GitHub CLI (gh) - RTK (Rust Token Killer)

Overview

RTK provides token-optimized alternatives to GitHub CLI (gh) commands. Achieve 26-87% token savings through:

JSON parsing: Structured output from gh JSON format
Markdown filtering: Strip badges, HTML comments, and noise
Compact lists: Tabular format for PRs/issues
Status summaries: CI check aggregation

Supported Commands

Pull Requests

List, view, create, merge PRs

Issues

List, view, create, comment on issues

Workflow Runs

View CI/CD run status

Repository

Repository info and stats

API

Direct GitHub API access

rtk gh pr

Pull request operations with compact views.

rtk gh pr list

Compact PR listing.

Examples

$ gh pr list

Showing 10 of 42 pull requests in user/repo

#123  feat: Add token optimization  feature  user:feature-branch  ✓ Ready to merge
#122  fix: Handle edge case in parser  bugfix  user:bugfix-parser  ✗ Changes requested
#121  docs: Update installation guide  docs  user:update-docs  ✓ Approved
#120  refactor: Simplify git module  refactor  user:simplify-git  ⏸ Review in progress
...
# 15+ lines, ~650 tokens

$ rtk gh pr list
🔀 10 of 42 PRs:

#123 ✓ feat: Add token optimization [feature] @user
#122 ✗ fix: Handle edge case in parser [bugfix] @user (changes requested)
#121 ✓ docs: Update installation guide [docs] @user (approved)
#120 ⏸ refactor: Simplify git module [refactor] @user
...
# 6 lines, ~180 tokens (72% savings)

Features

Status icons: ✓ (approved), ✗ (changes requested), ⏸ (in review)
Labels: Show PR labels in brackets
Author: Compact @username format
Review state: Show review status

rtk gh pr view

Compact PR details with CI checks.

Examples

$ gh pr view 123

feat: Add token optimization #123
Open • user wants to merge 3 commits into main from feature-branch
+142 − 38 • 3 changed files

Reviewers:    reviewer1 (approved), reviewer2 (commented)
Assignees:    user
Labels:       feature, enhancement
Projects:     Q1 2024
Milestone:    v1.0.0

<!-- This PR implements token optimization for git commands. -->

This PR adds token-optimized git operations:

- Compact git status output
- One-line git log format
- Stat summaries for git diff

## Testing

Ran full test suite:
```bash
cargo test --all

```bash RTK gh pr view
$ rtk gh pr view 123
🔀 #123 feat: Add token optimization
Open | user:feature-branch → main | +142 -38 (3 files)

Review: ✓ approved (reviewer1), 💬 commented (reviewer2)
Labels: feature, enhancement
Milestone: v1.0.0

This PR adds token-optimized git operations:
- Compact git status output
- One-line git log format  
- Stat summaries for git diff

Testing: Ran full test suite
Checklist: 2/3 complete

CI checks: ✓ 3 passed, ✗ 1 failed
  ✓ Tests (2m 34s)
  ✓ Lint (1m 12s)
  ✓ Build (3m 45s)
  ✗ Coverage (threshold not met: 78% < 80%)

# 18 lines, ~200 tokens (75% savings)

Features

Markdown filtering: Strips HTML comments, badges, horizontal rules
Code block preservation: Keeps code blocks intact
Checklist summary: Shows completion ratio
CI aggregation: Groups check results
Review state: Shows reviewer decisions

Markdown Filtering

From src/gh_cmd.rs:filter_markdown_body():

lazy_static! {
    static ref HTML_COMMENT_RE: Regex = Regex::new(r"(?s)<!--.*?-->").unwrap();
    static ref BADGE_LINE_RE: Regex = 
        Regex::new(r"(?m)^\s*\[!\[[^\]]*\]\([^)]*\)\]\([^)]*\)\s*$").unwrap();
    static ref IMAGE_ONLY_LINE_RE: Regex = 
        Regex::new(r"(?m)^\s*!\[[^\]]*\]\([^)]*\)\s*$").unwrap();
    static ref HORIZONTAL_RULE_RE: Regex = 
        Regex::new(r"(?m)^\s*(?:---+|\*\*\*+|___+)\s*$").unwrap();
}

fn filter_markdown_body(body: &str) -> String {
    let mut s = HTML_COMMENT_RE.replace_all(body, "").to_string();
    s = BADGE_LINE_RE.replace_all(&s, "").to_string();
    s = IMAGE_ONLY_LINE_RE.replace_all(&s, "").to_string();
    s = HORIZONTAL_RULE_RE.replace_all(&s, "").to_string();
    s = MULTI_BLANK_RE.replace_all(&s, "\n\n").to_string();
    s.trim().to_string()
}

Removes:


[![badge](url)](link) badge lines
![image](url) image-only lines
--- / *** / ___ horizontal rules
Excessive blank lines (3+ → 2)

Preserves:

Code blocks (``` fenced or ~~~ tildes)
Regular markdown (headings, lists, links, bold, italic)
Inline images/badges (mixed with text)

rtk gh pr create

Create PR with compact confirmation.

rtk gh pr create --title "feat: Add feature" --body "Description"
✓ PR #124 created: https://github.com/user/repo/pull/124

rtk gh pr merge

Merge PR with compact confirmation.

rtk gh pr merge 123 --squash
✓ PR #123 merged into main (abc1234)

rtk gh pr checks

CI check status for PR.

$ gh pr checks 123
All checks passed

Tests       ✓  passed  2m 34s  https://github.com/user/repo/runs/123
Lint        ✓  passed  1m 12s  https://github.com/user/repo/runs/124
Build       ✓  passed  3m 45s  https://github.com/user/repo/runs/125
Coverage    ✗  failed  45s     https://github.com/user/repo/runs/126
# 6+ lines, ~200 tokens

$ rtk gh pr checks 123
✗ 1 failed, 3 passed

✓ Tests (2m 34s)
✓ Lint (1m 12s)
✓ Build (3m 45s)
✗ Coverage (45s): threshold not met
# 6 lines, ~50 tokens (75% savings)

rtk gh issue

Issue operations with compact views.

rtk gh issue list

Compact issue listing.

$ gh issue list

Showing 10 of 87 issues in user/repo

#456  Bug: Parser crashes on empty input  bug, high-priority  •  Opened 2 days ago by user1
#455  Feature request: Add JSON export  enhancement  •  Opened 5 days ago by user2
#454  Question: How to configure hooks?  question  •  Opened 1 week ago by user3
...
# 12+ lines, ~450 tokens

$ rtk gh issue list
🐛 10 of 87 issues:

#456 Bug: Parser crashes on empty input [bug, high-priority] @user1 (2d)
#455 Feature request: Add JSON export [enhancement] @user2 (5d)
#454 Question: How to configure hooks? [question] @user3 (1w)
...
# 5 lines, ~120 tokens (73% savings)

rtk gh issue view

Compact issue details.

$ gh issue view 456

Bug: Parser crashes on empty input #456
Open • user1 opened 2 days ago • 0 comments

Assignees:  maintainer1
Labels:     bug, high-priority
Projects:   Bug Triage
Milestone:  v1.1.0

When passing an empty string to the parser, it crashes with:

Steps to reproduce:
1. Call `parse("")`
2. Observe crash

Expected: Should return error instead of panicking

View this issue on GitHub: https://github.com/user/repo/issues/456
# 20+ lines, ~350 tokens

$ rtk gh issue view 456
🐛 #456 Bug: Parser crashes on empty input
Open | @user1 (2d) | 0 comments

Assignees: maintainer1
Labels: bug, high-priority
Milestone: v1.1.0

When passing empty string to parser, crashes with:
thread 'main' panicked at 'index out of bounds'

Steps: Call `parse("")` → crash
Expected: Should return error

# 11 lines, ~90 tokens (74% savings)

rtk gh run

Workflow run status with compact output.

rtk gh run list

Compact workflow run list.

$ gh run list

Showing 10 workflow runs from user/repo

STATUS  TITLE                         WORKFLOW  BRANCH  EVENT  ID         ELAPSED  AGE
✓       CI: feat: Add optimization    CI        main    push   123456789  5m 23s   2m
✗       CI: fix: Handle edge case     CI        bugfix  push   123456788  3m 12s   15m
✓       Release: v1.0.0               Release   main    push   123456787  8m 45s   1h
...
# 12+ lines, ~500 tokens

$ rtk gh run list
🔄 10 runs:

✓ CI: feat: Add optimization (main, 5m 23s, 2m ago)
✗ CI: fix: Handle edge case (bugfix, 3m 12s, 15m ago)
✓ Release: v1.0.0 (main, 8m 45s, 1h ago)
...
# 5 lines, ~120 tokens (76% savings)

rtk gh run view

Compact workflow run details.

$ gh run view 123456789

✓ main CI · 123456789
Triggered via push about 2 minutes ago

JOBS
✓ build (ubuntu-latest) in 2m 34s (ID 987654321)
✓ test (ubuntu-latest) in 3m 45s (ID 987654322)
✓ lint (ubuntu-latest) in 1m 12s (ID 987654323)

For more information about a job, try: gh run view --job=<job-id>
View this run on GitHub: https://github.com/user/repo/actions/runs/123456789
# 12+ lines, ~300 tokens

$ rtk gh run view 123456789
✓ CI run #123456789 (main, push, 2m ago)

Jobs:
  ✓ build (2m 34s)
  ✓ test (3m 45s)
  ✓ lint (1m 12s)

Total: 5m 23s
# 8 lines, ~70 tokens (77% savings)

rtk gh repo

Repository information.

rtk gh repo view

Compact repository details.

$ gh repo view user/repo

user/repo
Rust Token Killer - High-performance CLI proxy to minimize LLM token consumption

  🐁 Rust  ★ 1.2k  🍴 234  👁 45  🔗 rtk-ai.app  Updated 2h ago

README
# rtk - Rust Token Killer
...
# 30+ lines, ~1200 tokens

$ rtk gh repo view user/repo
📑 user/repo
Rust Token Killer - LLM token optimization

Rust | ★ 1.2k | 🍴 234 | 👁 45 | Updated 2h
URL: rtk-ai.app

# 5 lines, ~80 tokens (93% savings)

rtk gh api

Direct GitHub API access (passthrough with JSON formatting).

rtk gh api repos/user/repo/pulls/123/comments
# Returns formatted JSON (uses rtk json for structure)

Implementation Details

From src/gh_cmd.rs, key functions:

JSON Parsing

// All gh commands use --json flag
let mut cmd = Command::new("gh");
cmd.args(["pr", "list", "--json", "number,title,author,labels,state"]);

let output = cmd.output()?;
let json: Value = serde_json::from_str(&output.stdout)?;

// Extract fields
for pr in json.as_array() {
    let number = pr["number"].as_i64()?;
    let title = pr["title"].as_str()?;
    let author = pr["author"]["login"].as_str()?;
    // ...
}

Markdown Filtering Strategy

Split by code blocks: Preserve ``` and ~~~ fenced blocks
Filter non-code segments: Apply regex to remove noise
Reassemble: Combine filtered text + preserved code blocks
Final cleanup: Collapse excessive whitespace

Status Icons

fn status_icon(state: &str) -> &'static str {
    match state {
        "APPROVED" => "✓",
        "CHANGES_REQUESTED" => "✗",
        "COMMENTED" | "PENDING" => "💬",
        "SUCCESS" => "✓",
        "FAILURE" => "✗",
        "IN_PROGRESS" => "⏸",
        _ => "●",
    }
}

Token Savings Summary

Command	Standard Tokens	RTK Tokens	Savings
`gh pr list` (10 PRs)	650	180	-72%
`gh pr view` (with body)	800	200	-75%
`gh pr checks` (4 checks)	200	50	-75%
`gh issue list` (10 issues)	450	120	-73%
`gh issue view` (with body)	350	90	-74%
`gh run list` (10 runs)	500	120	-76%
`gh run view` (3 jobs)	300	70	-77%
`gh repo view` (with README)	1,200	80	-93%

CI/CD Integration

All gh commands preserve exit codes:

# .github/workflows/pr-check.yml
name: PR Checks

on: pull_request

jobs:
  checks:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - name: Wait for checks
        run: |
          rtk gh pr checks ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }}
      - name: Check approval
        run: |
          rtk gh pr view ${{ github.event.pull_request.number }} | grep "approved"

​Overview

​Supported Commands

Pull Requests

Issues

Workflow Runs

Repository

API

​rtk gh pr

​rtk gh pr list

​Examples

​Features

​rtk gh pr view

​Examples

​Features

​Markdown Filtering

​rtk gh pr create

​rtk gh pr merge

​rtk gh pr checks

​rtk gh issue

​rtk gh issue list

​rtk gh issue view

​rtk gh run

​rtk gh run list

​rtk gh run view

​rtk gh repo

​rtk gh repo view

​rtk gh api

​Implementation Details

​JSON Parsing

​Markdown Filtering Strategy

​Status Icons

​Token Savings Summary

​CI/CD Integration

​Next Steps

File Operations

Git Commands

Overview

Supported Commands

rtk gh pr

rtk gh pr list

Examples

Features

rtk gh pr view

Examples

Features

Markdown Filtering

rtk gh pr create

rtk gh pr merge

rtk gh pr checks

rtk gh issue

rtk gh issue list

rtk gh issue view

rtk gh run

rtk gh run list

rtk gh run view

rtk gh repo

rtk gh repo view

rtk gh api

Implementation Details

JSON Parsing

Markdown Filtering Strategy

Status Icons

Token Savings Summary

CI/CD Integration

Next Steps