STOP BURNING YOUR OPUS 5.5 LIMIT FOR NOTHING
these 8 repos cut what Claude reads, writes and re-reads. copy the list before your next long session:
headroom: shrinks tool output, logs and files before they reach the model, and keeps the originals so Claude can pull them back when it needs them. 75k stars
https://t.co/EYGmAZtf9j
claude-context: semantic search over your whole codebase, so Claude fetches the relevant snippets and doesn’t read whole files to find them. 12k stars
https://t.co/9qDzZDtKz0
lean-ctx: a local layer that compresses file reads and shell output. a file Claude already read costs about 13 tokens the second time. 3.8k stars
https://t.co/KAv3APz9u1
openwolf: hooks that keep a project index and session notes, so Claude skips files it already read and doesn’t lose its work at compaction. 2.1k stars
https://t.co/Z5LTTdhk7u
claude-token-efficient: one CLAUDE.md that keeps answers short. nothing to install, and output is the $20-per-million side of Opus 5.5. 6.1k stars
https://t.co/t9EEmMtIgt
jcodemunch-mcp: indexes the repo once, then Claude asks for one function and gets just that. it claims 95% less code reading. 2.5k stars
https://t.co/0JqfiVYB5h
ccusage: reads your local Claude Code logs and shows tokens and cost by day and by session. 19k stars
https://t.co/h7HUn4cIuI
Claude-Code-Usage-Monitor: live usage bars and a forecast of when you’ll hit your limit. 8.6k stars
https://t.co/bXjFOzHRz4
none of them makes Opus better. each one just stops it from paying for tokens it didn’t need
start with the last two: see where your limit actually goes, then pick two tools from the top. the full setup with scripts is in the article