.5169	21	Yes	No
Governor	10,113	$0.4933	22	Yes	No
Delta	-8.0%	-4.6%	+4.8%	Tie	Tie

This was a narrow pilot, not a universal claim. It matters because Governor kept the implementation contract intact while shaving cost on a real multi-turn coding task.

Tool Filter Signal Checks

Structured/local cases focused on the criticism that compaction can miss the real clue.

Case	Filtered?	Blocked	Signal Preserved
Noisy pytest failure buried in long log	Yes	64.0%	Yes
Burp-style MCP payload with large history + one critical finding	Yes	90.9%	Yes
Large Read output containing source code	No	0.0%	Yes

Compared To

RTK

RTK is excellent at shrinking shell output.

Governor is aimed at the wider coding session:

• tool-output filtering across all agents
• recurring prompt-file hygiene
• MCP and structured payload handling
• drift-sensitive long sessions
• measured savings and waste heat

Caveman

Caveman is excellent when the main goal is making Claude talk in fewer tokens.

Governor is built for the broader session problem:

• less tool spam
• less recurring context tax
• less drift
• more decision preservation under pressure

Short version:

RTK compresses commands. Caveman compresses style. Governor protects the session.

Best Fit

Governor is best for:

• Claude Code Max users who hit long-session limits
• Cursor / Windsurf / Cline users who want context hygiene without switching tools
• MCP-heavy workflows (Burp, Playwright, structured tool output)
• prompt-heavy repos with large rules or command docs
• teams using multiple AI agents on the same codebase

Governor is less useful for:

• tiny chats
• already-clean prompt files
• users who only want meme-simple answer shortening

Features

• Content-aware tool filtering: large outputs are only compacted when content is repetitive noise (>40% duplicate lines). Unique data — API responses, Burp proxy history, curl output, structured JSON — passes through unfiltered. Works in all supported agents.
• Always-on compact mode: keeps responses concise and professional. In Claude Code via hooks; in other agents via rules files.
• Professional memory compression: /governor:compress CLAUDE.md rewrites verbose memory files into dense prose. (Claude Code)
• Protected-span safety: code blocks, inline code, paths, URLs, commands, env vars, versions, headings, tables, and warnings are preserved.
• Quality guard: low-savings compression is rejected and the backup is restored instead of pretending success.
• Inline full-output bypass: set GOVERNOR_FULL=1 as an env var in the same Bash call to skip compaction without a separate command. Immune to parallel-call cancellation.
• Telemetry ledger: /governor:status reports blocked tokens, failures, compactions, and statusline snapshots when available. (Claude Code)
• Prompt guidance: vague broad prompts get soft, non-blocking suggestions.
• Plan and drift guard: explicit contracts for broad builds, then scope checks with /governor:guard. (Claude Code)

Commands

Claude Code plugin commands:

Command	Purpose
/governor:on	Enable compact professional response mode
/governor:off	Disable response compression
/governor:status	Show usage dashboard and waste heat map
/governor:audit	Find bloated memory/rule files and context waste
/governor:compress CLAUDE.md	Compress memory files with protected-span validation
/governor:full	Let the next diagnostic command return full output
/governor:plan "task"	Produce an implementation contract before broad work
/governor:guard	Check current changes against the approved plan
/governor:benchmark	Run or explain the V2 benchmark suite
/governor:install-rules	Copy Governor skills into other-agent projects

Install

Claude Code (Full Plugin)

gh repo clone 0xhimanshu/governor
cd governor
bash install.sh --force

Other Agents

bash install.sh --project /path/to/project --agents all

Or install for specific agents:

bash install.sh --project . --agents cursor,windsurf
bash install.sh --project . --agents cline,codex,gemini

Local Development

claude --plugin-dir .

How Compression Works

/governor:compress is automatic from the user's point of view:

1. Create a timestamped backup.
2. Mark protected spans.
3. Rewrite the file with dense professional prose.
4. Strip markers.
5. Validate protected content.
6. Attempt protected-span recovery if needed.
7. Reject low-savings output and restore the backup if the quality guard fails.
8. Report exact before/after token estimates and backup location.

Compression levels:

Level	Target
light	Remove filler and repetition; preserve most rationale
medium	Collapse narrative into decision bullets
aggressive	Keep only rules, facts, commands, risks, and decisions

Set GOVERNOR_ALLOW_LOW_SAVINGS=1 only if you intentionally want to keep a low-savings compression result.

Telemetry

Governor stores a local JSONL ledger. The status command automatically discovers and merges ledger files from all known locations, including the plugin data directory set by Claude Code (CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA) and the manual fallback path. Deduplication uses resolved paths so symlinks and non-canonical paths do not cause double-counting.

It tracks:

• tool-output tokens blocked
• full-output overrides
• prompt-risk suggestions
• Bash failures
• compactions
• statusline snapshots
• memory compression savings

Benchmarking

Use benchmarks/ for measured comparisons.

Recommended conditions:

• control: no token/style plugin
• caveman: Caveman enabled as normal
• governor-hooks: Governor hooks enabled, memory unchanged
• governor-compressed: Governor after /governor:compress CLAUDE.md
• governor-strict: optional strict-mode run for broad tasks

Run:

python3 scripts/run_benchmark.py \
  --write-json benchmarks/v2-fixture-results.json \
  --write-md benchmarks/v2-fixture-results.md

Design Principles

• Helpful by default, strict only when invoked.
• Professional dense prose, never novelty dialect.
• Measure exact savings where possible.
• Treat 1M context as a ceiling, not a target.
• Keep broad planning and drift checks opt-in.
• Restore backups instead of accepting unsafe or low-value compression.

Gotchas

• If hooks do not fire, /governor:status will show little or no telemetry.
• Existing custom statuslines are not overwritten by the installer.
• Compression sends file content through the active Claude Code/model workflow. Do not compress secrets or sensitive private files.
• Use /governor:full before a diagnostic command when you need unfiltered logs, or prefix with GOVERNOR_FULL=1 to bypass inline.
• For installed-but-inactive behavior, launch Claude Code with GOVERNOR_DEFAULT_MODE=off.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome when they make Governor more useful, safer, or easier to trust. Please read CONTRIBUTING.md before opening a pull request, especially for compression, hook, telemetry, agent rules, or benchmark changes.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.