espresso

**Less filler. Less unnecessary context. Same model, right effort.**
Lightweight workflows for Claude Code, Codex, OMP and Pi. Keep explanations,
evidence and useful code comments, without repetitive reminders or automatic
changes to your global settings.
Where the savings come from
| Mechanism | What it changes | What we can honestly claim |
|---|---|---|
| No ordinary-prompt reminders | Removes Espresso's repeated reminder payload | Eliminates that input overhead compared with Espresso 1.x; total session savings are unmeasured |
| Concise policy | Asks for direct answers and the smallest correct change | Aims to reduce unnecessary prose and code; output length and quality remain model-dependent |
| Optional RTK | Filters supported command output before it enters context | Can reduce tool-output volume; RTK reports bytes removed and estimated tokens, not total session or subscription savings |
| Same-model delegation | Delegated agents keep the session model | Avoids the quality loss and retries of cheaper workers; each agent still pays its own startup context |
Espresso does not enlarge the context window or erase existing history.
Its policy also occupies context. We have verified the integrations, not measured
an end-to-end token reduction. There is no universal savings percentage.
RTK is **off by default** in the OMP/Pi extension. The integration only considers
simple git status and git log --oneline commands with a small flag allowlist.
Diffs, tests, patch logs and scripts stay untouched. Missing RTK or a failed
rewrite leaves the original command intact. Existing RTK hooks are independent.
Checked with RTK 0.51.0.
See RTK's measurement definition.
Smaller code: Ponytail included
Espresso bundles the real Ponytail
4.13.0 runtime and all six upstream skills, with its MIT license and pinned
source commit in ponytail-upstream.json. No separate installation or startup
download is needed. It starts in **full** mode unless an existing Ponytail
configuration or PONYTAIL_DEFAULT_MODE overrides that default.
In OMP and Pi, **/ponytail opens a selector**: full, lite, ultra, off or status.
/ponytail off disables it for the session; /ponytail default off changes the
default for future sessions. Use /ponytail default full to restore it.
Headless commands show status instead of opening a menu. Claude/Codex use the
bundled skills and lifecycle hooks; they do not get the OMP/Pi native selector.
Also included: ponytail-review, ponytail-audit, ponytail-gain,
ponytail-debt and ponytail-help. Use their slash commands in OMP/Pi,
plugin skill commands in Claude, and skill invocation in Codex.
Espresso and Ponytail have independent switches. Avoid enabling a second,
standalone Ponytail extension alongside the bundled one.
Its authors' agentic benchmark
reports less code and fewer tokens on 12 feature tasks with Haiku 4.5, four runs
per task and condition. Gains are largest where custom code can be replaced by
native features, and small or absent where the implementation is already minimal.
These are Ponytail's results, not Espresso measurements.
The authors also warn that reasoning overhead can increase cost on GPT-5.5.
Use it to reduce unnecessary implementation, not to chase the fewest lines.
Shorter code is not automatically better code; validation, error handling,
security and accessibility must remain intact.
Harness support
| Harness | Policy | Delegation |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | SessionStart hook and skill | Read-only espresso:scout and native subagents, all on the session model |
| Codex | Trusted SessionStart hook and skill | Native agents on the session model |
| OMP | Extension and skill | Native agents and an explicit text-only worker |
| Pi | Extension and skill | Explicit text-only worker; core Pi has no subagent tool |