dsh-tokenslash ⚡

Cut up to 85% of prompt overhead in DeepSeek Harness.
Automatically prune unused tools, strip bloated system prompts, and route subagents to budget-friendly models — without breaking agent workflows.

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Why TokenSlash?

Every time you hit Enter in DeepSeek Harness (DSH), the system prompt includes every single registered tool schema and plugin guideline — even ones you never touch (image generators, web crawlers, workflow planners).

In a typical desktop setup, that's 50+ tools and ~18,000 tokens of static overhead on every single turn. Over a 10-turn coding session, you burn 180,000+ tokens just telling the LLM what tools exist.

TokenSlash fixes this. It uses an ultra-fast, lightweight triage model (TypeSafe Jev) to detect what your prompt actually needs, strips the 35–43 tools you don't need, and keeps only what's required.

Highlights

• 📉 Up to 85% Prompt Overhead Reduction: Drops ~18,000 token turn baselines down to ~3,000 tokens.
• 🛡️ Zero Workflow Breakage: Core file and command tools (read, write, edit, pwsh, grep, glob) are preserved in Normal mode.
• 🧠 Context-Aware Continuity: "continue", "resume", or follow-up prompts automatically inherit your active tool set.
• ⚡ Sub-Second Triage: Jev triage takes ~500ms over local proxy, with built-in fail-open safety (if triage fails, nothing is dropped).
• 💰 Subagent Model Tiering: Automatically routes lightweight subagent tasks to cheaper models (gemini-2.5-flash, deepseek-chat).

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Real Benchmark Results

Tested on live DSH Desktop v2.0.10 with 50 registered tools and 9 system prompt sections extracted directly from an active runtime session. Triage executed against live openrouter/typesafe/jev-1.13 via 9Router.

4-Turn Coding & Audit Session

Turn	Prompt	Baseline (Without TokenSlash)	With TokenSlash (Normal)	With TokenSlash (Extreme)	Tokens Saved	Reduction
1	"Audit lib/ directory for issues..."	18,036 tokens	3,813 tokens	3,055 tokens	14,223	78.9%
2	"Read lib/index.js & jev-client.js"	18,036 tokens	3,813 tokens	2,633 tokens	15,402	85.4%
3	"continue" (inherited tool mask)	18,036 tokens	3,813 tokens	2,633 tokens	15,402	85.4%
4	"Summarize audit findings"	18,036 tokens	3,402 tokens	2,420 tokens	15,616	86.6%
Total	4 turns cumulative	72,144 tokens	14,841 tokens	10,741 tokens	61,403	85.1%

Note on measurement: Tool schemas (50,602 chars) and system prompt sections (21,540 chars) were captured verbatim from live session data. Triage calls were executed against live Jev. Token counts are computed using the standard character ratio (chars / 4).

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How Pruning Modes Work

Choose the mode that fits your style in the settings:

• normal (Recommended): Keeps core developer tools (read, write, edit, glob, grep, pwsh, tokenslash_triage, todo_write, present) active at all times, stripping only irrelevant specialized tools (image generation, custom workflows, scraper modules) and prompt sections. Safe, transparent, and cuts ~79% of tokens.
• extreme: Only keeps the exact tools detected for the immediate prompt (e.g., just read and edit during code inspection). Cuts ~85% of tokens.
• off: Disables schema and prompt pruning entirely (runs 100% vanilla DSH).

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Installation

Method 1: DSH Plugin Manager (Recommended)

dsh plugin add github:JessenReinhart/dsh-tokenslash

Method 2: Manual Clone

Clone into your profile packages folder:

git clone https://github.com/JessenReinhart/dsh-tokenslash.git ~/.dsh/profiles/desktop/packages/dsh-tokenslash

Restart DSH Desktop or hit Ctrl + R to reload the UI. TokenSlash will appear in your plugin settings.

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Quick Start & Configuration

TokenSlash works out of the box with safe defaults. Customize settings under Settings → TokenSlash or via API:

Option	Default	What it does
enabled	true	Turn TokenSlash on or off globally
toolPruningMode	"normal"	Pruning aggressiveness ("normal", "extreme", or "off")
provider	"opencode"	Triage provider (opencode, 9router, openrouter, typesafe, custom)
customBaseUrl	http://127.0.0.1:20128/v1/systemone	Endpoint for 9Router or custom proxy
pinnedTools	[]	List of tool names you never want pruned (e.g. ["pwsh", "read"])
failOpen	true	If triage endpoint goes down, keep all tools safe instead of failing

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Key Features Under the Hood

1. Smart System Prompt & Tool Pruning

Hooks into DSH's system-prompt/assemble lifecycle. Analyzes the incoming prompt, strips unused tool JSON schemas and non-essential documentation sections, and caches the result for the turn.

When tools are pruned, TokenSlash automatically injects a Pruning Notice (tokenslash-pruned-tools) into the system prompt listing the pruned tools. This lets the LLM know which tools were stripped and reminds it that pruned tools can be inspected or unlocked on demand via tokenslash_peek.

2. Dynamic Tool Unlocking & Inspection via tokenslash_peek

TokenSlash registers tokenslash_peek as a core built-in tool that survives all pruning passes. If the agent discovers it needs a pruned tool mid-turn, it can invoke tokenslash_peek without breaking workflow:

• action: "inspect": Retrieve full schemas and descriptions of specified tools.
• action: "unlock": Mark specified tools as unlocked for the agent's turn so they bypass pruning on subsequent assembly passes.

3. Multi-Turn Mask Inheritance

When you say "continue", "resume", or give a brief instruction, TokenSlash detects the continuation and retains the tool mask from the prior turn so your agent never loses its active tools midway through a task.

4. Subagent Model Tiering

Routes subagent delegations based on task complexity. Sends simple file lookups to fast/cheap tiers (deepseek-chat, gemini-2.5-flash) while saving smart models (deepseek-reasoner, claude-3-7-sonnet) for deep architectural reasoning.

5. Tool Output Pruning & Compaction

When tools return massive payloads (>10KB JSON or huge diffs), TokenSlash condenses the result to essentials so history doesn't bloat your context window.

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API & Tool Surface

Cordis Tools Registered

• tokenslash_triage: Run custom Jev triage queries against the configured endpoint.
• tokenslash_peek: Dynamic inspection and unlocking tool for pruned tools.
  • Parameters:
    • action: "inspect" | "unlock" (required)
    • tools: string[] (list of tool names, required)

REST Endpoints

TokenSlash exposes local endpoints for stats and external triage:

• GET /api/dsh-tokenslash/stats — View total tokens saved, USD saved, and prune counts.
• GET /api/dsh-tokenslash/history — Inspect recent prune events and decisions.
• POST /api/dsh-tokenslash/config — Update configuration dynamically.
• POST /api/dsh-tokenslash/triage — Run arbitrary triage questions against the Jev engine.

Live telemetry sample:

{
  "totalTokensSaved": 246669,
  "estimatedCostSavedUsd": "0.54",
  "toolsPrunedCount": 26,
  "promptsPrunedCount": 26,
  "lastPruneEvent": {
    "toolsCount": 38,
    "sectionsCount": 8,
    "tokensSaved": 14223,
    "mode": "normal"
  }
}

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Testing

npm test

All 71 test suites run without external dependencies or live network access.

License

MIT © Jessen Reinhart