rtk read

​

Overview

​

Syntax

rtk read [OPTIONS] <FILE>
cat <file> | rtk read -  # Read from stdin

​

Arguments

​

Options

​

Language Detection

• Rust (.rs) - Comments, attributes, test modules
• Python (.py) - Docstrings, comments, type hints
• JavaScript/TypeScript (.js, .ts, .tsx, .jsx) - JSDoc, comments, imports
• Java (.java) - Javadoc, comments, annotations
• Go (.go) - Comments, build tags
• C/C++ (.c, .cpp, .h, .hpp) - Comments, preprocessor
• Unknown - Generic text filtering

​

Filter Levels

​

Minimal (Default)

• Removes single-line comments (//, #)
• Removes multi-line comments (/* */, ''', """)
• Removes empty lines
• Preserves all code and type signatures
• 40-60% token reduction

​

Aggressive

• Everything from minimal
• Removes function bodies (keeps signatures)
• Removes test code blocks
• Preserves interfaces, types, constants
• 70-80% token reduction
• Use when you only need API signatures

​

Token Savings

rtk read src/main.rs
# Shows filtered Rust code

rtk read --level aggressive src/lib.rs
# Shows only function signatures and types

rtk read -n --max-lines 50 src/config.rs
# First 50 lines with line numbers

cat large_file.py | rtk read - --level minimal
# Filter piped input

​

Output Format

  1 │ use anyhow::Result;
  2 │ use std::path::PathBuf;
  3 │ 
  4 │ pub fn run(args: &[String]) -> Result<()> {

use anyhow::Result;
use std::path::PathBuf;

pub fn run(args: &[String]) -> Result<()> {

​

Exit Codes

• 0 - Success
• 1 - File not found or permission denied

​

Related Commands

• rtk grep - Search file contents
• rtk ls - List directory contents
• rtk json - View JSON structure