pix-optimizer

Token-optimization suite for Pi Coding Agent. Three tools wired into one extension via src/index.ts, fronted by a single /opt command and one shared status-bar cell:

• Caveman (󰜐) — terse-output system prompt
• RTK (󰓥) — prefixes shell commands with rtk + injects RTK prompt
• TOON (󰗀) — jq + TOON guidance for dense JSON (skill lives in pix-skills)
• Ponytail (󰆐) — lazy-senior-dev system prompt (minimal code, YAGNI)

Command

One command routes to every tool:

/opt                  → status + help
/opt caveman <level>  → set caveman level (1/2/3/lite/full/ultra/micro/off/config)
/opt rtk [on|off]     → toggle RTK rewriting
/opt toon [on|off]    → toggle jq+TOON guidance
/opt ponytail <level> → set ponytail level (1/2/3/lite/full/ultra/off/config)

Status bar

A single cell always shows the enabled icons in a fixed order (󰜐 󰓥 󰗀 󰆐), color- coded by state: accent when the tool is enabled, dim when disabled.

Features

Caveman Mode (󰜐)

Cuts ~75% of output tokens while keeping full technical accuracy.

#	Name	Description
1	lite	Professional, no fluff
2	full	Classic caveman
3	ultra	Maximum compression
–	micro	Experimental prompt-minimized

/opt caveman config opens a settings dialog. Default level for new sessions and status-bar visibility are saved to ~/.pi/agent/caveman.json.

RTK Tool Rewriting (󰓥)

Two layers, both active automatically:

1. Prompt layer — injects the RTK system prompt (tells the model to prefix commands with rtk).
2. Execute layer — rewrites bash tool calls, prefixing known commands (git, gh, cargo, npm, pnpm, docker, kubectl, ls, grep, …) with rtk when the model forgets. Command chains are split on &&, ||, ; and |, and every known segment is prefixed — e.g. git add . && git push becomes rtk git add . && rtk git push. Operators inside quotes are ignored, and unparseable commands are left untouched. Falls back gracefully when the rtk binary is missing (warns once).

Requirement: the rtk binary must be on PATH.

cargo install rtk-ai

TOON / JSON Compression (󰗀)

Guidance for handling information-dense JSON via jq (query/reshape) and toon (compress). The system-prompt nudge is injected only when the user prompt mentions JSON (json/jsonl/jq/toon/openapi/…). TOON shines on uniform/tabular arrays; deeply nested or array-of-arrays data and API contracts stay as JSON.

The toon-json skill (full workflow + when-NOT-to-use guidance) is bundled in pix-skills and auto-discovered from there.

Requirement: jq and toon on PATH.

npm i -g @toon-format/cli

Ponytail Mode (󰆐)

"Lazy senior dev" mode. Governs what the agent builds (minimal code, YAGNI), orthogonal to Caveman which governs how it talks — they pair. Before writing code the agent stops at the first rung that holds: does this need to exist → stdlib → native platform → installed dep → one line → minimum that works. Validation, error handling, security, and accessibility are never cut.

#	Name	Description
1	lite	Name the lazier alternative, you pick
2	full	The ladder enforced (default)
3	ultra	YAGNI extremist

/opt ponytail config opens a settings dialog. Default level for new sessions and status-bar visibility are saved to ~/.pi/agent/ponytail.json.

No install required — pure prompt injection, no external binary or PATH dependency (unlike RTK and TOON).

Installation

pi install npm:@xynogen/pix-optimizer

Architecture

File	Role
src/index.ts	Wires the four tools + shared status, registers /opt
src/opt.ts	The /opt router: parse, complete, dispatch
src/status.ts	Shared status-bar cell + OptimizerHandle contract
src/caveman.ts	Caveman logic, levels, prompt, settings dialog
src/rtk.ts	RTK prompt + bash command rewriting
src/json.ts	jq+TOON guidance, heuristics, system-prompt injection
src/ponytail.ts	Ponytail logic, levels, prompt, settings dialog

Each tool registers its own lifecycle hooks and exposes an OptimizerHandle that /opt dispatches to. All four share one OptimizerStatus.

Development

bun test

Origin

This package was built by merging two upstream Pi community packages:

• Caveman mode — merged from git:github.com/jonjonrankin/pi-caveman (itself a fork of npm:pi-caveman). Reimplemented here with multiple compression levels, a settings dialog, per-session persistence, and integration with the shared /opt command.

• RTK rewriting — merged from npm:pi-rtk-optimizer. Reimplemented here with a two-layer approach: prompt injection + live bash command rewriting that handles chained commands (&&, ||, ;, |).

• Ponytail mode — ruleset adapted from git:github.com/DietrichGebert/ponytail, the "lazy senior dev" skill. Reimplemented here as a native /opt tool with three intensity levels, a settings dialog, and per-session persistence — no external hooks or files. The ruleset (the YAGNI ladder + safety carve-outs) is rewritten as a system-prompt fragment.

All upstreams are MIT licensed. No codebase was copied directly — the logic was rewritten and combined into a single extension with a unified /opt command and shared status bar. This package does not sync back to any upstream.

Full distro

To install the complete pix suite (all packages + Pi itself):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xynogen/pix-mono/main/scripts/install.sh | sh

License

MIT