TokenGem/README.md
BigMarc 1e7eba0f5a TokenGem 1.0.0 — public download repo
README, changelog, and upstream license/attribution surfaces for the
public distribution of TokenGem. DMG binaries ship via GitHub Releases.
2026-09-04 23:02:54 +02:00

198 lines
11 KiB
Markdown
Raw Blame History

This file contains ambiguous Unicode characters

This file contains Unicode characters that might be confused with other characters. If you think that this is intentional, you can safely ignore this warning. Use the Escape button to reveal them.

<div align="center">
# 💎 TokenGem
### Your Claude Code token tools are arguing with each other.
### TokenGem makes them cooperate — and shows you what they actually saved.
[![Latest release](https://img.shields.io/github/v/release/BigMarc/TokenGem?color=7c3aed&label=download&sort=semver)](https://github.com/BigMarc/TokenGem/releases/latest)
[![Downloads](https://img.shields.io/github/downloads/BigMarc/TokenGem/total?color=7c3aed)](https://github.com/BigMarc/TokenGem/releases)
[![macOS 13+](https://img.shields.io/badge/macOS-13%2B-black)](https://github.com/BigMarc/TokenGem/releases/latest)
[![Universal binary](https://img.shields.io/badge/Apple%20Silicon-%20%26%20Intel-blue)](https://github.com/BigMarc/TokenGem/releases/latest)
[![Price](https://img.shields.io/badge/price-%2459%20once-success)](#pricing--license-terms)
**[⬇️ Download the latest DMG](https://github.com/BigMarc/TokenGem/releases/latest)**
A 1.6 MB download. No installer, no account, no daemon phoning home.
</div>
---
You already know context is what your Claude Code bill is made of. You may even run the
open-source tools that shrink it — **RTK** to compress shell output, **Ponytail** to keep the
agent's code minimal, **Graphify** to stop it re-grepping your repo.
Here's the part nobody tells you: **installed side by side, they fight.** All three register a
`PreToolUse` hook on Bash. One rewrites `grep` into its own command, another intercepts the same
command and nudges toward its index, a third injects rules at session start. Run together, they
silently no-op, double-process, or undo each other's work — and your hooks keep *looking* installed.
And even when they work: **savings are not additive.** RTK's own issue tracker documents a case
where the filter cut input tokens and *raised* total cost by 18% — because compressed output made
the agent ask more follow-up questions, and output tokens cost roughly **5× input** on every
current Claude model.
TokenGem is the layer that fixes both problems, and it is the only one that *proves* which one it
fixed for you.
## What TokenGem actually does
| | |
|---|---|
| 🧭 **One hook instead of three** | TokenGem writes a *single* `PreToolUse` hook — its router. Each command is dispatched to exactly one owner: Graphify's index when it's fresh, RTK when there's an equivalent, untouched pass-through otherwise. Every event is recorded, so nothing double-processes silently. |
| 📦 **Pinned, isolated installs** | The three upstream tools are installed at audited, pinned versions into `~/.tokengem/runtime/` — never your global Python, npm, or Cargo environments. A bump ships only after TokenGem's regression suite passes. |
| 📊 **Ground-truth measurement** | Before anything changes, TokenGem reads your agent's own session records and freezes a baseline. Every session afterwards is measured against it: tokens in, tokens out, **net cost per assistant turn** — the number that survives session-length skew. |
| 🚨 **The net-negative alarm** | If compression is provoking more output than it saves, TokenGem says so — in red, in your menu bar — and names the profile to switch to. A tool that admits when it isn't helping is the one worth paying for. |
| 🗑️ **One-button exit** | `tokengem uninstall` restores your pre-install settings **byte for byte** and deletes the managed runtimes. Your machine is exactly as it was. |
## We don't estimate your savings. We read them.
Most tools in this category show you a percentage they computed once, on their machine, and
pinned to a README. TokenGem can't afford that honesty problem — it *sells* measurement, so it
measures:
1. `tokengem baseline` — mandatory, before install. Reads your last 20 real sessions per agent and
freezes the median cost per turn. **Install refuses to run without it**, because a savings
figure with nothing to compare against is a marketing artifact, not a measurement.
2. Every routed command lands in a local ledger: raw output bytes, delivered bytes, which path
handled it, which profile was active.
3. The Savings view reports the **net delta against your baseline** — and attribution only where
the instrumentation supports it. Graphify redirects are counted, not invented; Ponytail's
effect is reported as an aggregate. **The three tools' savings are never summed**, because
they don't compose.
What shows up in your menu bar is the measured verdict — cost per turn vs. your own baseline,
green or red. Not a projection. Your numbers, your machine, your proof.
## The menu-bar app
The DMG gives you the native Mac app: a gem in your menu bar showing the measured delta, a panel
with a session-by-session sparkline against your baseline median, profile switching (Balanced ·
Maximum savings · Index-only), component health, hook-conflict detection, and one-click
**Repair install** for the day a Claude Code update breaks a hook — that day will come.
Prefer the terminal? The same product is a CLI:
```console
$ tokengem hosts # which agents are on this machine, and what TokenGem can do for each
$ tokengem doctor # pre-flight checks + every hook registration and who owns it
$ tokengem baseline # mandatory: capture your before-numbers (this one is deliberately slow)
$ tokengem install # snapshot → pinned runtimes → one router
$ tokengem dashboard # http://127.0.0.1:7801 — six views, bound to localhost only
```
## Works with the agents you already run
Claude Code · Codex · Cursor · OpenCode · Copilot · Gemini CLI · Qwen Code — plus a local
**proxy mode** that meters any app calling a model API directly, forwarding requests untouched
and recording only token counts. Run `tokengem hosts` to see exactly what TokenGem can do for
each agent it finds: route and measure, or measure only.
## What leaves your machine: nothing
All measurement, every ledger entry, and your baseline stay on your Mac. The dashboard binds to
`127.0.0.1` only. The license is a signed key verified **locally** — activation works on a plane,
and a server outage can never take your tool away. Every data flow the three upstream tools *can*
open is listed in one settings view, with switches and a purge button.
## Honest limits
Every tool should publish these. TokenGem will not help much, and may not help at all, when:
- **Your repos are small.** There's little context to shrink and little to index.
- **Your sessions are mostly reasoning**, not file-reading. Compressed `grep` output can't save
what never got read.
- **Your hooks are already hand-tuned.** `tokengem doctor` will show the collisions, but adopt-
or-replace is a decision you get to make — nothing is silently clobbered.
- **You want per-tool dollar attribution.** RTK's character reduction is measured; Graphify and
Ponytail are reported at the confidence the instrumentation actually supports. Where a number
would be invented, there is instead a blank — deliberately.
One published data point so you can calibrate expectations: Ponytail's *own* benchmark reports
**80–94% less code and 42–75% less cost** across five single-shot code-generation tasks, 3 models,
10 runs per cell (median reported). That is their measurement, not yours — yours is what the
ledger is for. And the failure mode is real: the 18%-net-*increase* case above is why the
baseline exists.
## Pricing & license terms
**$59. Once.**
- Perpetual licence to the version you bought — your key keeps working even if you never update.
- Signed key, **verified offline** on up to 3 devices; a dead laptop doesn't burn a seat.
- The DMG you download is the full product — nothing is crippled while you evaluate it. We'd
rather convince you than lock you out.
- Uninstall is one command and restores your machine exactly. If the product isn't for you, it
leaves no trace.
<!--
PURCHASE LINK: wire the checkout URL here when fulfilment goes live (Gate 2, doc 04).
Until then, license questions are handled via GitHub issues.
-->
Questions about licensing → [open an issue](https://github.com/BigMarc/TokenGem/issues/new).
## Install in 90 seconds
1. **[Download TokenGem-1.0.0-macOS.dmg](https://github.com/BigMarc/TokenGem/releases/latest)**
(1.6 MB, universal — Apple Silicon and Intel)
2. Open the DMG and drag **TokenGem** to **Applications**.
3. First launch: right-click the app → **Open** → **Open** (one time only — the binary is
ad-hoc signed while Developer-ID notarization is pending, so macOS checks you meant it).
Requires **Node 20+** (`brew install node`) — the app will tell you if it can't find it.
4. The gem appears in your menu bar. Click it → **Open Dashboard** → follow the four-command
quick start. The baseline step is the slow one; it's slow because it's reading your real
history, and it only ever happens once.
## FAQ
**Why pay for open-source tools?**
You're not. The three upstream projects stay free, stay linked below, and stay unmodified —
TokenGem never forks them. What you're buying is the part that doesn't exist anywhere else: the
deconfliction router (nobody has published a correct merge order for these three hooks), the
baseline-and-ledger measurement engine, the rollback guarantee, and the version pins that stop an
upstream Tuesday from silently breaking your setup.
**Is "buy once" real?**
Yes, with a noun: the licence is perpetual for the version you purchased. There is no subscription,
no telemetry-driven upsell, and no kill switch — verification is a local signature check.
**Will it survive a Claude Code update?**
The hook survives most; when one doesn't, the dashboard shows zero routing events and the
**Repair install** button re-asserts it idempotently. Upstream tool versions are pinned and only
bump after regression tests pass.
**How do I remove it completely?**
`tokengem uninstall`, then drag the app to the Trash. Settings snapshots in `~/.tokengem/backups/`
are restored byte for byte; your global Python/npm/Cargo environments were never touched.
**Where do I report a bug or request an agent?**
[Issues](https://github.com/BigMarc/TokenGem/issues) — the changelog is public and each release
notes exactly what changed, including upstream version bumps.
## Under the hood — and in our debt
TokenGem orchestrates three open-source projects as managed, pinned dependencies. They are named
here on purpose: you'd find them in five minutes anyway, and you deserve to find them in five
*seconds* instead — after purchase, which is how chargebacks happen.
| Project | What it does in TokenGem | Pinned | License |
|---|---|---|---|
| [RTK](https://github.com/rtk-ai/rtk) | Compresses shell command output before it enters context | v0.48.0 · `fde0a8f` | Apache-2.0 |
| [Ponytail](https://github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail) | Injects a minimal-code ruleset so the agent writes less | v4.9.0 · `0a4dd63` | MIT |
| [Graphify](https://github.com/Graphify-Labs/graphify) | Builds a queryable repo knowledge graph so the agent stops re-grepping | v0.9.53 · `33362d9` | Apache-2.0 |
Verbatim license texts live in [`LICENSES/`](LICENSES), full notices in
[`THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md`](THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md). We are grateful to the upstream authors and
claim no endorsement, partnership, or affiliation with them. TokenGem's router, measurement
engine, dashboard, and licensing are original work.
---
<div align="center">
**Stop guessing what your token tools saved.
[Download TokenGem](https://github.com/BigMarc/TokenGem/releases/latest) and read it.**
</div>