rtk

rtk is a skill for Claude Code from swt-labs/vibe-better-with-claude-code-vbw. It costs 33 tokens per session (353 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A setup guide for RTK, a third-party tool that shortens command output before it reaches the coding assistant. It also covers RTK's Claude Code hook, which runs automatically for supported commands.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to check, install, confirm, or remove RTK safely, with user approval for installation and removal.
Why use it?
Large command results use up the assistant's available conversation context. Shorter output can leave more context for the actual task.

Skill for Claude Code

Written for Claude Code: allowed-tools in frontmatter. Also seen: mentions Claude Code.

Runs only inside its plugin — its command needs a path that Claude Code sets for a plugin’s own hooks and for nothing else. Install the plugin, not this.

Part of the vbw plugin — 34 skills, 7 agents, 4 hooks shipped together

Good fit Use it to check, install, confirm, or remove RTK safely, with user approval for installation and removal.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install

Getting it into your agent

This one installs as part of its plugin. Adding the marketplace and installing the plugin brings it with everything else the plugin ships.

Claude Code
/plugin marketplace add swt-labs/vibe-better-with-claude-code-vbw
Claude Code
/plugin install vbw

Made for: Claude Code.

Or install vbw, the plugin that ships this one along with the rest of its 34 skills, 7 agents, 4 hooks.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for rtk

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/swt-labs/vibe-better-with-claude-code-vbw/rtk/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/swt-labs/vibe-better-with-claude-code-vbw/rtk)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/swt-labs/vibe-better-with-claude-code-vbw/rtk"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/swt-labs/vibe-better-with-claude-code-vbw/rtk/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for rtk

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/swt-labs/vibe-better-with-claude-code-vbw/rtk"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/swt-labs/vibe-better-with-claude-code-vbw/rtk.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 33 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 353 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5.1 $0.00033 $0.00353
Opus 5.5 $0.00013 $0.00141
Sonnet 5.5 $0.00007 $0.00071
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00035

Measured today against content hash 27910711a65d, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-10-07, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

rtk scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured today.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

plugin/skills/rtk/SKILL.md · 31 lines

What it actually says

"${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/bin/vbw" rtk 2>&1 || true
"${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/bin/vbw" interview 2>&1 || true

Write to the user's level, explanation depth and involvement (above; "-": plain words).

The user said: $ARGUMENTS

RTK (https://github.com/rtk-ai/rtk) shrinks command output before it reaches the context, through its own Claude Code hook. VBW's guard judges the command inside rtk ....

  • status (or nothing asked): explain the state and what each action does; ask what they want.
  • install: only with the user's yes, run the "install with" command shown above if RTK is not installed, then rtk init -g (RTK adds its own hook to the user's Claude settings), then rtk --version and rtk gain to confirm. Tell them to restart Claude Code. Never use sudo or pipe a downloaded script into a shell.
  • uninstall: with the user's yes, rtk init -g --uninstall removes the hook; removing the program itself is brew uninstall rtk or cargo uninstall rtk, only if they ask.
Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. today First seen · 31 lines · 33 tokens per session scan A 27910711a65d

Subscribe to this mod's changes

rtk is a skill published in the GitHub repository swt-labs/vibe-better-with-claude-code-vbw (85 stars, last pushed today), licensed MIT. It adds 33 tokens to every session and 353 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5.5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-10-22.