Token Saver

Reduce Claude API token consumption and track spending. Diagnoses waste patterns, recommends optimizations, and generates cost reports. Use when: (1) User as...

Security Scan

The skill's requests and behavior are consistent with its stated purpose: it uses your Anthropic API key to fetch usage, analyzes local OpenClaw configuration and prompt files, and proposes cost-saving changes (which it says it will only apply after explicit confirmation).

Purpose & Capability

The skill advertises cost analysis and optimizations for Claude/Anthropic usage and only requires ANTHROPIC_API_KEY and local OpenClaw config access, which is appropriate for fetching billing/usage and inspecting local agent configuration to recommend fixes.

Instruction Scope

SKILL.md explicitly instructs the agent to call the Anthropic usage endpoint, inspect local files (openclaw.json, SOUL.md, AGENTS.md, MEMORY.md), count session turns, and list installed skills. These actions are within scope for diagnosing token waste. The documentation also states it will show diffs and ask for confirmation before applying edits.

Install Mechanism

No install spec; skill is instruction-only with a small included Python script. No downloads or archive extraction are performed. The included script is readable and uses only the standard library.

Credentials

Only ANTHROPIC_API_KEY is required. That key is necessary to query the Anthropic usage API and is proportional to the skill's purpose. The skill does not request other unrelated credentials or sensitive environment variables.

Persistence & Privilege

always:false (default). The skill does not request permanent elevated presence and its docs explicitly require confirmation before editing local config files. No evidence it attempts to modify other skills or system-wide settings without user approval.

Assessment

This skill appears coherent with its stated goal. Before installing or running it: (1) inspect openclaw.json, MEMORY.md and other local files yourself and make backups—the skill will propose edits but you should verify them; (2) be aware that providing ANTHROPIC_API_KEY allows the script to query your usage and (depending on the key's privileges) possibly interact with Anthropic APIs—use a key with minimal necessary scope or rotate it after use if you have concerns; (3) run the included Python script locally (it uses only stdlib urllib) to see outputs and confirm it behaves as expected; (4) if you allow the skill to modify files, require explicit review of diffs before applying. If you want higher assurance, review the token_report.py source and the SKILL.md recommendations line-by-line (both are included) before use.

Your Claude API bill is mostly avoidable waste. Heartbeats running on Sonnet. Extended thinking on calendar checks. MEMORY.md that hasn't been trimmed in weeks. Token Saver finds the waste, quantifies it, and helps you fix it.

Free. No backend. No auth required.

---

Quick Reference

Situation	Action
"How much am I spending?"	Run Step 1 — fetch usage stats
Spending spike	Run Step 2 — diagnose waste patterns
"Make it cheaper"	Run Step 3 — generate ranked recommendations
Want to apply fixes	Run Step 4 — show diff, get confirmation, apply
Weekly cost check	Run Step 5 — generate cost report

---

Step 1 — Fetch Current Usage

Pull recent usage from the Anthropic API:

# Get usage for the last 7 days
curl -s "https://api.anthropic.com/v1/usage?days=7" \
  -H "x-api-key: $ANTHROPIC_API_KEY" \
  -H "anthropic-version: 2023-06-01" | jq '.'

If the usage endpoint is unavailable, estimate from conversation history:

• Count turns in current session
• Estimate tokens per turn by model (Haiku: ~500, Sonnet: ~1500, Opus: ~3000)
• Multiply by per-token cost (see pricing table below)

Claude Pricing (March 2026):

Model	Input (per 1M)	Output (per 1M)	Best for
claude-opus-4-6	$15.00	$75.00	Complex reasoning, multi-file edits
claude-sonnet-4-6	$3.00	$15.00	Daily driver: email, research, code
claude-haiku-4-5	$0.80	$4.00	Heartbeats, simple lookups, sub-agents

Extended thinking tokens are billed at the output rate.

---

Step 2 — Diagnose Waste Patterns

Check for each of these patterns in order:

Pattern 1: Expensive model on heartbeats

Signal: Agent config sets Sonnet or Opus as default; heartbeat runs 48x/day. Cost: ~$4.30/month extra vs Haiku baseline.

# Check openclaw.json for heartbeat model config
cat openclaw.json 2>/dev/null | jq '.models // .model // "not configured"'

Flag if default model ≠ claude-haiku-4-5 and no heartbeat-specific override exists.

Pattern 2: Extended thinking on simple tasks

Signal: Thinking enabled globally; agent handles calendar, weather, simple lookups. Cost: $3–15/month depending on budget and frequency.

# Check for thinking config
cat openclaw.json 2>/dev/null | jq '.thinking // "not configured"'

Flag if thinking.enabled: true with no task-type restrictions.

Pattern 3: Bloated system prompt

Signal: SOUL.md + AGENTS.md + MEMORY.md + all installed skills > 5,000 tokens combined. Cost: 10–20% on every single API call.

# Estimate token counts (rough: 4 chars ≈ 1 token)
wc -c SOUL.md AGENTS.md MEMORY.md 2>/dev/null
# Estimate: bytes / 4 = approximate tokens

Flag if total > ~20,000 characters (≈5,000 tokens).

Pattern 4: Uncompacted conversation history

Signal: Session has 40+ turns; history tokens compound on every new message. Cost: 5–15% overhead on long sessions.

Count conversation turns in context. Flag if > 40 turns without /compact.

Pattern 5: Redundant skills loaded

Signal: Multiple skills installed that overlap in function (e.g., 3 research tools). Cost: Each skill adds ~100–500 characters to system prompt on every turn.

# List installed skills
openclaw skills list 2>/dev/null

Flag if > 8 skills installed or if obvious overlap exists.

---

Step 3 — Generate Ranked Recommendations

After diagnosis, output a prioritized fix list. Format:

─────────────────────────────────────
TOKEN SAVER REPORT — [DATE]
─────────────────────────────────────

WASTE DETECTED:

  🔴 HIGH IMPACT — Heartbeats running on Sonnet
     Estimated waste: ~$4.00/month
     Fix: Set heartbeat model to claude-haiku-4-5 in openclaw.json

  🟡 MEDIUM IMPACT — Extended thinking enabled globally
     Estimated waste: ~$8.00/month
     Fix: Restrict thinking to tasks with complexity: high flag

  🟡 MEDIUM IMPACT — System prompt at ~6,200 tokens
     Estimated waste: ~12% on all calls
     Fix: Trim MEMORY.md — remove entries older than 14 days

  🟢 LOW IMPACT — 11 skills installed, possible overlap
     Estimated waste: ~$1.50/month
     Fix: Audit and disable rarely-used skills in openclaw.json

─────────────────────────────────────
Total estimated monthly savings if all fixes applied: ~$13.50
─────────────────────────────────────

---

Step 4 — Apply Fixes (With Confirmation)

NEVER edit files without showing the diff and getting explicit confirmation.

Fix A: Model routing in openclaw.json

Show proposed change:

// BEFORE:
{ "model": "claude-sonnet-4-6" }

// AFTER:
{
  "model": "claude-sonnet-4-6",
  "models": {
    "heartbeat": "claude-haiku-4-5",
    "subagent": "claude-haiku-4-5",
    "reasoning": "claude-sonnet-4-6"
  }
}

Ask: "Apply this change to openclaw.json? (yes/no)"

Only apply if confirmed.

Fix B: Trim MEMORY.md

Identify entries older than 14 days. Show lines to remove. Ask for confirmation before deleting.

Fix C: Disable extended thinking for simple tasks

Check openclaw.json thinking config. Show proposed config change. Confirm before applying.

---

Step 5 — Generate Cost Report

Run the cost report script if available:

python3 skills/token-saver/scripts/token_report.py 2>/dev/null

If script unavailable, generate inline estimate:

─────────────────────────────────────
COST ESTIMATE — Week of [DATE]
─────────────────────────────────────

Model breakdown (estimated):
  claude-sonnet-4-6   ~$18.40  (main agent turns)
  claude-haiku-4-5    ~$0.80   (heartbeats — if configured)
  Extended thinking   ~$6.20   (thinking turns)

Top cost drivers:
  1. Heartbeats        ~48/day × 7 days = 336 calls
  2. Research tasks    ~12 calls with extended thinking
  3. System prompt     ~4,800 tokens × all calls

Projected monthly: ~$109
─────────────────────────────────────

---

Model Routing Reference

Recommended openclaw.json configuration for cost efficiency:

{
  "models": {
    "default": "claude-sonnet-4-6",
    "heartbeat": "claude-haiku-4-5-20251001",
    "subagent": "claude-haiku-4-5-20251001",
    "reasoning": "claude-sonnet-4-6"
  },
  "thinking": {
    "enabled": true,
    "budgetTokens": 4000,
    "taskFilter": ["complexity:high", "type:debug", "type:architecture"]
  }
}

Typical savings vs all-Sonnet baseline: 50–70% reduction with no quality loss on daily tasks.

---

Privacy

Token Saver reads local files only (openclaw.json, MEMORY.md, SOUL.md). It calls the Anthropic usage API with your own API key. No data leaves your environment except to Anthropic's own endpoint.

---

Version

v0.1.0 — 2026-03-31 — Initial release. Waste detection, ranked recommendations, safe apply with confirmation, cost reports.