rtk CLI proxy

Run shell/dev commands through the rtk CLI proxy so verbose output (ls, tree, git, gh, grep, logs, JSON, docker, tests) is compacted before it reaches the model context. Use when a command would produce long output or during exploration of large repos.

Tsunghan,Tsai@eric2100

Install

openclaw skills install @eric2100/rtk-cli-proxy

rtk — output-compacting CLI proxy

rtk wraps normal commands and returns token-optimized output instead of raw text. Binary: /usr/local/bin/rtk (built from source on this host; see Restore).

Check availability first: rtk --version (expected 0.49.x).

When to use

Exploring a repo or directory: prefer rtk ls, rtk tree, rtk find
Reading long files: rtk read <file>
Git/CI noise: rtk git status|log|diff, rtk gh pr list
Big logs or test runs: rtk test <cmd>, rtk err <cmd>, rtk log <file>
JSON dumps: rtk json <file> (--keys-only for shape only)
Package/dependency listing: rtk deps, rtk env

Do NOT use it when exact byte-level output matters (diff patches to apply, checksums, signatures, secrets, machine-parsed files). Call the native command instead.

Common patterns

rtk ls /path                 # compact listing
rtk tree /path               # directory tree
rtk read /path/file.py       # filtered read
rtk git status               # short status
rtk git log -n 10            # compact log
rtk grep "pattern" src/      # grouped/truncated matches
rtk find . -name '*.ts'      # compact find tree
rtk test "npm test"          # failures only
rtk err "make build"         # errors/warnings only
rtk summary "some command"   # heuristic 1-2 line summary

rtk <cmd> --help lists flags per subcommand.

Restore after an add-on rebuild

The binary lives in the container filesystem, so a rebuild removes it. Backups: /config/clawd/bin/rtk (copy of the working binary).

Try the backup first: cp /config/clawd/bin/rtk /usr/local/bin/rtk && chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/rtk
If missing, rebuild from source (prebuilt ARM64 releases need GLIBC 2.39; this host is Debian 12 / 2.36, so they fail):

export CARGO_HOME=/config/.cargo RUSTUP_HOME=/config/.rustup
export PATH="$CARGO_HOME/bin:$PATH"
[ -x "$CARGO_HOME/bin/cargo" ] || { curl -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh -s -- -y --profile minimal; }
git clone --depth 1 --branch develop https://github.com/rtk-ai/rtk.git /tmp/rtk-src
cd /tmp/rtk-src && cargo build --release     # ~40 min on this box
cp target/release/rtk /usr/local/bin/rtk && cp target/release/rtk /config/clawd/bin/rtk

Build takes ~45 min on the HA host (rustup download is the slow part).

Notes

Repo: https://github.com/rtk-ai/rtk (Rust, MIT-ish licenses in repo)
Version built here: 0.49.0
Never pipe secrets or tokens through rtk; it summarizes text.