Pattern: Token-Cost Optimization Has Crystallized Into Its Own Tooling Category

GitHub·medium signal

caveman (output stripping, 54k stars), claude-mem (compressed cross-session memory, 82k stars), and code-review-graph (graph-scoped context reads) are independent tools all attacking different layers of the same problem: agent token spend. With four major platforms resetting billing within ~18 days of each other, builders are stacking output-, memory-, and context-side reducers rather than relying on any single lever.