token-efficient.work
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A rule for Claude Code · Codex · Copilot CLI · Gemini CLI · Cursor · Aider

Your agent already knows the file didn't change. Stop making it check.

token-efficient-work is a portable skill + config hook that stops coding agents from re-reading files they just edited, opening whole files for two-line changes, running unrequested "just to be safe" checks, and over-explaining what the diff already shows.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/vannt-dev/token-efficient-work/v0.2.0/install-project.sh | bash

Run from your project root. No clone needed — installs into .claude/, .agents/, .cursor/ and each tool's instructions file, then you commit it. Full install options ↗

01What it actually stops

A real, unscripted trial: same task — "rename this function, update its one caller" — given to Codex CLI twice, once with the rule installed and once without. Same model, same files.

baseline 4 commands
  1. rg "calc_total|compute_total"
  2. Get-Content -Raw main.py
  3. Get-Content -Raw utils.py
  4. apply edit
  5. rg "calc_total|compute_total" — again
with skill 2 commands
  1. read SKILL.md once
  2. rg "calc_total|compute_total"
  3. apply edit

02The fix — five rules

Every read, re-check, and sentence of output should add information the agent doesn't already have. If it doesn't, skip it.

  1. 01

    Locate before you read

    Search first, then read only the matching range — not the whole file, on the chance something in it is relevant.

  2. 02

    A successful edit doesn't need a confirmation read

    If the tool reported success, the change applied. Re-reading to "make sure" spends a full file for zero new information.

  3. 03

    Verify proportionally to what's at stake

    Name the specific risk a check rules out before adding it. "Can't hurt to check" is not a risk.

  4. 04

    Reuse what you already established

    Read a file or ran a command already this session? Use that result instead of re-fetching it "to be current."

  5. 05

    Match output length to the question

    A yes/no question gets a sentence. Don't restate a diff the user can already see.

03Real numbers, not vibes

Token usage Codex itself reported for the trial above.

Tool calls

With skill
2
Baseline
4

Input tokens

With skill
43,204
Baseline
56,164
With skill installed Baseline (skill + hook removed)

Same task, same model: 2× the tool calls and ~30% more input tokens for a two-line rename, entirely from re-reading files it had already located and re-checking an edit that had already succeeded.

Single paired trial (n=1) with real Codex CLI, not a simulation — indicative of direction and rough magnitude, not a statistically powered benchmark. Full methodology and raw numbers: EVIDENCE.md ↗

04Works with your stack

One rule, six install targets — the project installer writes each tool's own convention so nobody on the team has to set it up by hand.

Claude Code Codex Copilot CLI Gemini CLI Cursor Aider