1Rules
- Install the plugin in Claude Code. It adds a local search engine (XERJ, open source, one binary on your machine) as memory and teaches the agent to ask "where is it" before it opens a file.
/plugin marketplace add nikolaichuk7/xerj-plugins /plugin install xerj-memory@xerj-plugins
- Work as usual for seven days. No special prompts. The plugin counts bytes read through the index and the whole files behind those answers.
- Post the card. At the end of a session the plugin prints a score card and writes a PNG. Post it with #TokenDiet, or send it to [email protected]. Your name and codebase appear only as you write them; organisations appear only with written permission.
- Ranking. By the read-to-used ratio over the week (whole files behind the answers divided by bytes actually read). Ties go to the larger number of bytes saved. Cards are checkable: the plugin's ledger file is on your machine, and the method is on the technical note.
2Leaderboard, week 1
| # | Participant | Codebase | Ratio | Bytes saved | Date | Card |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| – | Reference measurement (Serhii Nikolaichuk) | Production Next.js application, three questions | 16× to 47× | 570,627 B | Sept 2026 | Table 2 |
Cards arrive by email and by hashtag and are added within a day, with the date and the participant's own description. The reference row is not ranked; it is the measurement the index is built on.
3What the card shows
Three counters per session: bytes read through the index, the whole files behind those answers (what a grep-and-read agent would have loaded), and the ratio. Nothing else. The plugin does not record prompts, file names or content, and sends nothing anywhere. The ledger lives in your home directory and can be deleted at any time.
4Why a week
A single answer can look good by luck. A week of ordinary work, dozens of sessions, is a habit, and the habit is what costs money: on published coding tasks, retrieval-first cuts tokens 2.7 times end to end; on the three measured questions, 16 to 47 times per answer. The winner's card goes on the front page of the weekly digest with the ratio and nothing else.