Skillget

distill

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SUMMARY

Distill large CLI outputs into small answers for LLMs and save tokens!

README.md

distill

Agent command outputs are one of the biggest sources of token waste.

Logs, test results, stack traces… thousands of tokens sent to an LLM just to answer a simple question.

🔥 distill compresses command outputs into only what the LLM actually needs.

Save up to 99% of tokens without losing the signal.

How to use

npm i -g @samuelfaj/distill

distill speaks any OpenAI-compatible API. Point it at whatever endpoint you run locally (LM Studio, Jan, LocalAI, vLLM, SGLang, llama.cpp, MLX, Docker Model Runner, Ollama's /v1, DFlash, etc.) or a hosted provider (OpenAI, etc.) by setting --host to its base URL.

Add in your global agent instructions file:

CRITICAL: Pipe every non-interactive shell command through `distill` unless raw output is explicitly required.

CRITICAL: Your prompt to `distill` must be fully explicit. State exactly what you want to know and exactly what the output must contain. If you want only filenames, say `Return only the filenames.` If you want JSON, say `Return valid JSON only.` Do not ask vague questions.

Bad:
- `distill "Which files are shown?"`

Good:
- `distill "Which files are shown? Return only the filenames."`

Examples:
- `bun test 2>&1 | distill "Did the tests pass? Return only: PASS or FAIL, followed by failing test names if any."`
- `git diff 2>&1 | distill "What changed? Return only the files changed and a one-line summary for each file."`
- `terraform plan 2>&1 | distill "Is this safe? Return only: SAFE, REVIEW, or UNSAFE, followed by the exact risky changes."`
- `npm audit 2>&1 | distill "Extract the vulnerabilities. Return valid JSON only."`
- `rg -n "TODO|FIXME" . 2>&1 | distill "List files containing TODO or FIXME. Return only file paths, one per line."`
- `ls -la 2>&1 | distill "Which files are shown? Return only the filenames."`

You may skip `distill` only in these cases:
- Exact uncompressed output is required.
- Using `distill` would break an interactive or TUI workflow.

CRITICAL: Wait for `distill` to finish before continuing.

Usage

logs | distill "summarize errors"
git diff | distill "what changed?"
terraform plan 2>&1 | distill "is this safe?"

Point at any OpenAI-compatible endpoint:

# LM Studio
distill --host http://127.0.0.1:1234/v1 --model your-loaded-model "what failed?"

# Ollama (via its OpenAI-compatible /v1 endpoint)
distill --host http://127.0.0.1:11434/v1 --model llama3.2 "what failed?"

# OpenAI
distill --host https://api.openai.com/v1 --model gpt-4o-mini --api-key sk-... "summarize"

# Docker Model Runner
distill --host http://127.0.0.1:12434/engines/v1 --model ai/llama3.2 "what failed?"

Configurations

You can persist defaults locally:

distill config host http://127.0.0.1:1234/v1
distill config model "qwen3.5:2b"
distill config api-key "secret-key-123"
distill config timeout-ms 90000

Environment variables override persisted config, and CLI flags override both:

  • DISTILL_HOST
  • DISTILL_MODEL
  • DISTILL_API_KEY
  • DISTILL_TIMEOUT_MS

For pipeline exit mirroring, use pipefail in your shell:

set -o pipefail

Interactive prompts are passed through when distill detects simple prompt patterns like [y/N] or password:.

Global agent instructions

If you want Codex, Claude Code, or OpenCode to prefer distill whenever they run a command whose output will be sent to a paid LLM, add a global instruction telling the agent to pipe command output through distill.

  • Codex reads global agent instructions from ~/.codex/AGENTS.md.
  • Claude Code supports global settings in ~/.claude/settings.json, and its official mechanism for custom behavior is global instructions via CLAUDE.md.
  • OpenCode supports global instruction files through ~/.config/opencode/opencode.json. Point its instructions field at a markdown file with the same rule.
  • GitHub Copilot CLI supports local global instructions from ~/.copilot/copilot-instructions.md.
  • GitHub Copilot CLI also reads repository instructions from .github/copilot-instructions.md, and it can read AGENTS.md files from directories listed in COPILOT_CUSTOM_INSTRUCTIONS_DIRS.

Example:

rg -n "terminal|PERMISSION|permission|Permissions|Plan|full access|default" desktop --glob '!**/node_modules/**' | distill "find where terminal and permission UI are implemented in chat screen"

🔥 Saved ~98.7% tokens

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