snip

snip - Reduce LLM Token Usage by 60-90%

CLI proxy that filters shell output before it reaches your AI coding assistant's context window. Works with Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf, Cline, Codex, Pi, Grok Build, Kilo Code, Antigravity, OpenCode, OpenClaw, Aider, and any tool that runs shell commands.

AI coding agents burn tokens on verbose shell output that adds zero signal. A passing go test produces hundreds of lines the LLM will never use. git log dumps full commit metadata when a one-liner per commit suffices.

snip sits between your AI tool and the shell, filtering output through declarative YAML pipelines. Write a YAML file, drop it in a folder, done. The extensible LLM token optimizer: filters are YAML data files, not compiled code.

  snip — Token Savings Report
  ══════════════════════════════

  Commands filtered     128
  Tokens saved          2.3M
  Avg savings           99.8%
  Efficiency            Elite
  Total time            725.9s

  ███████████████████░ 100%

  14-day trend  ▁█▇

  Top commands by tokens saved

  Command                    Runs  Saved   Savings  Impact
  ─────────────────────────  ────  ──────  ───────  ────────────
  go test ./...              8     806.2K  99.8%    ████████████
  go test ./pkg/...          3     482.9K  99.8%    ███████░░░░░
  go test ./... -count=1     3     482.0K  99.8%    ███████░░░░░

Measured on a real Claude Code session — 128 commands, 2.3M tokens saved.

Quick Start

# Quick install (macOS/Linux)
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/edouard-claude/snip/master/install.sh | sh

# Or via Homebrew
brew install edouard-claude/tap/snip

# Or with Go
go install github.com/edouard-claude/snip/cmd/snip@latest

# Then hook into Claude Code
snip init
# That's it. Every shell command Claude runs now goes through snip.

How It Works

Before — Claude Code sees this (275 tokens):

$ go test ./...
ok  	github.com/edouard-claude/snip	13.697s
?   	github.com/edouard-claude/snip/cmd/snip	[no test files]
ok  	github.com/edouard-claude/snip/internal/cli	1.357s
ok  	github.com/edouard-claude/snip/internal/config	1.898s
ok  	github.com/edouard-claude/snip/internal/discover	4.271s
ok  	github.com/edouard-claude/snip/internal/display	2.516s
ok  	github.com/edouard-claude/snip/internal/economics	3.073s
ok  	github.com/edouard-claude/snip/internal/engine	5.262s
ok  	github.com/edouard-claude/snip/internal/filter	3.687s
ok  	github.com/edouard-claude/snip/internal/hook	4.555s
ok  	github.com/edouard-claude/snip/internal/hookaudit	4.560s
ok  	github.com/edouard-claude/snip/internal/initcmd	4.534s
ok  	github.com/edouard-claude/snip/internal/inspect	4.598s
ok  	github.com/edouard-claude/snip/internal/learn	4.474s
ok  	github.com/edouard-claude/snip/internal/tee	4.430s
ok  	github.com/edouard-claude/snip/internal/tracking	4.055s
ok  	github.com/edouard-claude/snip/internal/trust	4.544s
ok  	github.com/edouard-claude/snip/internal/utils	4.528s
ok  	github.com/edouard-claude/snip/internal/verify	4.517s

After — snip returns this (8 tokens):

1125 passed, 0 failed

That's 97% fewer tokens, measured on this very repository. The filter injects -json and counts individual test results, so the LLM gets more signal — 1125 tests passed, not just 18 packages — in a fraction of the space.

┌─────────────┐     ┌─────────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐     ┌────────────┐
│ Claude Code │────>│ snip intercept  │────>│ run command  │────>│   filter   │
│  runs git   │     │  match filter   │     │  capture I/O │     │  pipeline  │
└─────────────┘     └─────────────────┘     └──────────────┘     └─────┬──────┘
                                                                       │
                    ┌─────────────────┐     ┌──────────────┐           │
                    │   Claude Code   │<────│ track savings│<──────────┘
                    │  sees filtered  │     │  in SQLite   │
                    └─────────────────┘     └──────────────┘

No filter match? The command passes through unchanged — zero overhead.

Token Savings by Command

Command	Before	After	Reduction
cargo test	591 tokens	5 tokens	99.2%
go test ./...	275 tokens	8 tokens	97.1%
git log	371 tokens	53 tokens	85.7%
git status	112 tokens	16 tokens	85.7%
git diff	355 tokens	66 tokens	81.4%

Stop wasting tokens on noise. snip gives the LLM the same signal in a fraction of the context window.

Installation

Homebrew (recommended)

brew install edouard-claude/tap/snip

From GitHub Releases

Download the latest binary for your platform from Releases.

# macOS (Apple Silicon)
curl -Lo snip.tar.gz https://github.com/edouard-claude/snip/releases/latest/download/snip_$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/edouard-claude/snip/releases/latest | grep tag_name | cut -d'"' -f4 | tr -d v)_darwin_arm64.tar.gz
tar xzf snip.tar.gz && mv snip /usr/local/bin/

From source

go install github.com/edouard-claude/snip/cmd/snip@latest

Or build locally:

git clone https://github.com/edouard-claude/snip.git
cd snip && make install

make install and make install-lite use the first available destination: an explicit GOBIN, go env GOBIN, or the first go env GOPATH entry plus /bin. Use make upgrade or make upgrade-lite to replace the resolved snip on PATH instead. An explicit GOBIN overrides the upgrade destination.

Requires Go 1.25+.

Supported AI Tools

snip integrates with every major AI coding assistant. One binary, universal compatibility.

Tool	Install	Method
Claude Code	snip init	PreToolUse hook (native)
Cursor	snip init --agent cursor	beforeShellExecution hook (native)
GitHub Copilot	snip init --agent copilot	preToolUse hook (native)
Gemini CLI	snip init --agent gemini	GEMINI.md prompt injection
Codex (OpenAI)	snip init --agent codex	PreToolUse hook (native)
Pi (pi.dev)	snip init --agent pi	PreToolUse hook (via pi-hooks)
Grok Build (xAI)	snip init --agent grok	PreToolUse hook (deny + re-run suggestion)
Windsurf	snip init --agent windsurf	.windsurfrules prompt injection
Cline / Roo Code	snip init --agent cline	.clinerules prompt injection
Kilo Code	snip init --agent kilocode	.kilocode/rules/ prompt injection
Antigravity	snip init --agent antigravity	PreToolUse hook (native)
OpenCode	opencode-snip plugin	tool.execute.before hook
OpenClaw	openclaw plugins install openclaw-snip	plugin
Aider	shell aliases	prefix commands with snip

Claude Code

snip init

This installs a PreToolUse hook that transparently rewrites supported commands. Claude Code never sees the substitution -- it receives compressed output as if the original command produced it.

Supported commands: 132 filters covering 100 distinct commands: git, go, cargo, npm, yarn, pnpm, docker, kubectl, terraform, aws, gh, dotnet, and many more.

snip init --uninstall   # remove the hook

Cursor

snip init --agent cursor

This patches ~/.cursor/hooks.json with a beforeShellExecution hook. Works the same way as Claude Code.

snip init --agent cursor --uninstall   # remove the hook

Pi (pi.dev)

snip init --agent pi

This patches ~/.pi/agent/settings.json with a PreToolUse entry matching the bash tool. The runtime hook is interpreted by the community extension @hsingjui/pi-hooks, which mirrors Claude Code's hookSpecificOutput format (including command rewriting via updatedInput). Install it once:

pi install npm:@hsingjui/pi-hooks

Then run /reload (or restart Pi). Once active, snip rewrites supported commands transparently.

snip init --agent pi --uninstall   # remove the hook

Grok Build (xAI)

snip init --agent grok

This writes ~/.grok/hooks/snip.json with a PreToolUse hook matching the shell tool. Grok Build hooks cannot rewrite commands in place (the hook contract is allow/deny only), so snip denies matched commands with a re-run suggestion ("…/snip" run -- <command>). Non-matching commands pass through untouched, and the hook is fail-open: if snip breaks, commands simply run unfiltered.

Prefer prompt injection instead? Grok Build reads AGENTS.md natively:

snip init --agent grok --mode prompt   # creates AGENTS.md
snip init --agent grok --uninstall     # remove the hook

AGENTS.md is shared with Codex, so --uninstall never deletes it; it prints a reminder instead.

Codex

snip init --agent codex

This patches ~/.codex/hooks.json with a native PreToolUse hook. Supported shell commands are transparently rewritten through snip with Codex's updatedInput contract, so the model runs commands normally and sees only the filtered output.

For safety, mixed commands containing unsupported segments, pipelines with uninspected tails, and command substitutions pass through unchanged so Codex keeps its native permission flow.

Use snip proxy -- <command> when full unfiltered output is required.

snip init --agent codex --uninstall

Codex CLI 0.131.0 or later is required for PreToolUse input rewriting. For older releases, use the legacy project-scoped prompt integration:

snip init --agent codex --mode prompt

GitHub Copilot

snip init --agent copilot

This patches ~/.copilot/hooks/snip.json with a native preToolUse hook that rewrites supported commands transparently, like Claude Code.

Prefer prompt injection instead? Use the legacy project-scoped mode:

snip init --agent copilot --mode prompt   # creates .github/copilot-instructions.md
snip init --agent copilot --uninstall     # remove the hook

Antigravity

PreToolUse is supported. This patches ~/.gemini/config/hooks.json.

snip init --agent antigravity

Gemini / Windsurf / Cline / Kilo Code

snip init --agent gemini       # creates GEMINI.md
snip init --agent windsurf     # creates .windsurfrules
snip init --agent cline        # creates .clinerules
snip init --agent kilocode     # creates .kilocode/rules/snip-rules.md

These agents use prompt injection: a markdown file instructs the LLM to prefix shell commands with snip. Project-scoped (created in the current directory).

OpenCode

Install the opencode-snip plugin by adding it to your OpenCode config (~/.config/opencode/opencode.json):

{
  "$schema": "https://opencode.ai/config.json",
  "plugin": ["opencode-snip@latest"]
}

The plugin uses the tool.execute.before hook to automatically prefix all commands with snip. Commands not supported by snip pass through unchanged.

OpenClaw

openclaw plugins install openclaw-snip

Aider

Use shell aliases to route commands through snip:

# Add to ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
alias git="snip git"
alias go="snip go"
alias cargo="snip cargo"