Lean Context
Compress AI context by up to 99% when reading files, searching code, and running commands.
Installation
- Make sure Claude is on your device and in your terminal.
Skills load from
~/.claude/skills/when Claude Code starts up β so you need it on your machine first. If you don't have it yet, install it once with the command below, then runclaudein any terminal to verify.One-time setupnpm i -g @anthropic-ai/claude-codeAlready have it? Skip ahead.
- Paste into Claude Code or into your terminal.
This copies the whole skill folder into
~/.claude/skills/lean-ctx-yvgude/β the SKILL.md plus any scripts, reference docs, or templates the skill ships with. Safe default: works for every skill.Faster alternative (instruction-only skills)
Skips the clone and grabs only the SKILL.md file. Don't use this if the skill ships Python scripts, reference markdowns, or asset templates β they won't be downloaded and the skill will fail when it tries to load them.
Quick install (SKILL.md only)Sign up to copy - Restart Claude Code.
Quit and reopen Claude Code (or any other agent that loads from
~/.claude/skills/). New skills are picked up on startup. - Just ask Claude.
Skills auto-activate when your request matches the skill's description β no slash command needed. Trigger phrases live in the skill's own frontmatter; you can read them in the βWhat this skill doesβ section above.
Prefer to read the source first? Open on GitHub.
When Claude uses it
Context Engineering for AI Agents β 82 MCP tools, 10 read modes, 95+ shell patterns, tree-sitter AST for 27 languages. Compresses LLM context by up to 99%. Use when reading files, running shell commands, searching code, or exploring directories. Auto-installs if not present.
What this skill does
lean-ctx β Context Engineering for AI Agents
Setup
which lean-ctx || curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/yvgude/lean-ctx/main/skills/lean-ctx/scripts/install.sh | bash
lean-ctx setup
Tool Visibility Profiles
| Profile | Tools advertised |
|---|---|
| Lean (default, unpinned) | ctx_read, ctx_shell, shell, ctx_search, ctx_glob, ctx_tree, ctx_session, ctx_compose, ctx_callgraph, ctx_patch*, ctx_call, ctx_expand |
minimal | ctx_read, ctx_shell, ctx_search, ctx_glob, ctx_tree; ctx_call is also advertised as the fallback invoker |
standard | Minimal + ctx_compose, ctx_explore, ctx_knowledge, ctx_session, ctx_callgraph, ctx_graph, ctx_delta, ctx_execute, ctx_expand, ctx_overview, ctx_url_read, ctx_patch; ctx_call is also advertised as the fallback invoker |
power | Full public tool registry |
* Lean hides ctx_patch for clients with a reliable native editor. Disabled
tools, role policy, and client compatibility can further narrow every profile.
Shell Hook (use instead of raw exec)
lean-ctx -c "git status"
lean-ctx -c "cargo test"
lean-ctx -c "npm install"
lean-ctx ls src/
ctx_read Modes
| Mode | When |
|---|---|
anchored | Files you will edit (full text + N:hh| anchors for ctx_patch) |
full | Verbatim cached read |
map | Context-only (deps + exports) |
signatures | API surface only |
diff | After edits (changed lines) |
aggressive | Large files, syntax-stripped; JSON arrays row-deduped (lossless) |
entropy | Shannon filtering |
task | Task-relevant lines |
lines:N-M | Specific range |
auto | System selects optimal |
Re-reads cost ~13 tokens. fresh=true bypasses cache.
Redundant JSON (arrays of like objects) is crushed losslessly into a compact
_defaults + per-row form; if a slice was dropped, recover it with
ctx_expand(id, json_path=β¦ | search=β¦).
File Editing
Anchored editing saves output tokens: ctx_read(mode="anchored") β ctx_patch(path, op, line, hash, new_text).
Never reproduce old text byte-for-byte; batch via ops:[β¦]; op=create writes new files.
Stale anchor β CONFLICT with fresh anchors (retry once). Native Edit/StrReplace stay fine;
ctx_edit (str_replace) is the legacy fallback via ctx_call/power profile.
More Tools (via ctx_call or ctx_load_tools)
Architecture: ctx_symbol, ctx_callgraph, ctx_impact, ctx_architecture, ctx_routes, ctx_smells, ctx_quality β³ "What breaks if I change this file/class/type?" β ctx_impact (file-level blast radius; resolves same-package/namespace type usage with no import for C#, Java, Go and Kotlin). "Who calls this function?" β ctx_callgraph (symbol-level). "How navigable / how much is complexity costing me?" β ctx_quality (navigability score + token quality tax). Multi-agent: ctx_agent, ctx_share, ctx_task, ctx_handoff, ctx_workflow Verify: ctx_benchmark, ctx_verify, ctx_proof, ctx_review Batch: ctx_fill, ctx_execute, ctx_expand, ctx_pack
Full docs: https://leanctx.com/docs
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