Show HN: Extra Headroom – cut Claude Code and Codex token costs by ~50%

Category: devtools

Tags: token-optimization, llm-cost-reduction, local-processing, compression, ai-coding-agents, macos

Score: 6.3/10 (Innovation: 6, Technical: 6, Documentation: 7, Utility: 7)

Headroom is a macOS menu bar app that locally compresses tool output, logs, and boilerplate before sending to Claude Code and ChatGPT Codex, cutting token usage by roughly 25-50%. It combines reversible input compression with optional add-ons like RTK, MarkItDown, and Serena to reduce AI coding agent costs without compromising output quality.

Target audience: AI developers and engineers using Claude Code or ChatGPT Codex who want to extend their subscription usage and reduce costs

Repository: https://extraheadroom.com/

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