2.4 KiB
ctx — anti-tokens CLI for Claude Code
Analyze your codebase locally. Feed Claude dense summaries, not raw files.
Status: alpha — under active development. Interfaces will change.
Why
Every token Claude reads costs money and burns context window. When working on a large C# or React codebase, Claude often spends thousands of tokens just reading files to build a mental model before doing any actual work.
ctx runs locally, analyzes your project with language-aware tools (Roslyn for
C#, tree-sitter for TypeScript), and emits compact markdown summaries that give
Claude everything it needs in a fraction of the tokens.
Installation
go install github.com/ricarneiro/ctx/cmd/ctx@latest
Requires Go 1.22+. Binaries for common platforms will be published after the MVP is validated.
Usage
# Git context: recent commits, status, branch info
ctx git
# Auto-detect stack and emit project overview
ctx auto project
# C# project structure (requires .NET SDK)
ctx csharp project
# C# file outline: types, methods, signatures
ctx csharp outline src/MyService.cs
# List compilation errors
ctx csharp errors
All output is UTF-8 markdown on stdout. Pipe it where you need it:
ctx csharp project | pbcopy # macOS
ctx csharp project | clip # Windows
Or reference it in a CLAUDE.md:
Run `ctx csharp project` to get the project overview before making changes.
Architecture
ctx uses a plugin system. Each stack (git, csharp, react, auto) is a
plugin that implements the core.Plugin interface and registers itself via
init().
core.Plugin interface
Name() string
Version() string
ShortDescription() string
Command(ctx *core.Context) *cobra.Command
In the MVP, plugins are compiled into the binary. Future plan: migrate to
subprocess dispatch (binaries named ctx-csharp, ctx-react in PATH), same
pattern as kubectl plugins.
C# analysis uses a separate helper process (tools/roslyn-helper/) written in
C# with Roslyn. The helper communicates with ctx via JSON-RPC over
stdin/stdout. This lets us use the best tool for the job without pulling a .NET
runtime into the Go binary.
See docs/DECISIONS.md for the full rationale behind each architectural choice.
Contributing
Contributions welcome. See CONTRIBUTING.md (coming soon) for guidelines.
Open an issue first if you plan a large change.
License
MIT — see LICENSE.