Throttle - Cut Claude Code tokens by 70%, avoid limits

Hey Product Hunt! 👋 I'm Kevin, and I built Throttle after reverse-engineering where my Claude Code tokens were actually going. The backstory: I'm a solo dad of 4, building dev tools at night (Apple engineer by day). I run a homelab (Proxmox + OPNsense + Wazuh) and build everything with Claude Code. Last month I hit the 5-hour limit 3 times in one week — always mid-session, no warning, just "You've reached your limit" and my entire context gone. I was furious. So I dug into `~/.claude/projects/*/conversation.jsonl` and discovered: - Every session ships 30-50K tokens of config before I even type - CLAUDE.md alone was 95KB - `git status` outputs were 2,000 tokens each - Memory files were loading for projects I wasn't even touching What I built: Throttle is the menu bar app I wish existed: 1. Real-time meter — I can SEE my usage approaching limits (5h window + weekly caps) 2. Config optimizer — Compresses CLAUDE.md to 28KB, routes memory files, cleans settings 3. RTK proxy — CLI hook that strips verbose output (git/ls/grep) to essentials Result: 70% savings on config, 60-90% on CLI operations. Why native macOS? I wanted something that: - Runs silently in the menu bar - Doesn't need Node/Python/Docker - Respects privacy (zero telemetry, local-only) - Feels like a Mac app Lessons from building this: 1. The "compaction tax" is real — Claude Code's session-start overhead is massive 2. Most devs have NO IDEA where their tokens go until they're throttled 3. Pricing one-time vs subscription for dev tools is still controversial (I chose one-time) Happy to answer any questions about: - How the JSONL parsing works - The RTK proxy architecture - Why I chose €9 pricing - How to avoid the pitfalls of "aggressive" token optimizers If you use Claude Code on a Mac and this sounds useful, I'd love your feedback! Download: https://lorislab.fr/apps/throttl... 🎁 Use code ph-launch-may26 for 30% off today (€6.30 instead of €9).