"Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick? Big output go file. Small word stay. Context happy. Me happy. Everyone go home by seven."
— Kevin Malone
A Claude Code plugin that automatically offloads large command outputs to files, keeping your context clean and retrievable.
AI coding agents hit a wall when:
- Tool outputs bloat your context — One big test run or log dump eats 10k tokens that sit there forever
- Plans get lost — After context summarization, Claude forgets what it was doing
- You're paying for waste — Most of your context is irrelevant to the current step
FewWord implements dynamic context discovery — patterns from Manus and LangChain that use the filesystem as infinite, searchable memory.
Instead of this:
[26,000 tokens of command outputs sitting in context forever]
You get this (~35 tokens):
[fw A1B2C3D4] find e=0 15K 882L | /open A1B2C3D4
For failures, you also get a preview:
[fw E5F6G7H8] pytest e=1 45K 234L | /open E5F6G7H8
FAILED test_auth.py::test_login - AssertionError
FAILED test_api.py::test_endpoint - TimeoutError
2 failed, 48 passed in 12.34s
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Claude Code Session │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ │
│ You: "Run the test suite" │
│ │ │
│ ▼ │
│ ┌──────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ PreToolUse Hook Intercepts │ │
│ │ ───────────────────────── │ │
│ │ Command: pytest │ │
│ │ Output: 45,678 bytes (>8KB threshold) │ │
│ └──────────────────────────────────────────┘ │
│ │ │
│ ┌───────────────┴───────────────┐ │
│ ▼ ▼ │
│ ┌─────────────────────┐ ┌─────────────────────────┐ │
│ │ Write to Disk │ │ Return to Context │ │
│ │ ───────────────── │ │ ──────────────────── │ │
│ │ .fewword/scratch/ │ │ File: pytest_143022.txt│ │
│ │ tool_outputs/ │ │ Size: 45KB, Exit: 1 │ │
│ │ pytest_143022.txt │ │ === Last 10 lines === │ │
│ │ │ │ FAILED auth_test... │ │
│ │ [Full 45KB output] │ │ [~200 tokens only] │ │
│ └─────────────────────┘ └─────────────────────────┘ │
│ │
│ Later: "What tests failed?" │
│ │ │
│ ▼ │
│ Claude: grep FAILED .fewword/scratch/tool_outputs/pytest.txt │
│ → Retrieves exactly what's needed │
│ │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Result: 45KB output → ~35 tokens in context + full data on disk when needed.
We ran the same 3 commands (find, ls -la, env) in two fresh Claude Code sessions:
| Metric | WITH Plugin | WITHOUT Plugin |
|---|---|---|
| Message Tokens | 4.7k | 26.0k |
| Tokens Saved | 21.3k | — |
| Savings | 82% | — |
When you run /context, you see several categories:
Total Context: 84k tokens (with plugin) vs 105k tokens (without)
├── System prompt: 3.8k (constant - Claude's instructions)
├── System tools: 15.8k (constant - built-in tools)
├── MCP tools: 14.7k (constant - browser automation, etc.)
├── Messages: 4.7k ← THIS IS WHAT FEWWORD REDUCES (was 26k)
└── Free space: ...
The 82% savings (21.3k tokens) is specifically on Message tokens — that's where your actual conversation and command outputs live.
Step 1: Add the marketplace
claude plugin marketplace add sheeki03/Few-WordStep 2: Install the plugin
claude plugin install fewword@sheeki03-Few-WordStep 3: Start a new session for hooks to load.
That's it! FewWord works automatically — no configuration needed.
Alternative: Install from inside Claude Code
You can also run these commands inside an active Claude session:
/plugin marketplace add sheeki03/Few-Word
/plugin install fewword@sheeki03-Few-Word
Then start a new session.
FewWord checks for updates automatically on session start. Notifications are rate-limited (at most once every 24 hours).
To update manually:
claude plugin update fewword@sheeki03-Few-WordThen start a new session for hooks to reload.
Check your version: /version
Disable update checks: export FEWWORD_DISABLE_UPDATE_CHECK=1
| Command | What It Does |
|---|---|
/help |
Show detailed help and how the plugin works |
/stats |
Show session statistics and estimated token savings |
/version |
Show installed version and update command |
/open <id> |
Retrieve an offloaded output by ID |
/recent |
Show recent offloaded outputs (recovery after compaction) |
/pin <id> |
Pin an output to prevent auto-cleanup |
/init |
Set up FewWord directory structure |
/cleanup |
See storage stats, clean old files |
/search <term> |
Search through all offloaded context |
/save <content> |
Manually save content to FewWord storage |
/export |
Export session history as markdown report |
| Feature | What Happens |
|---|---|
| Tiered Offloading | < 512B: inline. 512B-4KB: compact pointer (~35 tokens). > 4KB: pointer + preview (failures only). |
| Smart Retention | Exit 0 (success) → 24h retention. Exit != 0 (failure) → 48h retention. LRU eviction at 250MB. |
| LATEST Aliases | LATEST.txt and LATEST_{cmd}.txt symlinks for quick retrieval |
| Session Tracking | Per-session stats for /stats |
| Plan Persistence | Active plan in .fewword/index/current_plan.yaml, auto-archived on completion |
| Event | Action |
|---|---|
| SessionStart | Creates directories, runs smart cleanup (TTL + LRU), shows inventory, updates .gitignore |
| PreToolUse | Intercepts Bash commands, wraps large outputs, writes manifest, creates LATEST aliases |
| SessionEnd | Archives completed plans |
| Stop | Warns if scratch storage exceeds 100MB |
your-project/
└── .fewword/
├── scratch/ # Ephemeral (auto-cleaned by TTL + LRU)
│ ├── tool_outputs/ # Command outputs (24h success, 48h failure)
│ │ ├── LATEST.txt # Symlink to most recent output
│ │ ├── LATEST_{cmd}.txt # Symlink to most recent per command
│ │ └── {cmd}_{ts}_{id}_exit{code}.txt
│ └── subagents/ # Agent workspaces
├── memory/ # Persistent (never auto-cleaned)
│ ├── plans/ # Archived completed plans
│ ├── pinned/ # Pinned outputs (via /pin)
│ └── history/ # Archived sessions
├── index/ # Metadata
│ ├── session.json # Current session ID
│ ├── current_plan.yaml # Active plan
│ └── tool_outputs.jsonl # Append-only manifest
└── DISABLE_OFFLOAD # Escape hatch file
Note: The plugin automatically adds .fewword/scratch/ and .fewword/index/ to .gitignore.
If automatic offloading causes issues:
# Disable via file
touch .fewword/DISABLE_OFFLOAD
# Or via environment variable
export FEWWORD_DISABLE=1The plugin conservatively skips these commands:
- Interactive: ssh, vim, less, top, python, node, psql, etc.
- Already redirecting: commands with
>,2>,| tee - Heredocs: commands containing
<< - Pipelines: commands containing
|(v1 limitation) - Trivial: commands under 10 characters
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Inline threshold | 512B (outputs below this shown inline) |
| Preview threshold | 4KB (outputs above this get tail preview on failure) |
| Preview lines | 5 (tail only, for failures) |
| Success retention (exit 0) | 24 hours |
| Failure retention (exit != 0) | 48 hours |
| Scratch max size | 250MB (LRU eviction) |
# Tiered offloading thresholds
FEWWORD_INLINE_MAX=512 # Below this: show inline
FEWWORD_PREVIEW_MIN=4096 # Above this: add preview (failures only)
FEWWORD_PREVIEW_LINES=5 # Max preview lines
# Pointer customization
FEWWORD_OPEN_CMD=/open # Command shown in pointer
FEWWORD_SHOW_PATH=1 # Append file path to pointer
FEWWORD_VERBOSE_POINTER=1 # Use old verbose format (v2.0 style)
# Retention settings
FEWWORD_RETENTION_SUCCESS_MIN=1440 # 24h default
FEWWORD_RETENTION_FAIL_MIN=2880 # 48h default
FEWWORD_SCRATCH_MAX_MB=250 # LRU capNote: Longer retention keeps command outputs on disk longer. If you work with sensitive data, consider lowering TTLs via environment variables or adding
.fewword/scratch/to your backup exclusions.
| Protection | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Path Traversal Prevention | All file operations validate paths stay within working directory |
| Bounded File Reads | Large files (>2MB) skipped to prevent memory exhaustion |
| Secret Redaction | AWS keys, GitHub tokens, API keys auto-redacted before writing to disk |
| Test Mode Safety | Matched secrets masked by default (use --show-matches to reveal) |
| Manifest Integrity | Robust JSON escaping prevents corruption from special characters |
| Logged | NOT Logged |
|---|---|
| Timestamp, session ID | Raw command arguments (may contain secrets) |
| Tool name (e.g., "find", "pytest") | Full command text |
| Output file path | Environment variables |
FewWord intercepts MCP tool calls (mcp__*) for two purposes:
| What We Do | What We DON'T Do |
|---|---|
Log tool name (e.g., mcp__github__create_issue) |
Log argument values (may contain tokens, secrets) |
Log input parameter keys (e.g., ["repo", "title"]) |
Store or transmit your data anywhere |
| Clamp pagination (limit requests to 100 results max) | Block read-only operations |
Example metadata entry:
{
"timestamp": "2026-01-08T14:30:00",
"tool": "mcp__github__search_issues",
"input_keys": ["query", "repo", "limit"],
"input_count": 3
}Your actual query strings, repo names, and other sensitive values are never logged.
MIT — Use it, modify it, share it.
Issues and PRs welcome! Ideas for improvement:
- Opencode Support